Word: belfasters
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...takeover was typified by the maneuvering of Ulster's outgoing Prime Minister Brian Faulkner. Suddenly deprived of office by Britain's decision, he first denounced any attempt by Westminster to run Ulster like a "coconut colony." Faulkner also showed up at a huge rally in Belfast of nearly 100,000 Protestants, which was summoned by William Craig, leader of the extremist Ulster Vanguard. Faulkner's presence lent a patina of respectability to Craig's demand for a massive civil-disobedience campaign. Then Faulkner reversed himself. "We must respect the law," he said in a statement issued...
...Protestant leader felt, or conveyed, that sense of betrayal more than Craig. He called for a two-day general strike, and in an impressive display of solidarity, 170,000 workers-notably not including police or civil servants -walked off their jobs last week. Belfast was closed up tight. Most of the electricity was shut off, telephone service was sporadic; and there were no buses, trains or mail deliveries. At one point "tartan gangs" of Protestant youths roamed through Belfast's streets, shouting curses in Catholic neighborhoods and in one case partially destroying a parochial school. The Protestant violence ended...
JULY 1970. Curfews were imposed on Catholic areas of Belfast after I.R.A. attacks on British troops...
...nearly three centuries, Protestants have maintained in Ulster a political dominance that translates into advantages not shared by Catholics on either side of the border: better jobs, better houses, and a better future for their children. Distinctions of name, address and occupation in Ulster are subtle but vicious. Belfast's Shankill Road is definitely Protestant, the Falls Road just as definitely Catholic. Protestants dominate the police, transport and public service; bartenders and bookies' clerks are usually Catholic. Employers shy away from mixing men of different religions. "I don't mind personally," goes the usual explanation, "but there...
Volunteers, the Ulster Defense Association, the Shankill Defense Association, the Ulster Vanguard movement. The number of "vigilantes"-roving street sentries-is on the rise. So are reports of Protestant target practice in old quarries and on lonely hillsides outside Belfast. Of the 102,000 legally held firearms in Ulster, the overwhelming majority are in Protestant hands...