Word: stormont
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Lord Widgery's inquest will try to establish who fired first, whether the paras were justified in their actions, and whether, as the Catholics firmly believe, the troops were acting under specific orders from Stormont, seat of the hated Ulster government. A British army spokesman insisted that the paratroopers had been attacked first with nail bombs and "a total of 200 rounds of ammunition fired indiscriminately in the general direction of the soldiers." He also said that the troops had fired only at "identified targets" -meaning gunmen and terrorists of the outlawed I.R.A. The British claimed that four...
...also killed by a mine on border patrol. His death was the 214th since British troops arrived in Ulster in 1969 to try to keep the peace between Ulster's quarreling Protestants and Catholics. The continuation of terror makes it less and less likely that Faulkner's Stormont government can ever find a political solution for Northern Ireland...
...army has always had a phoenixlike ability to rise from the ashes of defeat, and 1968 gave it another lease on life. In that year, Ulster's Catholics, with the support of liberal Protestants, began their civil rights demonstrations for better homes, jobs and an equitable voice in the Stormont government. The protests turned into bloody riots. Mobs of Protestants marched through the Catholic ghettos of Londonderry and Belfast, burning and beating, while the Royal Ulster Constabulary and dreaded Protestant "B special" police auxiliary forces either participated or looked the other way. The riots and their aftermath brought Firebrand Reformer...
...army boasts that popular support for its methods and goals remains strong among the Northern Catholics. Austin Currie, an opposition M.P. in the Stormont Parliament, agrees: "Because of internment, there is more support for the violent men than ever before in my experience." Very little of that sympathy comes from the conservative hierarchy of the Catholic Church, which three decades ago threatened to excommunicate any Catholic who joined the army. In his Christmas message, for instance, Bishop William McFeely of Raphoe condemned "the callous men who are now prepared to plunge this whole county into anarchy and strife. We must...
...Ulster Catholics refused to aid or shelter the gunmen, the present guerrilla war has the overwhelming sympathy of Northern Ireland's Catholic minority. Thanks to the one-sided enforcement of the internment laws and the massive presence of the British troops, the Catholics are now almost wholly alienated from Stormont. The only question is whether it will be the I.R.A. or the nonviolent politicians of the Social and Democratic Labor Party opposition who will speak for them when negotiations for a settlement begin...