Word: whitelaw
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Embarking on what he privately admitted was a "frightening gamble," Whitelaw set up offices in gargoyled Stormont Castle, and held an exhaustive series of meetings with everyone from Unionist politicians to Catholic housewives whose admiration for the I.R.A. was diminishing under the endless violence. Visitors reported that the Scots-born Whitelaw had at least one Irish trait, "the gift of the gab." He proved it two weeks ago by persuading a party of masked Protestant vigilantes to unmask and be comfortable in his office...
Warned recently that he faced imminent assassination, Whitelaw laughed off the threats. "I enjoy my golf too much to be killed," said the recent (1969-70) captain of St. Andrews' Royal and Ancient Golf Club. Nevertheless, for protection or convenience, Whitelaw customarily uses the R.A.F. for flights between Belfast and London and weekends with his wife Cecilia. He also uses military helicopters for flights around Ireland to visit troops or inspect trouble areas...
Though he had 15,000 troops to call on, the weapon that Whitelaw chose to use was persuasion. "Some of you may think that I have been making too many concessions to this or that group," he told Northern Irishmen recently, "or that I have been seeing more of some people than others; that I have listened too readily to some and not to others; but I can say I have shown that there is on all sides a real demand for peace." Even though some of the grottier Protestants still denigrate him as "Willie Whitewash," moderate Protestants accept...
...three sad and bloody years. If it could secure "a public reciprocal response" from British forces in Northern Ireland, the I.R.A. said, its units were prepared to "suspend offensive operations" beginning this week. Barely two hours later came the British answer. Secretary of State for Northern Ireland William Whitelaw assured the House of Commons that the 15,000 troops in Ulster would "obviously reciprocate" if the I.R.A. called off its bombers and gunmen, to achieve what he hoped fervently was "a start to the end of violence...
Tenuous as it may prove to be, however, the truce represented a breakthrough for Whitelaw (see box) and a handsome return on his determined policy of conciliation. Whitelaw released more than half of the Catholics who had been interned without trial by Faulkner's government. Last week he took another conciliatory step and ordered that 80 Catholics and 40 Protestants sentenced for political crimes such as carrying arms be treated as political prisoners. That meant that they will be allowed better food, more family visits and ordinary clothes. The ruling came just in time to save some...