Detroit 199F-1790 / Chicago Murphy · p.44
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3
TheDrift to Disaster: 1969-71
[in August, 1969] . . . morale in the Catholic ghettos was high. Most of the Falls Road and Ardoyne was behind [nationalist] bar-
ricades, and the British Army and especially the RUC kept well outside. The IRA had brought in arms and organized the defence
of the areas, and the Peoples Democracy was running a powerful pirate radio statio and producing a daily newssheet, both pour-
ing out militant propaganda.
.. .the Cameron Commission...confirmed and documented the existence of discrimination and gerrymandering against
Catholics and vindicated the Civil Rights Movement. It reported that there had been 'serious breaches of discipline and acts of il.
legal violence' by the RUC during the Civil Rights campaign and it described the B Specials as 'a partisan and para-military force
recruitedexclusivelyfromProtestants.'
. . . No one was charged or even disciplined in connection with the B Special shooting of John Gallagher, the [nationalist] man
killed in Armagh on 14 August. . .On the other hand Bernadette Devlin, MP was charged with riotous behaviour during the
siege of the Bogside and sentenced to six months in jail, a decision calcuated to enrage Catholics...
Conclusions
:- .A secret security assessment by the British Army in Decermber 1978 (leaked to the Provisionals) admits that they cannot
defeat the IRA in the foreseeable future. At the same time Paisley's recent victories make clear that power sharing is less feasible
than ever while the army report reiterates that the return of devolved government to the North would only strenthen resistance.
The British are left with the unpopular and unstable expedient' of indefinite Direct Rule. In fact the only real political initiative the
Britishcan takenow is toget out..
Northarn lreland: The Orange State, published by Pluto Press, 1976 & 1980; 406 pp.
3
TheDrift to Disaster: 1969-71
[in August, 1969] . . . morale in the Catholic ghettos was high. Most of the Falls Road and Ardoyne was behind [nationalist] bar-
ricades, and the British Army and especially the RUC kept well outside. The IRA had brought in arms and organized the defence
of the areas, and the Peoples Democracy was running a powerful pirate radio statio and producing a daily newssheet, both pour-
ing out militant propaganda.
.. .the Cameron Commission...confirmed and documented the existence of discrimination and gerrymandering against
Catholics and vindicated the Civil Rights Movement. It reported that there had been 'serious breaches of discipline and acts of il.
legal violence' by the RUC during the Civil Rights campaign and it described the B Specials as 'a partisan and para-military force
recruitedexclusivelyfromProtestants.'
. . . No one was charged or even disciplined in connection with the B Special shooting of John Gallagher, the [nationalist] man
killed in Armagh on 14 August. . .On the other hand Bernadette Devlin, MP was charged with riotous behaviour during the
siege of the Bogside and sentenced to six months in jail, a decision calcuated to enrage Catholics...
Conclusions
:- .A secret security assessment by the British Army in Decermber 1978 (leaked to the Provisionals) admits that they cannot
defeat the IRA in the foreseeable future. At the same time Paisley's recent victories make clear that power sharing is less feasible
than ever while the army report reiterates that the return of devolved government to the North would only strenthen resistance.
The British are left with the unpopular and unstable expedient' of indefinite Direct Rule. In fact the only real political initiative the
Britishcan takenow is toget out..
Northarn lreland: The Orange State, published by Pluto Press, 1976 & 1980; 406 pp.