On This Day / August 28, 1971
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
August 28, 2021
Publication Date
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Summary: On This Day – 28th August 1971, Harold Wilson criticised the one-sided nature of internment as John Hume reported widespread support for civil disobedience in Derry. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Wilson Raps Internment | On This Day – 28th August 1971
MR HAROLD Wilson, the Labour Opposition leader, said last night that troops in NI were trying to be impartial in a difficult situation, but now they were being used.
‘For example’, he said, ‘it’s only people from one side in the main who have been interned. Now there are extremists and dangerous men – very dangerous men – on the other side who have not.’
The decision to inflict internment certainly was a gamble, said Mr Wilson. However the former Labour PM said he would regard direct rule from Westminster as ‘the last resort’, while adding: ‘I think it would have to come if the situation got worse’.
Meanwhile the Stormont PM, Mr Faulkner described a Northern Ireland Labour Party proposal for a ‘community government’ as unrealistic.
Hume on Campaign’s Success
The call to the people in Derry to withhold rates and rents has met with outstanding success, Mr John Hume, MP said last night.
He said the fact that local authorities were not revealing any information about the impact of the campaign in itself showed that it was successful.
He could state that in the Creggan Estate, for instance, there had been a 93 per cent response.
‘This is quite magnificent and it shows that the people have accepted that, to be successful, the civil disobedience campaign means personal involvement.
Mass involvement shows that everywhere a large section of the community has withdrawn its consent for the system.
The only way to solve the situation thus created is for Westminster to take the necessary steps to create a system which will have the approval of the people.’
Teachers Against Internment
Teachers in Down and Armagh, meeting at Newry last night, stiffened their resistance to internment and announced that on the day internment forms are signed schools would close in protest. Teachers’ salaries for that day would go to the internees’ dependants.
The meeting reiterated unanimous support for the programme of civil disobedience and said that teachers would cooperate to implement it.
Overnight Stops at Aldergrove
British European Airways (BEA) is to suspend all overnight halts at Aldergrove Airport, it was announced in London last night.
The suspension follows a request by three of the airline’s captains who asked to be relieved from having to stay overnight in the riot-torn city.
(Eamon Phoenix editor’s note: THE former Labour PM’s view that internment was one-sided undermined Faulkner’s position.
It was clear, however, that Wilson did not relish the idea of Direct Rule; in 1969 his Defence Secretary, Denis Healey had warned the Labour PM that their only option was to support the ‘Protestant majority’ or ‘risk a 1912 situation’.)
On This Day – 28th August 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.