Victim support groups have slammed the decision to make the game, warning that survivors of the conflict which raged across the British Isles could feel ‘triggered’
Fury has erupted over a new board game called ‘The Troubles’ which pits the IRA against the British Army – and allows players to plant bombs. Victim support groups warned ‘The Troubles: Shadow War in Northern Ireland 1964-1998’ could re-traumatise folk caught up in the real thing.
Bosses of US manufacturer Compass Games insisted it was designed to ‘protect history — not make fun of it’ and was still in development. But it can be pre-ordered on the manufacturer’s website for £63.20.
And the board game – which will be played with dice, tokens and a deck of 260 cards – has sparked outrage in Northern Ireland before a dice has been rolled. Kenny Donaldson, of the South East Fermanagh Foundation which helps innocent victims of terror, said survivors could feel “triggered”.
“Many will feel that it has the effect of minimising their suffering,” he said. “They’re oversimplifying what is a very complex issue.”
Kenny said the game overlooked the conflict’s enduring legacy. He said: “What would be the likely response of 9/11 families were these US producers to make a comparable board game about 9/11, with players being the FBI, or a terrorist murdering a pilot?
“The core failure of this initiative is the lack of understanding that ‘the Northern Ireland Troubles’ are not past tense — they remain inextricably linked with Northern Ireland society today.” Compass Games’s founder and president Bill Thomas said the game was designed by a secondary school teacher in Scotland and delves back to Westminster’s 1886 home rule bill to explain the trajectory of Ireland’s partition.
Two to six players adopt the role of a ‘faction’ — such as security forces, the IRA, loyalist paramilitaries or nationalist or unionist politicians — and attempt to prevail over opponents while navigating political and security currents. Paramilitaries have the option of attacking or colluding with security forces.
Political factions can choose between backing terrorism, contesting elections and sharing power. It references the IRA mole known as Stakeknife, the ‘bloody years’ of the early ‘70s, the ‘iron and hunger’ of the early ‘80s when Margaret Thatcher battled republican hunger strikers and the ‘target mainland’ campaign later in the decade when the IRA launched high-profile attacks in England.
Thomas insisted the current edition was ‘not the final version’ which could become an educational tool. “This is to protect history, not to make fun of it,” he said.
“I was expecting 20 or 30 pages of rules. That’s not what I got. It was far more complex and over 200 pages. That’s why it’s taken so long to go through development and play-testing.
“It’s not even close to being final,” he said, “it has to be play-tested. We’re doing a lot of development on it; kids in their 20s and 30s in America know nothing about history. You have to make it interesting.”
Thomas said Northern Irish folk had endured a ‘tough time’ but outsiders would be oblivious unless the history of the Troubles was told in engaging ways. He said: “Do you want that memory to never exist, for no-one outside Northern Ireland or the UK to understand that it ever happened?”
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.