On This Day / September 16, 1971

Summary: On This Day – 16th September 1971, civil rights activists were among detainees released from internment, while John Hume called for an end to street violence and a focus on civil disobedience. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.

Internees Freed | On This Day – 16th September 1971

AS ANOTHER batch of released detainees trickled out of Crumlin Road Gaol and off the prison ship Maidstone at Belfast docks last night, it was believed that Mr Brian Faulkner, the Stormont PM who is also Minister of Home Affairs, was within hours of signing internment orders for many of those left behind.

At least 13 of the 240 detainees were freed. Mr Michael Farrell of the People’s Democracy, who has been prominently identified with the fight for equal rights, said: ‘I come out a more determined opponent of Unionism than when I went in’.

Detainees released from the Maidstone included three Armagh PD members, Dermot Kelly, a 28-year-old accountant, Eugene Casson (28) a roofer, and Liam Shannon (26), a solicitor.

Among those released from Belfast Gaol were Kevin McCorry, organiser of the NI Civil Rights Association and John D Murphy, printer of the People’s Democracy paper.

End Street Violence – Hume

MR JOHN Hume has called on all organisations in Derry ‘with the slightest shred of influence’ to make every effort to end the street violence and to concentrate their energies on the campaign of civil disobedience.

The past week had seen a considerable amount of angry reaction in the community to certain serious incidents involving the British Army, he said.

‘The only people to suffer from the violence taking place on our streets have been the residents of the areas involved,’ the SDLP MP said.

Paisley Backs Shankill MP

SHANKILL MP Mr Desmond Boal yesterday resigned from the Unionist Party. He accused the party of adding a new dimension of dishonesty’ to its politics in the approach of the Heath- Lynch-Faulkner talks which will be held at Chequers in two weeks’ time.

Mr Boal’s resignation was applauded last night by Protestant Unionist leader Rev Ian Paisley as ‘timely and necessary’.

Peace Line Serves as City Boundary

BELFAST’S Peace Line provides a ward boundary, the Local Government Boundary Commissioner said yesterday.

‘The barbed wire is the evidence of the division of opinion and it is the evidence on which I have acted in some cases,’ he added.

The Commissioner, Mr Frank Harrison QC, was unavailing his plan for 26 districts, made up of 524 single-member wards.

(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: By mid-September, most of the prominent civil rights activists interned in the first August swoops had been released, among them People’s Democracy leader, Michael Farrell.

As rioting continued in nationalist areas, John Hume sought to channel community anger into a civil disobedience campaign.

Meanwhile, Paisley’s friend and political adviser, Desmond Boal QC, resigned from the UUP to join the fiery cleric’s DUP.)

On This Day – 16th September 1971

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