On This Day / April 23, 1971
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19710423
Reference Date
19710423
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 23rd April 1971 Gerry Fitt outlined his vision for a united socialist Ireland while cross-border talks progressed and Ian Paisley raised claims of military brutality. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Fitt Wants Socialist Republic | On This Day 23rd April 1971
MR GERRY Fitt, MP for West Belfast, told the Scarman Tribunal yesterday that his aim of a 32- county Socialist Republic could not be achieved until both sections of the Northern community had been reconciled.
His view differed from that of Cathal Goulding, Chief of Staff of the IRA. He didn’t believe in Marxist Socialism. He was a Connolly Socialist.
Mr Fitt told Counsel for the Shankill Residents, that violence among the minority since 1969 had caused him a personal defeat.
He had gone to Westminster in 1966 told tell the British people about Unionism and why he was opposed to it.
Then came the violence of ’69 and the minority had the overwhelming support of people throughout the world, but as a result of the violence which had continued, they had lost that support.
Mr Fitt said that the Catholics of the Falls wanted to see an impartial civilian police force, but they were still very suspicious of the RUC: ‘There seemed to be great disparities in the sentences on Catholics and Protestants.
‘One young boy who shouted ‘Up the IRA’ in the vicinity of a Junior Orange parade last week was given one year’s imprisonment while another man from a Protestant area found in possession of arms was given six months in prison.’
North-South Talks
TALKS took place in Dublin yesterday between officials from Stormont and Leinster House.
Mr J C B McCarthy, secretary at the [Dublin] Department of Industry and Commerce and Mr Arthur Brooke, secretary of the Stormont Commerce Ministry led the delegations.
The talks were concerned mainly with possibilities for joint industrial or regional development along the border as well as tourism.
The Taoiseach, Mr Lynch told Mr Barry Desmond (Labour) in the Dail that it was hoped that meetings at ministerial level would follow.
Paisley ‘Brutality File’
A DOSSIER of complaints from Protestant residents in the Newtownards Road area of Belfast, alleging military brutality during the riots in the locality on Easter Tuesday, was produced at Stormont yesterday by the Rev Ian Paisley.
The Army, he said, allowed the ’mechanics of terrorism’ to be built up in the Catholic area of the Newtownards Road.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: From his early days in Republican Labour Gerry Fitt had claimed to be a follower of James Connolly’s vision of an all-Ireland socialist republic.
Meanwhile Ian Paisley, though a rural MP, was forging links with the emerging working class loyalism of east Belfast.
Despite north-south tensions and IRA attacks, Faulkner authorised cross-border talks on industrial development and tourism.)
On This Day – 23rd April 1971
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19710423
Reference Date
19710423
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 23rd April 1971 Gerry Fitt outlined his vision for a united socialist Ireland while cross-border talks progressed and Ian Paisley raised claims of military brutality. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Fitt Wants Socialist Republic | On This Day 23rd April 1971
MR GERRY Fitt, MP for West Belfast, told the Scarman Tribunal yesterday that his aim of a 32- county Socialist Republic could not be achieved until both sections of the Northern community had been reconciled.
His view differed from that of Cathal Goulding, Chief of Staff of the IRA. He didn’t believe in Marxist Socialism. He was a Connolly Socialist.
Mr Fitt told Counsel for the Shankill Residents, that violence among the minority since 1969 had caused him a personal defeat.
He had gone to Westminster in 1966 told tell the British people about Unionism and why he was opposed to it.
Then came the violence of ’69 and the minority had the overwhelming support of people throughout the world, but as a result of the violence which had continued, they had lost that support.
Mr Fitt said that the Catholics of the Falls wanted to see an impartial civilian police force, but they were still very suspicious of the RUC: ‘There seemed to be great disparities in the sentences on Catholics and Protestants.
‘One young boy who shouted ‘Up the IRA’ in the vicinity of a Junior Orange parade last week was given one year’s imprisonment while another man from a Protestant area found in possession of arms was given six months in prison.’
North-South Talks
TALKS took place in Dublin yesterday between officials from Stormont and Leinster House.
Mr J C B McCarthy, secretary at the [Dublin] Department of Industry and Commerce and Mr Arthur Brooke, secretary of the Stormont Commerce Ministry led the delegations.
The talks were concerned mainly with possibilities for joint industrial or regional development along the border as well as tourism.
The Taoiseach, Mr Lynch told Mr Barry Desmond (Labour) in the Dail that it was hoped that meetings at ministerial level would follow.
Paisley ‘Brutality File’
A DOSSIER of complaints from Protestant residents in the Newtownards Road area of Belfast, alleging military brutality during the riots in the locality on Easter Tuesday, was produced at Stormont yesterday by the Rev Ian Paisley.
The Army, he said, allowed the ’mechanics of terrorism’ to be built up in the Catholic area of the Newtownards Road.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: From his early days in Republican Labour Gerry Fitt had claimed to be a follower of James Connolly’s vision of an all-Ireland socialist republic.
Meanwhile Ian Paisley, though a rural MP, was forging links with the emerging working class loyalism of east Belfast.
Despite north-south tensions and IRA attacks, Faulkner authorised cross-border talks on industrial development and tourism.)
On This Day – 23rd April 1971
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19710423
Reference Date
April 23, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 23rd April 1971 Gerry Fitt outlined his vision for a united socialist Ireland while cross-border talks progressed and Ian Paisley raised claims of military brutality. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Fitt Wants Socialist Republic | On This Day 23rd April 1971
MR GERRY Fitt, MP for West Belfast, told the Scarman Tribunal yesterday that his aim of a 32- county Socialist Republic could not be achieved until both sections of the Northern community had been reconciled.
His view differed from that of Cathal Goulding, Chief of Staff of the IRA. He didn’t believe in Marxist Socialism. He was a Connolly Socialist.
Mr Fitt told Counsel for the Shankill Residents, that violence among the minority since 1969 had caused him a personal defeat.
He had gone to Westminster in 1966 told tell the British people about Unionism and why he was opposed to it.
Then came the violence of ’69 and the minority had the overwhelming support of people throughout the world, but as a result of the violence which had continued, they had lost that support.
Mr Fitt said that the Catholics of the Falls wanted to see an impartial civilian police force, but they were still very suspicious of the RUC: ‘There seemed to be great disparities in the sentences on Catholics and Protestants.
‘One young boy who shouted ‘Up the IRA’ in the vicinity of a Junior Orange parade last week was given one year’s imprisonment while another man from a Protestant area found in possession of arms was given six months in prison.’
North-South Talks
TALKS took place in Dublin yesterday between officials from Stormont and Leinster House.
Mr J C B McCarthy, secretary at the [Dublin] Department of Industry and Commerce and Mr Arthur Brooke, secretary of the Stormont Commerce Ministry led the delegations.
The talks were concerned mainly with possibilities for joint industrial or regional development along the border as well as tourism.
The Taoiseach, Mr Lynch told Mr Barry Desmond (Labour) in the Dail that it was hoped that meetings at ministerial level would follow.
Paisley ‘Brutality File’
A DOSSIER of complaints from Protestant residents in the Newtownards Road area of Belfast, alleging military brutality during the riots in the locality on Easter Tuesday, was produced at Stormont yesterday by the Rev Ian Paisley.
The Army, he said, allowed the ’mechanics of terrorism’ to be built up in the Catholic area of the Newtownards Road.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: From his early days in Republican Labour Gerry Fitt had claimed to be a follower of James Connolly’s vision of an all-Ireland socialist republic.
Meanwhile Ian Paisley, though a rural MP, was forging links with the emerging working class loyalism of east Belfast.
Despite north-south tensions and IRA attacks, Faulkner authorised cross-border talks on industrial development and tourism.)
On This Day – 23rd April 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.