If unification came today it would mean bringing into the Republic a generation of Ulster children reared on petrol bombs and tear gas, gangs of untamed gunmen, and hatreds and bitter memories which would be long in passing. Fortunately for the good people of the South, unification will not take place in 1972. But this year could see the first steps taken down that rocky road. If the Republic seriously wants the brethren of the North, its citizens will have to plan for a truly plural society. The present Irish constitution recognizes the "special position" of the Roman Catholic Church and makes divorce all but impossible. Contraception is technically illegal, and the publicizing of all unrhythmic means of birth control is prohibited. Censorship, although not nearly so insane as it was a decade ago, is still much in evidence. Because of its poverty and conservatism, the Republic is years behind the United Kingdom in providing welfare services. What is provided in the areas of pensions, the dole, medical care, and higher education is generally inadequate by British standards. Clearing the legal and institutional obstacles for eventual union with the Northern Protestants will be a major task for Prime Minister Lynch and a painful one for the nation. While the Republic is not, as Ian Paisley claims, a sectarian society, in its isolation it has allowed itself to develop into a cozy Catholic community where Irishness and Catholicism are almost interchangeable concepts. Although the changes in the laws and constitution they will some day be asked to make will be more symbolic than real, more than a few people in the South will be forced to wonder if a united Ireland is really what they want. Finally, 1972 is the year when Ireland joins the Common Market. At any rate, the government has already signed the Treaty of Rome, and the people will be asked to ratify Market membership in a constitutional referendum scheduled for the end of April or early May. The European Economic Community (EEC) membership is itself a contentious issue in the Republic. Trade unions dispute the rosy economic future which the government has promised in the EEC. Others are fearful that the plunge into Europe will destroy the remnants of a distinctively Irish culture. While some hope that Britain and Ireland's membership in the Community will ease the way to a settlement over the North, others warn that entrance into the EEC will gradually rob Ireland of what sovereignty it has had as a state. Even in quieter times the challenge of the EEC would be formidable. Confronting a civil war in the North, the growing threat of violence in its own society, and the unsettled nature of the island's future, the Republic of Ireland is entering the most difficult period of its existence. Although 1972 will probably not see the immediate solution to any of these problems, the year will still mark a significant turning point in Irish history. Somehow Ireland will have to bury its past so that it will not be entombed by the future. (W. H. A. Williams is a free lance journalist now based in Dublin. He writes a monthly column on Irish affairs for the Baltimore Sun and has contributed to Saturday Review and The Christian Science Monitor. A historian as well, Mr. Williams has taught at the National University of Ireland. Reprinted from the Progressive, March, 1972 issue). BOYS OF 12 TAUGHT TO KILL BY IRA (By James Wightman in Belfast) [From the London Daily Telegraph, Feb. 28, 1972] Ulster boys, as young as 12, are being taught to shoot to kill soldiers at secret IRA training camps in Eire. They have been recruited by worried IRA leaders to fill the large gaps made in their ranks of gunmen by internment. Security forces have been told that dozens of boys, mainly from Belfast, are making regular trips into Eire at weekends to receive instruction and practice in the use of weapons. Though most of the boys are aged 14 and upwards, some are known to be younger. They are said to regard themselves as members of an Army Cadet Force. Many of them have fathers and brothers in internment camps, and see themselves in the role of heroic avengers. According to intelligence reports, the boys are taken in cars across the border on Friday nights and returned in time for school on Monday mornings. They stay at the homes of IRA members or sympathisers, and are given arms training in fields and woods out of sight of the Eire police. BASIC INSTRUCTION A border policeman said: "We can be as suspicious as we like, but there is nothing we can do to stop them, unless we catch them in possession of arms or ammunition. They can come up with excuses that they are off to football matches or are visiting relatives in Eire." The boys are given basic instruction on pistols, rifles and sub-machine guns in classes held in homes in riot areas like the Falls and the Ardoyne. But, because of the heavy British military presence in Ulster, they have to go South for actual target practice. Some of the main training camps are thought to be in the Dundalk area, a well-known centre of IRA activity. The instructors are seasoned terrorist gunmen. Some security officers believe, that, in the final stages of their training, boys may be pitched into border gun battles with British troops. The Royal Ulster Constabulary believes that David McAuley, a 14-year-old Belfast boy who was killed in mysterious circumstances last weekend, may have been involved in such a gunfight, or had been accidently shot at an IRA junior training camp. STOMACH WOUND Police foiled an attempt to smuggle his body back into Ulster for burial when they intercepted the hearse carrying his coffin on a border road. Though an Eire doctor had signed the death certificate, saying the boy died from a "non-infectious disease" the police discovered that he had a gunshot wound in the stomach. Belfast boys are also being shown how to prepare and plant explosives. Instruction is given at IRA classes held in houses, and the boys do not have to cross the border. Witnesses of an explosion in Belfast last week estimated that the bomber seen running away from the scene was no more than 13 years old. An RUC officer said: "There is no doubt that the IRA are getting desperate for recruits since internment. They are using more and more boys." Terrorists begin recruiting boys as early as seven years old and form them into groups known as "IRA Cubs." Then they are indoctrinated in the history and aims of the IRA. -At about 12 they move up into the junior IRA, where they begin the practical training which turns them into gunmen and bombers. At 16 or 17, they enter the IRA proper. Soldiers have reported recently that more and more boy terrorists have been shooting at them. One officer told me of two boys, estimated to be no more than 12, who opened up on a foot patrol with Thompson guns. He said: "They were so frail that they could not control the weapons. They misfired wildly, missing the soldiers by many yards, and almost hitting an innocent passer-by." American Congress for Irish Freedom, documents of American Committee for Ulster Justice... Bibliography submitted by- American Irish Immigration Committee; statement.. Page 224 313 390 458ff 115, 116 364 449 424 1, 3, 25, 28, 164ff 179 183 3, 40, 50 151, 159, 163, 278 22, 228 162 387 American Irish National Immigration Committee, New York; statement. Affected by ties with Britain Based on assumption of British "good intentions". Based on Northern Ireland as internal problem for British- Propriety of involvement. 10, 16, 66, 77, 93, 104, 111, 161, 173, 246 Ancient Order of Hibernians in America, Michigan State Board; statement_ 175 4 49, 117 119 361 47, 345 480 31, 347, 383 126, 134, 135 (footnote), 253, 267, 310 226 361 362 153 Biaggi, Hon. Mario; testimony. Bingham, Hon. Jonathan: |