On This Day / June 24, 1971

Summary: On This Day – 24th June 1971, Brian Faulkner offered opposition MPs a role in Stormont committees, while General Tuzo condemned IRA tactics. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.

Faulkner’s Minority Deal | On This Day – 24th June 1971

IT WAS a case of ‘wait and see’ in Opposition circles last night as cautious consideration was being given to the announcement of the Prime Minister, Mr Brian Faulkner at Stormont yesterday that the Opposition would provide at least two chairmen of the four major committees which will consider Government policy in a new-style parliamentary set-up.

The Premier’s statement is being considered at a special meeting of the SDLP.

Mr Gerry Fitt, the party’s leader, said last night that they would not determine their attitude until the matter had been studied very carefully.

Mr Oliver Napier, leader of the Alliance Party said: ‘There can be no stability in Northern Ireland while Catholics can only participate in government through a system consisting of MPs elected on the basis of a religious majority and minority’.

Mr Gerry Fitt quoted extracts from the speech of King George V when he officially opened the first Northern Parliament at Belfast City Hall in 1921.

Strict security precautions were in force around Stormont for the opening of the third session of the Twelfth NI Parliament.

Police surrounded the Parliament Buildings and large contingents of ceremonial troops were also on duty.

British GOC on IRA Defeat

IN A statement the British Army Director of Operations in the Six Counties, General Sir Harry Tuzo said that, so far from hastening the departure of the British Army, the tactics of the Provisionals only serve to make the defeat of the IRA more certain and to strengthen the determination of the security forces to effect this defeat decisively and quickly.

‘It is unnecessary for the Provisionals to lay proud claim to recent incidents in NI.

‘These cowardly activities, which inevitably have the worst effect on old people and other innocent sections of the population, bear the unmistakeable signature of the brutish and purposeless organisation’.

General Tuzo said the Provisionals were dictating their own downfall and increasing the contempt in which they were held by the vast majority of the steadfast population.

‘Bomb Baby’ Regaining Sight

A TWO-YEAR-OLD boy has regained consciousness a month after being injured in a bomb attack on Springfield Road police station in Belfast and doctors treating Paul McGeown in the Children’s Hospital say he is beginning to see again.

(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: FAULKNER’S surprise offer to involve the minority in Stormont decision-making was a hint of his later pragmatism during the power-sharing negotiations of 1973.

The blunt-speaking Falls MP Paddy Devlin described it as ‘Faulkner’s finest hour’.

However, the premier’s concession was soon eclipsed by his disastrous decision to introduce internment without trial later that summer.)

On This Day – 24th June 1971

Further Reading on Irish History:

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