ago James Callaghan described the North of Ireland this Tat• "The troops organised a meals on wheels service for Londonderry, took youths climbing in the Mountains, organised dances and so on. As Christmas approached, soldiers be cinmeatmost embarrassing. flood invitations senior inhabitants in his area in Belfast as, "the nicest, friendliest, hospitable and sometimes maddening people in the which I thought summed it up rather well.
For Britain the decade followed these optimistic, patronising words saw many false According to the last Northern Irish Prime Minister, Brian internment in 1971 would 'weed out the gunmen'.
years later government promised its Constitutional Convention would *command the most widespread throughout the community. Optimist One of the greatest optimists was Roy Mason, state. No 1996 he daretary ne 1976 he declared, security forces have an increasingly detailed inventory of significant terrorist figures are... leaders face a chilly prospect'. next ycal his message situation will get better... terrorist there can be no hope, and in The promised 'gradual marked progress to the restoration of normality'. Mason's last year, which he shared with Humphrey saw more British soldiers killed in the North of ireland than in. anv vear since 1972.
At the start of the decade there were 2,500 streets of the North of Ireland, today there are six times that many. With CS gas, plastic bullets, rubber bullets and police computers, "security' North of Ireland's industry in the last ten years. Britain the 1970s was the decade when Ireland refused to lie down and be quiet.
Symbols Why it did not is best symbolised by three occurrences, all of which the first half of the took place in decade: internment in 1971; the fall of Stormont in 1972; the fall of the and executive in 1974.
The first showed that the British promises of civil rights were a mirage and that the age old policy of coercion was their preferred 'solution' The fall of Stormont Northern Ireland 'home rule' parliament — in 1972 displayed the failure of coercion.
The fall of the Assembly two years which went with it.
old people in was reaction to Black b Note the individual Pledges the Executive most unworkable most Kingdom would reconsider her that pledges on all matters.' dawns. James Callaghan did Faulkner, Wilson government followed suit.
acceptance to years.
decade's longest the three bourgeois politicians who the Swept LIC The was. 'the 170,000 votes. the leader Atkins, on the Provisionals.
regard such electoral asset. only growth For attained the positions shared by the different communities.
today if anti-imperialist North and power-sharing saw years, but which few the old with today. It the Provisionals: concerned, while the North of Ireland state remained they would spring to its defence along with all the injustices The consequences of each of these dramas were not immediately clear;
involved the them, OI rather the this, written just before the fall of the Assembly:
"If at any time the Assembly and should be made through deliberate refusal by the majority to play their part, then in my judgement the United entitled position and her The writer of that sentence was but when the exactly what he warned against, Callaghan and the in served stood idly by. By and large the rest of the British labour movement There are signs that this at last is beginning to change. It is much easier praise Andadiscuss the issue of Ireland in the Labour Party and in the unions than it has been for six or seven For the most part this explicable by events in Ireland itself.
The three turning points have worked themselves out in the shape of who dominate Irish political life today.
the Northern Protestants there is lan raisey wno swept all before him in the recent European election when he amassed a total ot Catholics Democratic and Labour Marty, John Hume, has proved himsell the most enduring politician. In the South the new premier, Charlie Haughey, began the decade as an alleged ally of the That Haughey was chosen by his party to lead Fianna Fail in the next election suggests that many reputation Paisley, Hume and Haughey have each in their own ways insisted that the over-riding issue in the North of Ireland is partition; that they have of authorit they have suggests their estimates are majority in 'their now?
None would be where they are wak for the movemen the particular Provisionals. It was the Provos who before anyone else that counted in Ireland was the unresolved national question; a contention which has been disputed much in the last ter about would argue 1970s cas beer anyone's decade it has been that of the BERNADETTE DEVLIN MeALISKEY, still fighting JOHN HUME, SDLP leader IAN PAISLEY, Loyalist hero There was, , for example, the Peace People and their promise in 1976 that JAMES now Lord of GERRY FITT, deposed SDLP leader BRIAN FAULKNER, Last Unionist PM PEACE PEOF Where are they now? CHICHESTER-CLARKE - former Unionist PM,