Chapter 7: The Politics of Internment 1971.

1

The Sunday Times, London, and the Scarman Report reveal that, on the night of 14 -15 August, the RUC "used firearms with such freedom as to disqualify it from being called a police force".

2.

Ulster and The Sunday Times ‘Insight’ team, p. 260. London (Penguin), 1972.

Chapter 8: Internment 1971: Those Detained.

1.

Council minutes, 2 March 1972.

LONG KESH

1.

22 September 1972. Long Kesh means ‘the long bog crossing’.

2.

Mitchell also had his own ideas on how to deal with the situation. He told a Guardian, Manchester, reporter, Terry Coleman: "I would send round a list of 100 suspects and then just start shooting them; by the time you’ve knocked off ten of them the rest will be in Killarney. They can’t stand up to it." He added: "I’d like to have a machine-gun built into every TV camera and then say to the IRA, ‘Come out and let’s talk...’ and then shoot the lot."
"After a trial?"
"That would be a complete waste of time," Mitchell replied.
That Mitchell did not earn his soubriquet ‘mad’ for nothing few could doubt, but the frightening thing is that although patently ‘unstable’ he was a lieutenant-colonel in the army for years and is now a Tory MP. Coupled with this are his close links with the UDA. His namesake, Captain Robert Mitchell MP, announced that he wanted to see a camp for internees set up in "a remote area of Canada". But then, he also said that he wanted the army to use flame-throwers against demonstrating crowds.

3.

In fact, according to Unionist hardliner John Taylor, the plans for Long Kesh were drawn up in London.

4.

For example, the four McKay brothers, Sean McKenna senior and junior, and Frank Hughes and his son Cathal.

5.

Paisley, nonetheless, was one of the very few MPs prepared to visit his constituents there.

6.

It was not the only occasion on which belongings were stolen or destroyed. Men of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) pioneer corps, and 13/18 Hussars were all guilty of this.

7.

One of the most unfortunate internees was Cathal ‘Yoho’ Lenaghan. He was not involved in any way with the IRA or even with the Socialist movement and was completely bewildered to find himself in Long Kesh. When he heard there would be trouble he hid himself in a locker. After the noise of the beatings had died down and all was quiet Cathal heard men coming into the hut. Thinking they were returning internees he opened the locker door and jumped out, shouting: "Yoho, here I am." Confronting him were five soldiers who cried: "There you are, you bastard," and beat him mercilessly. He was hospitalized and, on release, was nicknamed ‘Yoho’.

8.

During previous periods of internment neither Catholic nor Protestant Churches had made any protest about the detention of men without charge or trial. 1971 was to see a change when the Catholic Church in the form of Cardinal Conway spoke out for the first time. The major Protestant Churches also issued a statement. On 10 August, the day after Faulkner reintroduced internment, a joint statement from Rev. Charles Bain (Methodist), the Right Rev. Rupert Gibson (Presbyterian), and the Most Rev. George Simms (Church of Ireland) recognised that "because of the continuing violence and bloodshed for which there can be no Christian justification, the Government in its duty to all citizens had no option but to introduce strong measures which may be distasteful to many". Brian Faulkner was photographed smiling as he left his place of worship that Sunday.

9.

Alcohol was manufactured mainly from potatoes. The older screws turned a blind eye; the younger and more naive prison officers couldn’t understand why so many spuds were being ordered.

THE Maidstone

1.

The Irish Times, Dublin, 18 August 1972.

2.

The one on Christmas Day was an occasion for the screws to sadistically tempt the hunger strikers with brandy pudding, roast chicken and other choice foods.

3.

There was an attempt by Ritchie Ryan, Fine Gael spokesman on Northern Ireland affairs, to claim that the ship was out of the jurisdiction of Stormont, since mention of territorial waters had’ been omitted from the 1920 Government of Ireland Act. Nothing came of this quaint piece of legalism.

MAGILLIGAN CAMP

1.

Things would have been worse had it not bee. for the tireless efforts of the eccentric Father Shields — a priest, zoo-keeper, mushroom-factory owner and cafe organiser, who raised money for provisions and who was always on hand with advice.

Chapter 9: Escapes 1971-1972.

1.

Seamus Storey, Thomas Magulre, Thomas Fox, Peter Hennessy, Bernard Ellison, Thomas Kane, Terence Clarke, Chris Keenan, David Mullan. All were remand prisoners.

2.

Rev. Thomas O’Neiil was fined £500, and Brother Patrick Sheehan £250.

3.

Hugh McCann was recaptured in Andersonstown in May. Martin Meehan was recaptured on 9 August 1972 — one year after the introduction of internment.

4.

Seamus Convery (31), Tom Gorman (26), James Bryson (23), Thomas Toland (25), Thomas Kane (24), Peter Rodgers (27) and Martin Taylor (25). ‘Tucker’ Kane and Martin Taylor were recaptured in May 1972, Tom Gorman and James Bryson in September. Bryson was to be in the news again. On 22 February 1973 he made a sensational escape from Crumlin Road courthouse. Using a gun smuggled to him the night before, he overpowered four warders, made off wearing one of their uniforms and got clean away.

Chapter 10: The Civil Resistance Movement.

1.

It is true, unfortunately, that the Northern Ireland Labour party was only lukewarm in its condemnation. They would not even expel David Bleakley, the Labour MP who had disgraced the party by joining Faulkner’s Cabinet.

2.

4 December 1971. On 27 November 1972, 15 months after the introduction of internment, the Ministry was forced to concede that at least 18,000 families were still on rent-and-rate strike. Council-house tenants had withheld £2,250,000, of which only £1,130,000 had been recovered by deductions from social security benefits. In the private sector a further £850,000 was still owed. See The Irish News, Belfast, 17 August 1972, and The Irish Times, Dublin, 28 November 1972.

3.

One man, Seamus O’Kane from Derry, was more fortunate. He was arrested in England and grilled non-stop for 72 hours in connection with the Aldershot bombing. Police realized then that he had nothing to do with it (indeed, he had been in Derry at the time of the bombing). Nevertheless, they phoned the RUC who took him back to Belfast on the pretext of an old charge dating back four years. He received a suspended sentence and was told by an RUC man to go down to his cell to collect his belongings prior to his release. Rightly suspicious, however, O’Kane declined and made his exit through the front door of the court and into a waiting car. Meanwhile, two disappointed Special Branch men sat holding his internment order in his cell.

4

HENRY KELLY, How Stormont Fell, Dublin (Gill & Macmillan), 1972.

5.

A factor in the campaign, which should not be forgotten, was the power of song. Internment brought a whole spate of ballads, the most popular being ‘The Men Behind the Wire’, recorded by the Barleycorn, which raised a lot of money for the Andersonstown Civil Resistance movement. But dozens of songs proliferated about the ‘Crumlin Kangaroos’ and the ‘Magnificent Seven’ escapers, and the tragic events of ‘Bloody Sunday’ in Derry. All were designed to keep up the spirit of resistance.

Chapter 11: Torture and Brutality.

1.

The complainant was Greece. After the Colonels’ coup in 1967 Greece herself was expelled from the Council, for the use of torture and barbarity.

2.

PETER DEELEY, Beyond Breaking Point, London (Arthur Baker), 1971.

3.

Procedures for the Arrest, Interrogation and Detention of Suspected Terrorists in Aden — Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (1966).

4.

PETER DEELEY, Beyond Breaking Point.

5.

Why? It should be remembered that while several Branch men became notorious for their brutality, the really guilty men are the shadowy and anonymous figures who came over from England and set up the ‘interrogation centre’ at Palace barracks, complete with its noise machines and disorientation equipment. It is they who used the internees as guinea pigs in order to further their ‘scientific knowledge’ of human resistance to ‘stress and strain’. Their discreditable part in this shabby affair cannot be forgotten when scapegoats are eventually made of a few Branch men (on 21 November 1972 it was announced that the Director of Public Prosecutions was to prosecute over 70 members of the security forces for alleged brutality). Meanwhile, many of the more notorious Branch men were given a golden handshake and a plane ticket to the colonies.

6.

The Observer, London, 7 May 1972.

7.

Kitson had a history of counter intelligence in Kenya (where 10,000 suspected Mau Mau were killed and 40,000 interned), Muscat, Oman, Cyprus (where he blotted his copybook), and Malaya. He is acclaimed as the up-and-coming Intelligence expert, though those who do so acclaim him seem to forget that the British have been expelled from all these countries. Whitelaw insisted on his dismissal and he was transferred to Warminster as commandant of the School of Infantry, there to continue his fantasies of stopping the revolution in England from 1975 — 1980, which he believes is probable.

8.

The man was sickened by the Paras’ attitude towards the forthcoming Civil Rights march in Derry on 30 January 1972. Finally, disgusted with his companions’ remarks about "getting the Fenian bastards", he collected three bombs, rigged them with timers and placed them around the mess room. He then drove his car out of the barracks and straight to the border. The bombs went off that evening, 27 January 1972. The military authorities refused to reveal details of the damage done. For the full story see This Week, Dublin, 16 March 1972.

8A.

This was not the first time that troops under the command of Major Ian D. Corden Lloyd had been involved in this sort of behaviour. In 1964, while serving with the 10th Princess Mary’s Gurkha Rifles in Borneo, he was implicated in an incident involving the torture of a 64-year-old Dayak by two Gurkhas. At their courtmartial, which had happened only because of the probing of a Scottish missionary, they claimed that they had been acting on the orders of their C/O — Ian Corden Lloyd. No further action was taken. The regiment was disbanded in 1968. Lloyd was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in November 1972. (See An Solas, No. 2, October 1972 — Belfast Republican paper).

9.

Archie Auld, Joe Clarke, Kevin Hannaway, Paddy Joe McLean, Sean McKenna, Francis McGuigan, Pat Shivers, Mickey Donnelly, Gerry McKerr, Brian Turley, Patrick McNally.

10.

The Observer, London, 21 November 1971.

11.

A Case to be Answered, London, 1971. Obtainable from the Independent Labour Party (ILP), 197 King’s Cross Road, London WC1. Price 30p.

12.

The Sunday Times, London, 28 November 1972.

13.

Drs. Beirne, Breslin, Shearer and Donaghy.

14.

Eventually, two Special Branch officers, George McKinney and William Burrell, along with a private in the Kings Own Borderers, William Craig, were, after three hearings, remanded on nominal bail to appear before the City Commission. The judge had expressed his horror at the account of the injuries related by five doctors. The army doctor said that he had been through Korea and never seen anything like it. Despite this, the two Branch men were apparently still on duty and were seen often about Falls Road.

15.

Anyone doubting this should read some of the sectarian utterances of men like R. M. Walmsley or Judge W. W. B. Topping. For example, Topping, the ‘impartial judge’: "The Protestant religion has two great enemies. Firstly, the Roman Catholic Church seeks to impose their religion upon Protestants and secondly, Communists try to take religion away from Protestants." Or, "The first duty of the Orange man is to uphold his Unionist Government." For a host of other sectarian quotes see Hansard, 18 May 1971, Vol. 81, Cols. 48 — 68.

16.

e.g. 19 January 1971, William Close was found not guilty but was interned. Previously, he had been granted bail, but was detained as he left the court. A High Court judge granted his habeas corpus application and remarked that the authorities had shown "scant regard for the liberty of the individual". 1 February 1971, William Kennedy had a ten-year sentence quashed because of the judge’s misdirection. From the dock he said: "Is there any justice when the Special Branch will take me as I leave the court?" They did. They took him to Palace barracks for another beating. 16 February 1972, charges on which John Dougan had been remanded for months were dropped. He was interned as he left the court. Even after the advent of Whitelaw the same thing happened to Brian Morgan and Michael Finnegan — on 24 March 1972. P. J. McCashin had been held in custody since 14 December. Charges against him were dropped but he was interned also. For more details see Unfree Citizen, No. 39. 28 April 1972, and previous issues of The Free Citizen. Published weekly by the People’s Democracy, Belfast. Copies and subscriptions: Paul Dillon, 50 Newry Road, Armagh, Northern Ireland.

17.

‘British army and RUC Special Branch Brutalities’, December 1971-January 1972.

18

For reference to psychological torture see Calder, The Mind of Man, London (BBC), 1970, pp. 27-41. J. Zubek, ‘Prolonged Sensory and Perceptive Deprivation’, British Medical Bulletin, 20: pp. 38 — 42. M. Zuckerman, Perceptual Isolation as Stress Situation, 1964. The AU has a full list of reference works.

19.

GISELE HALIMI and SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR, Djamila Boupacha, London (Andre Deutsch), 1962.

Chapter 12: The Compton Report.

Chapter 13: The Brown Tribunal.

1.

It is worth noting that while the Special Powers Act (regulation 12) specifically calls it ‘an advisory committee’, Faulkner, in yet another semantic game, always referred to it as ‘an appeals tribunal’ although it had no judicial powers whatsoever. But then, ‘tear smoke’ always sounded better than old-fashioned ‘tear gas’. (See also appendix on Parker Committee and Special Courts, pages 197 & 212 respectively).

Chapter 14: Irish Political Prisoners 1900-1973.

1.

During the Home Rule crisis of 1911-1914 the British Government decided that "no matter what illegalities the gentlemen who arrogated to themselves the title ‘Ulster’ committed, they must not be ‘coerced’." The illegalities included the Larne gun-running and open drilling.

2.

There are 117,000 ‘legal’ guns in civilian hands.

3.

Jimmy Steele wrote an account of this in Resurgent Ulster, 1954, part of which is quoted in Tim Pat Coogan’s The IRA, London (Praeger), 1970, pp. 193-196.

4.

City of Belfast Commission of 21 July 1936. One would have thought that such obviously outdated legislation as the Treason Felony Act 1848 would no longer be used. Not so. Michael Callinin, Louis Marcantonio and Thomas Quinn were arrested on 14 June 1972 at Hyde Park Corner, traditionally the home of free speech, and charged with incitement — urging people to go and fight in the North of Ireland. They are also charged under the 1848 Treason Felony Act — which can carry a sentence of life imprisonment, and refused bail. (See ‘Inside Story’, No.5).

5.

This has now changed. Many of the older Republicans still refuse to recognize the court, but not so the younger ones. Consequently, in 1971 the Special Branch men were very bitter: "In the past we only had to arrest you and that was it. But now a lot of you are sneaky [sic]. You defend yourselves and even get lawyers, and some would even take an oath to sign out. All the old values are dying." So said SB man Harry Taylor to Hugh Corrigan on 9 August 1971. The Provisional lRA still expect their members not to recognize the court — e.g. ‘Dutch’ Doherty, 1972, was expelled for so doing. Sean MacStiofain, however, recognized the court when arrested 19 November 1972.

6.

The bomb had not been intended for there, but had been left by a panicky volunteer. Barnes and McCormack were executed on 7 February 1940. McCormack (alias Frank Richards) had made the bomb, but Barnes, though an IRA man, had had nothing to do with it. The volunteer responsible is still alive, according to the Sunday Times, London, 6 July 1969.

7.

Nevertheless, despite being in the clear for 22 years, on 9 August Gerry Dunlop was lifted, interned, and kept in Long Kesh until April 1972.

8.

See T. P. COOGAN, The IRA, pp. 258-259.

9.

The Act had been rushed through Stormont in18 hours. It had been brought in because of the incompetence of army witnesses during riots. Their evidence was frequently so poorly manufactured that nearly everyone was acquitted. After the Act the handing out of prison sentences was a simple matter. In the most notorious case, John Benson, a Belfast docker, got the mandatory six months for painting the words "no tea here" on a wall.

10.

The Irish News, Belfast, 10 March 1972.

11.

Spence even sent a letter of condolence to the widow of Joe McCann, the IRA man and revolutionary who was gunned down in the markets. Spence escaped while on parole on 2 July 1972, but was recaptured on 4 November 1972.

12.

A bizarre incident involved William John Stoker, a ‘Loyalist’ serving three years. His brother Cyril left him a book on witchcraft at the jail and when the censor went through it two hacksaw blades dropped out! Asked by Crown Prosecutor, Desmond Boal, if it was not surely impossible for the blades to have fallen into the book by accident, Stoker replied that he couldn’t answer this as he had not been inside the book at the time. Boal said that surely if Stoker was a White Witch, as he claimed, it might have been possible for him to be in the parcel at that time. Stoker replied "Witchcraft is my religion — don’t mock it." He got 14 months. See The Irish News, Belfast, 9 June 1972. Two UVF men, Cull and Stilt, escaped from Crumlin also. By September 1972 the UVF, so long declared to be non-existent by the RUC, decided to adopt a Republican principle. For example, on 15 August 1972 four self-confessed UVF men, each sentenced to six years for armed robbery, answered from the dock that they refused to recognize the court because "it is illegal and undemocratic — with no disrespect to you, your honour". Other ‘Loyalists’ followed this example.

13.

For example, the case of Desmond Hensey, Liam Walsh and Leo Delaney, arrested on 19 February and charged with being members of an illegal organization, eventually came to trial three months later. The judge threw the case out of court on the grounds of no evidence.

14.

Protest marches from PD and NRM were met with fixed bayonets and guns with live rounds.

15.

1,041,890 voted ‘Yes’ for joining the EEC; 211,891 voted ‘No’.

16.

The others were Malachy Leonard of Armagh, Martin Boyle of Tyrone, and Robert Campbell of Belfast.

17.

Windlesham refused to telephone the hospital or prison to tell the authorities that the Government had, in fact, capitulated.

18.

The granting of ‘political status’ to certain prisoners did not please Basil Strange, chairman of the Police Federation of Northern Ireland. On 4 September 1972 he made a bitter speech denouncing this "appeasement of murderers". Yet another example of police meddling in politics.

Chapter 15: The Role of the Media During Internment.

1.

Obtainable from the Northern Ireland Socialist Research Centre, 6 Cotton Gardens, London E2, 12p.

2.

March 1972. Obtainable from 3 Belmont Road, London SW4. 25p. This Week, Dublin, 21 September 1972, carried a lengthy article on the bias of British broadcasters, written by former ‘24 Hours’ editor Anthony Smith

4.

One of the most important items censored in all English newspapers by the ubiquitous D Notice system concerned the activities of the shadowy SAS with its ‘Aden Gang’. (See Proinsias MacAonghusa in The Sunday Press, Dublin, 12 December 1971). The black propaganda squad, as recommended by Brigadier Kitson, continued to be active. ITN’s second item on 23 August 1972 was a story about three tiny girls, aged eight, who had been used by the "unscrupulous IRA" to push a pram containing a huge bomb towards a military post at the back of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. The "chivalrous soldiers were shocked and refused to lire, even at the risk of their own lives". The entire story was subsequently admitted by the British Army Press Office to be totally untrue. But ITN carried no denial. Similarly, the same week saw the London Evening News and The Sun, both unobtainable in Ireland, carrying lead stories about IRA gunmen bestially raping young girls at gunpoint in the Markets area of Belfast. Gruesome details were given to titillate jaded English palates. The black propaganda squad would appear to have gone a little too far that time in alleging that no fewer than four of the girls had become pregnant. Realizing, perhaps, that the ‘super-potency’ of the IRA in the area would be regarded with pride by some, the army got the RUC to issue a statement admitting that the story was completely false. Journalists in Belfast had hazards other than being fed false stories. The Civil Rights Bulletin of September 1972 revealed that the Europa Hotel, where most reporters stayed and entertained on expense accounts, was bugged. The CRA alleged collaboration between the hotel management, the army, the RUC and the UDA. According to the NICRA, a leading journalist received a threatening letter from the UDA, quoting verbatim what he had phoned from the hotel to his editor, two days previously. Several journalists had their notebooks taken from their rooms. Two days later these were returned to them by the management, who claimed that the "chambermaids had taken them in error". (See The Sunday Press, Dublin, 27 August 1972). For more sinister exploits of the SAS see The Irish News, Belfast, 31 August 1972. More detailed information is given in Hibernia, Dublin, 8 September 1972. In September 1972, Irishmen who had experienced the British army’s arrest, detention and interrogation processes could be permitted a wry smile, perhaps, when they saw and heard on TV haggard British journalists describing what had happened them when they were expelled from Uganda by General Amin — himself an ex-British soldier. Outraged reporters told how soldiers "hurled abusive language at us"; "refused to tell us under what law we were being arrested"; "made us stand against the wail for hours"; "threatened us", etc. These "terrifying experiences" lasted all of 24 hours! To listen to the pressmen talk, one would imagine that all this had never happened anywhere else, still less on territory claimed to be a part of the UK. As late as 12 September 1972 the News of the World, London, was claiming that the Provos were responsible for the explosion in the London GPO tower, which the police accepted as the work of the Angry Brigade, and for the bombing of the Para headquarters in Aldershot, which was the work of the Officials. But then, the paper’s correspondent was the former Unionist PRO Trevor Hanna.

5.

The Irish Times, Dublin, 24 November 1971.

6.

One of the very few reporters with enough integrity to resign after it had become clear that his paper’s editorial policy was at variance with the facts.

7.

Was it coincidental that the English Press, with the exception of Private Eye which ran its own crusade, made virtually no reference to the fact that the man responsible for the treatment of prisoners in Britain’s only internment camp was himself being accused in New York of complicity in a multi-million real estate swindle and that his close friend, Gerry Hoffman, was found guilty and sentenced to a term of imprisonment? Indeed, it was not until the Home Secretary’s involvement in the Poulson scandal that the press turned the searchlight in his direction and the indelicacy of his position forced him to resign.

8.

Those readers unacquainted with the Newsletter, Belfast, who feel that this might be somewhat of an exaggeration, could do worse than read the editorial of 3 October 1972, after the Strasbourg European Court had agreed that Britain should face charges of brutality and torture by her ‘security forces’. Under the heading "Lynch’s latest absurdity" they pontificated: "At some expense, not least to her credibility as a good neighbour of England, Eire has scored what she believes to be a point .. . the IRA and their sympathisers here bellowed loud and long about the brutality allegedly meted out to suspected terrorists. . . if such potato-republic tactics were not so dangerous they would be funny. . . the Strasbourg Court has come to be recognised as a toothless terrier. . ."

9.

The first allegation that British soldiers might conceivably have misbehaved themselves did not come until 24 November. Then the victims were two Englishmen whom the army shot at and attacked as their car passed Palace barracks, Holywood, on 23 November. The army later apologised for this ‘unfortunate mistake’.

10.

In the Dail, 12 October 1966.

Chapter 16: Internment Out — Detention In

1.

Gogarty and his family were finally forced to leave their home for good.

2.

ANDREW BOYD, Brian Faulkner and the Crisis of Ulster Unionism, Tralee (Anvil Books), 1972, p. 112.

3.

Despite this, the two captains, Millard and Cornwall, were, it is reported, disciplined, fined and sent back to England (17 August 1972).

4.

The figures given out by the British army as to the casualties suffered by them are often grotesquely understated. In many cases the evidence of doctors, nurses and morgue attendants is that many more soldiers are killed than the army is prepared to admit. This is ignoring the claims of IRA snipers who will, of course, just like the British marksmen, claim hits in a most nonchalant fashion. Eyewitnesses — the author included — have actually seen the dead bodies of soldiers lying on the road, and read next day in the papers of "one soldier receiving a minor injury". Some such casualties are subsequently ‘killed off’ in ‘road accidents’ or service accidents in Germany. An army medic has confirmed this to me personally and said that one way of hushing up figures is to tell parents not to make any publicity about the loss of a son lest "the IRA come over and try to kill you too". It is to be noted that many soldiers in today’s army are orphans recruited straight from children’s homes. Obviously, credence cannot be given to all the tales of dead soldiers in morgues, but research has shown me that a conservative estimate of British army casualties would put them at 50 per cent higher than the official figures — which were 209 killed up to 1 May 1973. In contrast, the old myth of the IRA ‘burying’ its dead down the manholes is precisely that: a myth. The IRA do lie about their injuries on occasion but it is most unlikely that the body of a volunteer would be treated in such a disrespectful fashion by an organization which could almost be said to be obsessed with funerals — honouring the dead is a national pastime in Ireland and one that Republicans take very seriously.

5.

The Irish Press, Dublin, 31 July 1972.

6.

Allegations that the British army deliberately let innocent people be killed, including two of their own men, have been made by Republicans. Certainly, the political capital that the British Government made out of Bloody Friday was of inestimable value to them, and nothing in these cloak-and-dagger days can be ruled out. However, British jeremiads against terrorism ring hollow when one recalls the wanton destruction of Dresden (a non-military target) and the saturation bombing of Hamburg during the second world war; and, since then, the barbarous treatment of political prisoners in Malaya, Kenya, Cyprus, and Aden. In Kenya the British Government paid her troops a bounty for every dead Kenyan nationalist: 12/6 for a male head, 10/-for a female and 5/- for a child’s (An Phoblacht).
Nonetheless, those who use such instances of barbarity to justify acts of terrorism against the general public are no better than the perpetrators of other atrocities. Twenty-two bombs in the heart of. a crowded city in broad daylight are bound to kill people no matter what warnings may be given, and the Provisional IRA must bear the full responsibilities for these murders, whether the British were deliberately negligent about passing on the warnings, or not.

7.

The Irish News, Belfast, 14 August 1972.

8.

Eamonn Kerr and Charlie Fleming.

9.

Indeed, some 60 men in cage five were so cynical about their release date — or, perhaps, they were bored — that they tried to burrow their way out. The tunnel, a sophisticated affair with electric lighting, went for 60 yards before rain caused subsidence which led to its discovery, on 8 August 1972. As usual, this led to a revenge raid upon cages by the soldiers and the destruction of the internees’ few paltry personal possessions.

10.

Father Denis Faul forwarded to the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg, dossiers of no fewer than ten cases of illegal arrest, detention and ill-treatment in the space of one week: 15 — 22 August. See The Irish News, Belfast, 5 September 1972.

11.

Gerard Wilson. By September most juveniles were remanded to the adult remand centre at Long Kesh following the escape of 16 of the 18 juveniles from the youth centre where they had been committed. Two weeks later it was the turn of the remand prisoners in cage six to experience the soldiers’ wrath. This time, according to the ALJ, 78 men were injured, some seriously. As usual, the prison commandant remained silent.

12.

The SDLP would have done well to remember that, as late as 22 May 1969, Harold Wilson said: "Not a Government in the world would do without its (Special Powers Acts) authorization until they were assured that there would be a period of law, order, peace, calm and quiet." (House of Commons debates, Vol. 784, Col. 667, 22 May 1969.)

13.

218 internees from cages two, three, four and five in an advertisement in The Irish News, Belfast, "deplored the horse-trading of internees with the Whitelaw regime by politicians claiming to represent the people". Eventually, on 25 November 1972, the SDLP conference agreed to open talks with Whitelaw.

14.

See, for example, the case of Patrick McVeigh, shot dead on 12 May 1972. McVeigh, a member of the Catholic Ex-Servicemen’s Association, was standing with an unarmed group of vigilantes at the corner of Riverdale Park South Belfast, when a burst of fire from a passing car cut him down dead and wounded four others. The first army statement claimed that one of their patrols had been fired upon and had returned fire. Twenty minutes later a senior officer contradicted this and claimed that a civilian car had been involved. Next day the army admitted privately to persistent Pressmen, as well as to a detective chief inspector, that it had been "some of our boys in plain clothes. It’s all been a most regrettable mistake." Surely the understatement of the year. Not until 21 December 1972 was an inquest held. Again the army admitted that he was shot by one of their plain clothes squads — and that he was unarmed. No report of the inquest was published.

15.

McGuigan, of Jamaica Street, in Belfast, was remanded for 51 weeks on 36 different charges. All were thrown out by different magistrates when the police produced no evidence. Eventually, after almost a year, he was released — and rearrested as he left the court. He is now in Long Kesh.

16.

Colm Murphy, James Hazlett, Pat Quinn, Michael McVerrey, James McCabe, Chris Murphy and Tom McGrath. McGrath was subsequently arrested in the North, in Armagh, and extradited back to the Curragh.

Belfast News Letter

Irish News

Belfast Telegraph

Irish Press

Daily Mail

Irish Times

Derry Journal

Observer

Fermanagh Times

Sunday Independent

Freeman’s Journal (Dublin)

Sunday News

Guardian (Manchester)

Sunday Press

Irish Independent

Sunday Times

An Phoblacht (1925-37) (1971-2) and

Orange Cross (Belfast 1972-3)

Anti-Internment League
News (London 1971-2)

Private Eye (London)

Blackfriars Magazine

Republican News (1971-3)

Fortnight (Belfast)

Resurgent Ulster (1954)

Glór Uladh (1955-6)

Tatler (Belfast 1971-2)

Hibernia (Dublin)

This Week (Dublin)

Inside Story (London)

Starry Plough (Derry1972-3)

Long Kesh Letter (East London Anti-Internment League)

Unfree Citizen (and its pre- cursor Free Citizen). (Belfast)

Loyalist News (Belfast1971-3)

New Ireland (Dublin 1922)

United Irishman (Dublin)

Newman Review (Belfast1971)

Volunteer, The (Belfast 1971-2)

Northern Ireland Civil Rights Bulletin (Belfast 1971-3)

Voice of Labour (Dublin 1919)