On This Day / September 28, 1971
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
September 28, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 28th September 1971, David Bleakley resigned from Brian Faulkner’s Cabinet, warning that internment had alienated the Catholic community, while conditions at Long Kesh came under attack. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Resignation Rocks Faulkner | On This Day – 28th September 1971
MR DAVID Blakeley’s decision to relinquish the Cabinet post of Minister of Community Relations – he told the Prime Minister, Mr Faulkner in his letter of resignation that internment had alienated the Catholic community at a time when cooperation was vital – brought mixed reaction last night.
Mr Ivan Cooper, SDLP MR said his decision was ‘a decisive indictment of a completely disastrous policy’.
But two prominent Young Unionists – Mr Frank Agnew and Mr James Rodgers welcomed Mr Blakeley’s resignation and said it was a major blunder by Mr Faulkner to have appointed him.
Mr Blakeley (46) [a politics teacher] was Labour MP for Victoria at Stormont from 1958 to 1965.
‘Long Kesh Like Nazi Camp’ – MP
LONG Kesh is a Nazi-type concentration camp, said Mr Tom Gormley, Independent [and former Nationalist] MP for Mid-Tyrone after visiting the camp yesterday.
‘This concentration camp has been set up to save the political skin of a Unionist politician who himself lacked the guts to fight against the Nazis during the Second World War’, said Mr Gormley.
The MP described conditions as appalling. The accommodation consisted of ordinary Nissen huts with about forty men in each. The huts had no ventilation.
They were unlined and so the interior was always damp from condensation. The roofs leaked and there were no toilet facilities, only dry buckets for the internees.
15,000 at Victims’ Funerals
THOUSANDS lined the Falls Road, Belfast yesterday to watch the tricolour-draped coffins of the recent blast victims, Rose Curry and Gerard O’Hare, flanked by a guard of honour, borne to Milltown Cemetery.
Thousands marched in military style in the funeral procession which was the largest yet seen in Belfast.
Rosina Curry (18) and Gerard O’Hare (17) were killed when a bomb exploded in a derelict house in Merrion Street near their homes.
Irish an Official EEC Language
IRISH will be an official language of the enlarged European Economic Community, the Irish delegation were told in Brussels yesterday.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: AS THE Red Cross announced an investigation into conditions at Long Kesh internment camp, Faulkner’s government was rocked by the resignation of benign ex-Labour MP David Bleakley.
Not only had internment alienated the entire Catholic population and removed the main opposition from Stormont but SDLP demands for an end to one party rule were gaining support at Westminster.
Faulkner was also under attack from his own right wing and Ian Paisley for his failure to defeat the IRA.)
On This Day – 28th 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.