A PARACHUTE Regiment red beret is among a number of Troubles-related items going under the hammer at a Dublin auction.
The beret was found in Leeson Street in the Lower Falls following a riot in the 1970s.
It is just one of the items for sale in Whyte's 'The Eclectic Collector' auction taking place on Saturday, May 5.
Others include an RUC riot helmet, British Army flak jacket, RUC field telephone and republican posters supporting two of the Hunger Strikers.
A selection of black and white press photos taken between 1962 and 1976 chronicle the early years of the Troubles while there are also two 1969 Republican posters, one of which features an RUC officer wearing a gas mask and carrying a pistol and truncheon and captioned 'Take Down Your Barricades and Let Us In'.
One lot, with a guide price of E200-300, consists of an RUC riot helmet, gas mask and truncheon from the 1969 Battle of the Bogside.
The black RUC 'Skulgarde' helmet has a metal badge and an Enniskillen Depot label on the inside while the gas mask is of a type issued to the RUC.
A synopsis of the events of 1969 is also included in the catalogue, and explains how the riots lasted three days during which Free Derry was declared in the Bogside. Of the 59 RUC officers involved in the initial exchanges, 43 were injured.
Other artefacts include a 1970 British army steel helmet with visor which was recovered in July 1970 from Raglan Street following the Falls Curfew riots.
The Falls Curfew was a British Army operation which began as a house-to-house search for weapons in the Falls. Local youths responded with stones and petrol bombs.
The troops' initial response of firing CS gas escalated into gun battles between British soldiers and the IRA. The area, which had 3,000 homes, was sealed off and a curfew imposed.
The curfew was brought to an end when thousands of women and children from Andersonstown marched into the curfew zone with food and groceries.
