On This Day / December 4, 1970
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19701204
Reference Date
19701204
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 4th December 1970, Dublin faced shock plans to reopen internment camps after a kidnap plot was uncovered, amid Stormont discrimination claims and new evidence at the Scarman Tribunal. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Internment Shock in South | On This Day – 4th December 1970
IRELAND was clearly shocked and puzzled by last night’s dramatic announcement in Dublin that internment camps may be reopened after the uncovering of a plot to kidnap – and perhaps murder – Irish Ministers and leading citizens.
Gardai believe that the armed conspiracy also planned bank robberies and the Government’s action was seen as an all-out attempt to stamp it out before it gets fully underway.
The Taoiseach, Mr Jack Lynch said that information about the plot had been given to him by the Gardai. ‘It is a grave situation,’ he said. Internment camps were being prepared.
Discrimination Alleged in Civil Service
AN Opposition MP last night accused the Stormont Government of paying lip service to a promised reform programme while practising blatant discrimination in the allocation of jobs ‘at the top’.
And in a demand for reform Tom Gormley (Independent) is submitting a motion for debate in the House of Commons calling for an impartial inquiry into the recruitment for the Stormont Civil Service. Mr Gormley will have the support of other Opposition MPs.
Mr Gormley called for a full inquiry. The Ministry of Agriculture, for example, advertise quite frequently for staff and the unsuspecting ‘minority public’ are not aware that it is useless for them to write or to be recommended.’
Angrily, he declared: ‘We are entitled to our fair share of the cake … We pay our way; we pay our rates and taxes.’
B Men Did Not Report Fatal Firing
THE Scarman Tribunal was told at Armagh that none of the fourteen B Specials who fired their weapons into the air to disperse a Catholic crowd in the city on August 14, 1969, had reported the fact to the police.
Mr J P Higgins, QC told the Tribunal that Mr John Gallagher was shot dead on Cathedral Road that night and two others wounded.
The Tynan platoon of B Specials had gone to the area that night. Three members fired seven revolver shots in the air, nine fired sixteen rounds from their .303 rifles in the air and one man – armed with a Sterling sub-machinegun- claimed that he had accidentally fired a shot into the ground and, finally, another member said he stuck his rifle out of the window of a car and fired a shot in the air to disperse the Catholics.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Many forget that the first threat to use internment came from the Irish government as a result of a threat from Saor Eire, a Republican splinter-group.
Meanwhile, the lethal actions of the unaccountable Tynan B Specials in 1969 competed for news space with fresh allegations of discrimination in Government employment.)
On This Day – 4th December 1970
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19701204
Reference Date
19701204
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 4th December 1970, Dublin faced shock plans to reopen internment camps after a kidnap plot was uncovered, amid Stormont discrimination claims and new evidence at the Scarman Tribunal. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Internment Shock in South | On This Day – 4th December 1970
IRELAND was clearly shocked and puzzled by last night’s dramatic announcement in Dublin that internment camps may be reopened after the uncovering of a plot to kidnap – and perhaps murder – Irish Ministers and leading citizens.
Gardai believe that the armed conspiracy also planned bank robberies and the Government’s action was seen as an all-out attempt to stamp it out before it gets fully underway.
The Taoiseach, Mr Jack Lynch said that information about the plot had been given to him by the Gardai. ‘It is a grave situation,’ he said. Internment camps were being prepared.
Discrimination Alleged in Civil Service
AN Opposition MP last night accused the Stormont Government of paying lip service to a promised reform programme while practising blatant discrimination in the allocation of jobs ‘at the top’.
And in a demand for reform Tom Gormley (Independent) is submitting a motion for debate in the House of Commons calling for an impartial inquiry into the recruitment for the Stormont Civil Service. Mr Gormley will have the support of other Opposition MPs.
Mr Gormley called for a full inquiry. The Ministry of Agriculture, for example, advertise quite frequently for staff and the unsuspecting ‘minority public’ are not aware that it is useless for them to write or to be recommended.’
Angrily, he declared: ‘We are entitled to our fair share of the cake … We pay our way; we pay our rates and taxes.’
B Men Did Not Report Fatal Firing
THE Scarman Tribunal was told at Armagh that none of the fourteen B Specials who fired their weapons into the air to disperse a Catholic crowd in the city on August 14, 1969, had reported the fact to the police.
Mr J P Higgins, QC told the Tribunal that Mr John Gallagher was shot dead on Cathedral Road that night and two others wounded.
The Tynan platoon of B Specials had gone to the area that night. Three members fired seven revolver shots in the air, nine fired sixteen rounds from their .303 rifles in the air and one man – armed with a Sterling sub-machinegun- claimed that he had accidentally fired a shot into the ground and, finally, another member said he stuck his rifle out of the window of a car and fired a shot in the air to disperse the Catholics.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Many forget that the first threat to use internment came from the Irish government as a result of a threat from Saor Eire, a Republican splinter-group.
Meanwhile, the lethal actions of the unaccountable Tynan B Specials in 1969 competed for news space with fresh allegations of discrimination in Government employment.)
On This Day – 4th December 1970
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19701204
Reference Date
December 4, 2020
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 4th December 1970, Dublin faced shock plans to reopen internment camps after a kidnap plot was uncovered, amid Stormont discrimination claims and new evidence at the Scarman Tribunal. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Internment Shock in South | On This Day – 4th December 1970
IRELAND was clearly shocked and puzzled by last night’s dramatic announcement in Dublin that internment camps may be reopened after the uncovering of a plot to kidnap – and perhaps murder – Irish Ministers and leading citizens.
Gardai believe that the armed conspiracy also planned bank robberies and the Government’s action was seen as an all-out attempt to stamp it out before it gets fully underway.
The Taoiseach, Mr Jack Lynch said that information about the plot had been given to him by the Gardai. ‘It is a grave situation,’ he said. Internment camps were being prepared.
Discrimination Alleged in Civil Service
AN Opposition MP last night accused the Stormont Government of paying lip service to a promised reform programme while practising blatant discrimination in the allocation of jobs ‘at the top’.
And in a demand for reform Tom Gormley (Independent) is submitting a motion for debate in the House of Commons calling for an impartial inquiry into the recruitment for the Stormont Civil Service. Mr Gormley will have the support of other Opposition MPs.
Mr Gormley called for a full inquiry. The Ministry of Agriculture, for example, advertise quite frequently for staff and the unsuspecting ‘minority public’ are not aware that it is useless for them to write or to be recommended.’
Angrily, he declared: ‘We are entitled to our fair share of the cake … We pay our way; we pay our rates and taxes.’
B Men Did Not Report Fatal Firing
THE Scarman Tribunal was told at Armagh that none of the fourteen B Specials who fired their weapons into the air to disperse a Catholic crowd in the city on August 14, 1969, had reported the fact to the police.
Mr J P Higgins, QC told the Tribunal that Mr John Gallagher was shot dead on Cathedral Road that night and two others wounded.
The Tynan platoon of B Specials had gone to the area that night. Three members fired seven revolver shots in the air, nine fired sixteen rounds from their .303 rifles in the air and one man – armed with a Sterling sub-machinegun- claimed that he had accidentally fired a shot into the ground and, finally, another member said he stuck his rifle out of the window of a car and fired a shot in the air to disperse the Catholics.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Many forget that the first threat to use internment came from the Irish government as a result of a threat from Saor Eire, a Republican splinter-group.
Meanwhile, the lethal actions of the unaccountable Tynan B Specials in 1969 competed for news space with fresh allegations of discrimination in Government employment.)
On This Day – 4th December 1970
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.