On This Day / October 4, 1971

Summary: On This Day – 4th October 1971, the Four Step Inn bombing drew widespread condemnation, while Stormont faced mounting pressure as it prepared to resume after the summer recess. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.

Bombers condemned | On This Day – 4th October 1971

BOTH wings of the IRA have emphatically denied being responsible for the explosion at the Four Step Inn on Belfast’s Shankill Road.

The Prime Minister, Mr Brian Faulkner said that he joined with the entire population in expressing his revulsion at the horrifying bomb attack on the Four Step Inn which resulted in the cold-blooded killing of two men and injury to a large number of innocent civilians.

Mr John Hume, SDLP MR said: ‘It was clearly a callous, murderous and inhuman attempt to stir up sectarian strife’.

‘Hatred’ charge divides

A BELFAST jury yesterday failed to reach a verdict on the first prosecution under the Prevention of Incitement to Hatred Act [1970].

Before the City Commission were 41 -year- old printer, John McKeague, Hugh Close and Hugh Johnston.

They were accused of publishing a song, ‘I Was Born Under the Union Jack’ in a book called, ’Orange Loyalist Songs, 1971’ and that ‘the song was intended to stir up hatred or arouse fear of a section of the public’.

The three men pleaded not guilty and the jury said they could not agree.

Mother and children critical

A DERRY woman and her two young children were rushed to Altnagelvin Hospital late last night with gunshot wounds following an incident in Bishop Street when troops fired on a car from which a bomb was thrown.

Three shots hit another vehicle in which Mrs Beryl Jefferson and her two children aged six and ten were travelling. The condition of the girl is ‘critical’.

Stormont ‘precarious’

WHEN Stormont resumes tomorrow after the summer recess it will be in a more precarious position than it has been since the state was set up fifty years ago.

The assembly will not only be greatly depleted by the withdrawal of all but one member of the Opposition, but the government will find itself under increased pressure both from within and outside its ranks.

But the Prime Minister Mr Brian Faulkner’s worries go much further. The most immediate danger to his position is likely to come from his own side.

The new United Loyalist Party under the Rev Ian Paisley has already gained significant support.

They are determined to bring down the present administration. Some observers feel that the Faulkner government will not last till Christmas.

(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: WHAT proved to be the final session of the old Stormont Parliament opened 50 years ago this week with Paisley launching the DUP.

The intensification of violence following internment brought fresh horrors every day. The first attempt to outlaw incitement of hatred failed its first test.)

On This Day – 4th October 1971

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