On This Day / July 17, 1971
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
July 17, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 17th July 1971, the IRA carried out a dramatic hospital rescue in Belfast while the SDLP confirmed its historic withdrawal from Stormont. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
IRA ‘Rescues’ Member | On This Day – 17th July 1971
IRA sources reported last night that the young wounded Belfast man carried out of the Royal Victoria Hospital in a dramatic swoop by members of the Provisional wing was progressing satisfactorily. He was receiving medical attention at an undisclosed location.
Taken from the hospital in a sleekly-planned IRA operation was (a) nineteen year old whom police had been guarding during his recovery from leg wounds.
His thigh was shattered after he was shot by troops four days ago on the Whiterock Road. A mine had exploded near an Army vehicle at the time.
Early yesterday morning a group of armed IRA men entered the hospital despite the presence of armed policemen and Army patrols.
Four of them were dressed as doctors. They gagged the night porter and held up the two police guards outside (the) ward.
Fitt on SDLP Withdrawal
SDLP leader Mr Gerry Fitt said yesterday that the SDLP decision to withdraw from Stormont could change the whole future of NI.
He was speaking at a press conference in Belfast after announcing the party’s decision and said that he and the other SDLP MPs, Mr Austin Currie, Mr John Hume, Mr Ivan Cooper, Mr Paddy O’Hanlon and Mr Paddy Devlin will not resign their seats.
The SDLP move followed the British government’s refusal to hold an impartial inquiry into the deaths of two young Derry men shot by soldiers.
The party now plans to establish an ‘alternative assembly’.
Mr Currie said he and the other MPs had often been told to get out of Stormont.
‘But we have been prepared to do our utmost to see if the system could be changed sufficiently in the interests of all the people of NI.
‘Now it has become absolutely clear that nothing can be done while that system of government exists….
‘There is no future for Stormont in its present form as far as we are concerned.’
Mr Fitt said the alternative assembly proposed would certainly have no sectarian tint about it.
‘We will continue as we have done to act in the interests of the working-class people whether they are our political supporters or not.’
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: GIVEN Gerry Fitt’s later assertion that he left the SDLP because the party had decided to pursue a ‘green agenda’, his explicit support for the policy of withdrawal form Stormont in 1971 is striking.
He was certainly correct in his assessment that the abandonment of the Northern Ireland Parliament by nationalism generally would create an entirely new situation.
Meanwhile, the rapidly escalating IRA campaign was preoccupying Faulkner and the Joint Security Committee at Stormont Castle.)
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to remove certain details to protect the privacy of individuals who were not public figures at the time of the events described.
On This Day – 17th July 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.