On This Day / September 3, 1971
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
September 3, 2021
Publication Date
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Summary: On This Day – 3rd September 1971, an inquiry began into allegations of Army brutality against detainees, while four Belfast city centre bombs left 46 people requiring hospital treatment. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Brutality Inquiry | On This Day – 3rd September 1971
THE Ombudsman, Sir Edmund Compton, head of the British Home Office inquiry into allegations of Army brutality against people arrested in the early morning swoop of August 9, said in Belfast yesterday that he was not planning the investigation on the basis that it would be boycotted by those involved.
They had been promised the full cooperation of the Army and other security authorities. The detainees had already indicated that the inquiry in its present form is unacceptable.
They demand it should be held in public, that it should be headed by an internationally accepted chairman and that it should have judicial powers to summon witnesses.
46 Hurt in Bomb Blast
FORTY-SIX people received hospital treatment after four midday bombs exploded in Belfast city centre yesterday.
One bomb wrecked the front of the Glengall Street headquarters of the Unionist Party. Other bombs exploded in the Bedford House complex near the City Hall. Police said that no warning of the explosions was given.
In Dublin last night the Taoiseach, Mr Jack Lynch condemned the bombings. Mr Robin Stewart (21) had just parked his car near the Unionist offices when the first blast came.
‘We were only four or five yards away,’ he said. ‘It blew out all the car windows.’ He and a passenger were taken to hospital.
Mr Raymond Henderson said: ‘I saw young girls running out of the building, some of them bleeding.’
The Taoiseach said he was ‘shocked’ by the latest Belfast bombings. ‘No Irishman with the least claim to ideals and principles, no Irishman with the least shred of Christianity or sanity can justify or condone the maiming or the killing of innocent people – and I include in this all those who have died by violence or have been injured or disfigured in recent incidents.’
Paisley Calls for ‘Third Force’
REV Ian Paisley, MP said at Balnamore last night that a Third Force was necessary and, if the Government were not prepared to have one, they should resign.
What was needed was a new force like the Ulster Special Constabulary controlled by Stormont- not a policy of containment of the IRA but a policy of annihilation.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: THE claim by a number of detainees – the so-called Hooded Men – that they had been systematically tortured on their arrest were investigated by the Compton Inquiry.
They described being hooded, forced to adopt stress positions and subjected to ‘white noise’ and food and sleep deprivation.
The Irish Government would later take their case to the European Court of Human Rights which would find Britain guilty of ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’ but not torture.)
On This Day – 3rd September 1971
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
On This Day is a daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. The column was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022. The Foundation is very grateful to the Irish News for giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns. Funding gratefully received from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust.
* The Foundation has worked hard to recreate Eamon’s distinctive voice through AI. Since this is an emerging technology, occasional imperfections may be audible.