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British sas10/21/2023 ![]() The constitutional consequences might be very grave, and once we were involved it would be difficult to secure our withdrawal.” “If it became necessary for the troops to intervene, they would be thought to be doing so in order to maintain the Orange faction in power. In April 1969 Wilson had warned his Cabinet: The decision to send in the troops flew in the face of previous opinion in London. On 14 August they were deployed, too late to stop Protestant mobs burning out Catholic streets in West Belfast and the RUC murderously using heavy machine guns fired from armoured cars on the Catholic population. The Unionist government requested the British Home Secretary for troops to be sent to Derry to maintain “order”. The police were driven back with stones then petrol bombs until they were on the verge of collapse. Yet in 19, years of global revolt young Catholics would not lie down. When the police tried to force a march of Protestant bigots through Derry’s Bogside it exploded. ![]() The new state instutionalised discrimination against Catholics, who were branded disloyal, and used repression against its opponents – internment without trial was introduced in every decade of Unionist rule. It did so because when Ireland was partitioned in 1921-22 the aim was to create a large area within the UK but also one with a two thirds Protestant or Unionist population to one thirds Catholic or Nationalist. Sometimes called Ulster it excluded three counties historically part of the province of Ulster. ![]() Northern Ireland was one big gerrymander. Many of those same TV viewers were shocked to discover that Derry, a city with a Catholic majority, had its local government boundaries gerrymandered to give the Unionists permanent control, that businessmen (this gender use is deliberate) got extra votes and the police were permanently armed backed up by a Unionist militia, also armed. The Northern Ireland civil rights movement was inspired by that fight and used its anthem, We Shall Overcome. TV viewers were shocked to watch scenes which were so similar to those they’d seen in the Southern States of the USA a few years ago. What became the Northern Ireland Troubles began in Derry in October 1968 when the Royal Ulster Constabulary batoned a peaceful Civil Rights March off the streets. ![]() So Whitehall officials privately warned ministers that “history demonstrates the failure of English intervention in Irish affairs”. Those documents released in 2000 on discussions in the British Cabinet and Whitehall are fascinating because they reveal how aware the administration of Harold Wilson was of what could unfold (other documents remain secret until 2050). That was unthinkable.īritish ministers had also been warned that given the long history of Ireland’s fight for independence, involving guerilla war against the British Army, there was a strong likelihood that if troops were sent to police Northern Ireland they would become involved in repression aimed at the Catholic population and that would lead to retaliation. They required them because their own heavily armed police had not just failed to put down an urban insurrection of the Catholic people of Derry but were on the verge of defeat. Both were lies and those same ministers knew that full well.īritish troops were being sent to Belfast and Derry because the Unionist government, which had ruled the one party state of Northern Ireland since its creation in 1921, had requested them. The story spun by ministers was that troops were being sent in to keep the peace and to stop sectarian conflict between the Catholic and Protestant populations. In deploying troops to Derry, Downing Street was propping up the Unionist government to shield itself from blame, argues Chris Bamberyįifty years ago a Labour government in London took a crucial decision, to commit the British Army onto the streets of Northern Ireland.
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