Word: stormont
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...noble but faint hope. Even though divided as to what to do next, most of Ulster's 1,000,000 Protestants clearly felt betrayed by the prorogation of the Parliament at Stormont, through which they had used their 2-to-1 popular majority to discriminate against the Catholic minority for more than half a century. One Unionist M.P. summed up the general feeling at Stormont's emotional last session by quoting from Kipling's 1912 poem Ulster: "Before an Empire's eyes/ The traitor claims his price./ What need of further lies?/ We are the sacrifice...
Moderate Catholic leaders, although fearful of the Protestant reaction, voiced a predominant mood of relief that they were no longer governed by the Protestant Unionist Party at the Parliament in Stormont. "Catholics have lost the feel of jackboot Unionism," exulted Gerry Fitt, leader of the Social and Democratic Labor Party. If that mood continued and if the Protestants could be restrained, there was a chance that Heath, with a little bit of luck, might win his gamble...
...massive economic aid to ease unemployment, and a gradual phasing down of the internment of I.R.A. suspects without trial, which had, more than anything else, infuriated the Catholic community. What had not been known was that Heath had also decided to place the police-up till now responsible to Stormont-as well as the army directly under Westminster...
...Heath's plan for periodic plebiscites on Ulster's political future (the results are entirely predictable, since the Protestants have a 2-to-1 majority). But Faulkner balked at a London takeover of Ulster's security, and for nine hours argued that it would make Stormont "a mere sham and face-saving charade." Faulkner flew back to Belfast and then, with Cabinet backing, returned to London, where he formally rejected Heath's proposals. The Prime Minister had no choice now but to impose direct rule...
Protestants, Heath carefully pointed out that Stormont was not being abolished, merely prorogued, a step that preserved intact a constitutional guarantee that Ulster's status would not be changed without the approval of the local Parliament. But that right of approval will be Stormont's only power...