On This Day / August 26, 1971

Summary: On This Day – 26th August 1971, the death toll reached 90 as Brian Faulkner defended internment and Paddy Devlin declared Stormont could no longer serve the minority. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.

Death Toll 90 | On This Day – 26th August 1971

A SOLDIER was shot dead by a sniper in Belfast yesterday and with the death of a man shot last week at Taggart Memorial Hall, Ballymurphy, in hospital, the death toll by bullet and bomb since the start of the Northern disturbances in 1969 was brought to 90.

The total -15 soldiers (including one UDR man), five policemen and 70 civilians includes 30 deaths since August 9 when internment was introduced by Mr Brian Faulkner.

Faulkner Defends Internment

WITH more than 200 Republicans and members of the Civil Rights and left- wing political groups still detained in Nl, the Stormont Premier continued to insist yesterday that ‘internment is not aimed at repressing the Catholic community’.

He said the Government took the decision with great reluctance. ‘We utterly deplore the necessity for it’, he said, ‘but we are convinced it is absolutely necessary.’

However, the allegation that the internment operation was deliberately and maliciously one-sided was totally without foundation’.

The Government was not partisan in any way, he maintained. ‘I am convinced’, said the PM, ‘that the Opposition are leading their followers up a blind alley.’

‘Stormont No Use to Us’ – SDLP MP

IN A scathing attack last night on the Stormont administration, Mr Paddy Devlin, MP [SDLP, Falls] emphasised that a return by the Opposition would be giving approval to ‘every foul and murderous deed’ committed against the minority.

The Opposition, he said, was absolutely convinced that Stormont, as it presently existed, and the Prime Minister, Mr Brian Faulkner, could be of no further use in assisting them to serve the best interests of their constituencies.

Mr Faulkner ‘must be made to realise that time has run out for him’. ‘We have tolerated him long enough. We will have him no longer.’

Prison Ship Hunger Strike

MORE than 100 detainees on the British prison ship Maidstone continued their hunger strike yesterday as seven of those held since August 9 last were released.

The releases came amid a wave of protest throughout Ireland against internment. Civil disobedience campaigns will continue until the last detainee is released.

(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: AS THE death toll rose daily and minority alienation found expression in street protests, civil disobedience and petitions from teachers, lawyers and priests, Faulkner’s defence of internment sounded increasingly desperate.

A few months earlier, the straight-talking MP for Falls, Paddy Devlin, had welcomed his offer of a Stormont Committee chairmanship for the minority; now he was rejecting Faulkner and the unionist regime as beyond the pale.)

On This Day – 26th August 1971

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