Torture: The record of British brutality in Ireland Northern Aid 2A Beresford Place, Dublin.

Ulster Sunday Times insight team. Penguin. Sunday Times, London.

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World Council of Churches, commission of the Churches on International Affairs pamphlet Northern Ireland Alan R. Booth. Off-print from Study Encounter Vol. V, No. 4, 1969. CCIA, 777 U.N. Plaza New York, N. Y.

World Habeas Corpus-Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus, City of Belfast High Court. Commission for International Due Process of Law, 103 West Adams Street, Chicago, Ill.

STATEMENT OF MR. KEVIN BOLAND, REDGAP, RATHCOOLE,

COUNTY DUBLIN, IRELAND

My name is Kevin Boland. I come from the part of Ireland, which is described "The South" but which includes the most Northerly part of Ireland as well as ree of the nine counties of Ulster. I am a former member of the Irish Parliament d Government and am now Chairman of a new Party called the "Aontacht reann-Republican unity Party, which has not as yet contested an election. I on't propose to deal with the factual situation in the Six Counties. I intend, stead, to deal with the Resolution in the context of the whole of Ireland and, view of the fact that the Resolution calls for the reunification of Ireland, this pears to me to be relevant.

I am confident that other witnesses both from Ireland and from your own untry will have established as a fact that in the Six Counties of North Eastern eland there has been fifty years of victimisation of and discrimination against a bstantial section of the community and that for the last four years this section the community has been suffering violent repression. It is a matter of common owledge that by August of last year resistance to this repression had escalated the stage where Mr. Maudling, the British Home Secretary, publicly declared at the British Army was at war in this part of Ireland. I feel that if the Comittee is satisfied that the facts are as I have stated the members must be asking emselves why a majority should treat a minority in this way. It is hard to image that any substantial group of people should systematically victimise another oup because they dislike their religious or political outlook and, of course, it is t because of any innate viciousness that this has happened. The fact is that the pressed community are regarded as being basically disloyal to the Six County ite as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and is is fundamently true. This being the position, those for whom the present rtition situation was created regard themselves as having the duty to preserve e Status Quo. This involves retaining their own status as a majority and theree, the economic pressure towards emigration which exists in the area as a ole is manipulated so as to affect almost exclusively those who are basically in vour of the reunification of the Country and consequently disaffected citizens the Six County State.

If members of the Committee see this situation as a minority intent on seceding d coercing the majority into union with another state they will hardly agree with e terms of the Resolution. In fact, this is not the case but the whole trouble arises om the fact that fifty two years ago the British Parliament created the present uation in order to allow a much smaller minority to secede from their own Nation d to coerce a part of the national majority with them. It is misleading to use the ms "Majority" and "Minority" to describe the two communities in the Six unty State. Those who are described as the "Majority" are, in fact, the dissident nority of the Irish people while those described as the "Minority" are the memrs of the majority, who have been illegitimately, undemocratically and unjustly erced out of their own Nation and into another merely because the distribution of pulation was such as to make it feasible to include the place where they lived in area in which those in favour of secession could outnumber those in favour of maining united with the rest of the country. Members of the Committee will no ubt call to mind that at one stage in the history of the United States a secessionproblem had to be tackled and that it was eventually disposed of in a very painway. The principal point I want to submit to you in support of this Resolution that the fundamental injustice giving rise to the continuous trouble in Ireland the past fifty years is the concession of the right to secede by the British rliament in 1920, particularly since this involved the coercion of 40% of the pulation of the partitioned area.

I think it is necessary for me briefly to make the case that Ireland is a unit and at Partition was not and is not justified. The Act of Union between Ireland d Britain was passed by the old Irish ascendancy Parliament in 1800. Prior to 8 the country was a unit. The Parliament was an Anglo Irish Ascendancy rliament with no pretence of universal suffrage but, it was one Parliament vering the country as a unit. Throughout the whole period of the Union the

country continued to be a unit. Elections took place over the whole country as a unit. In the course of time universal suffrage was gradually conceded and, the stage was reached where the vast majority of the Irish elected representatives were elected on the basis of their commitment to the attainment of Home Rule and eventually the British Liberal Party agreed to his principle. It was at this stage in the late 19th. century, that the seeds of the present partition were deliberately sown as political party policy by the British Conservative Party when, Randolph Churchill decided in his own words that "The Orange Card is the card to play" and, coined the slogan "Home Rule is Rome Rule". Even at this stage Partition was not envisaged. The intention was to defeat the granting of Home Rule to Ireland. The tactic failed and eventually the third Home Rule Bill became an Act. It was only during the passage of this Act that for the first time the proposal for partition emerged. Sir Edward Carson organised and armed the Ulster Volunteers to oppose in arms the implementation of this Act of the British Parliament which was passed in 1912, and, the Government of Ireland Act of 1920 was a concession to the threat of armed resistance to the principle of self determination. In successive General Elections prior to that, carried out as had always been the case over the whole country, the Irish People had by a substantial majority declared themselves in favour of this principle of self determination. In the last such election held over the whole country in 1918, the Home Rule Act not having been implemented, the vast majority of representatives elected were committed to the declaration of a Republic and this was done. Two years after this democratic establishment of the Thirty Two County Irish Republic the British Government, without reference to the Irish people or their elected representatives introduced the Partition of Ireland.

I have recounted this in order to establish that the aspiration of 40% of the people of the Six Counties to reunification is neither seditious nor undemocratic. What has happened is that in order to concede a demand for secession on the part of a minority of 25% a State has been established, involving the coercion of 40% of the population out of their own Nation. In fact, in more than half of the area of this State there is and always has been a majority against Partition. The Irish people claim that this is undemocratic and unjust and the Resolution, which your Committee is investigating, is an accurate statement of the Irish claim. It recognises the reality of the situation that there is only one possible solution to this situation. There is only one way in which peace can be established in Ireland and that is, by a commitment on the part of the British Government to the reunification of Ireland. The silly imperialistic claim that part of Ireland is part of the United Kingdom must be renounced. Notice must be given that the future of the Six County area is as part of Ireland and not as part of the United Kingdom and, this involves a time table for the complete disengagement of Great Britain from our Country. I feel certain the members of the Committee will agree that items 1, 2 and 3 of the Resolution should be implemented. The case I want to make is that the Resolution is correct in stating that items 4, 5 and 6 are in accord with the fundamental concepts of democracy and self determination.

I would like to make it clear that this is not a question of the absorption of the Six County area into the existing Twenty Six County State. This is neither feasible nor desirable. The fact is that neither of the two existing entities comes anywhere near representing the real Ireland. One state is objectionably and unnaturally sectarian because of the fact, that it is based on deliberately and sedulously fostered sectarianism and because its continuance depends on the continuance of sectarian division. The other may not be consciously or deliberately sectarian but, the fact that it is 95% of one religious denomination inevitably gives it characteristics unacceptable to the minority, whose secession was contrived by the Act of 1920. Reunification must in justice and if it is to work involve the creation of a completely new entity. It must have a Consitution acceptable to all sections and it must ensure that there will be no second class citizens.

There is one other aspect of the present situation on which there may be some confusion and that is, the question of how violence on the present scale developed. The I.R.A., which was the army of the Republic established in 1918. has remained in existence with varying strength and has continued to maintain that the Republic is still legitimately in existence. In addition to this the majority of the Irish people have never accepted the legality of the division of Ireland but, have favoured peaceful means to restore unity. By August 1969, the I.R.A., was practically nonexistent. It consisted of no more than the nucleus of an organisation and, when the Nationalist areas were attacked in that month there was no defence available.

he people who were under attack organised Citizens' Defence Committees to ndertake the defence of their local areas against attacks. The I.R.A. were an significant element in these arrangements. The Defence Committees cooperated lly with the British Army after the increased deployment of troops in a peace eeping role in August 1969, and on many occasions the British Army publicly knowledged their work in preventing violence when rival mobs faced one another. his situation continued until July 1970, when the British Army tactics suddenly anged and the Falls Road Area was violently raided, although it was well known at by far the greater amount of arms was in the Unionist areas. From then on the itizens' Defence Committees gradually became discredited and the people began o turn to the I.R.A. for defence, both from the Unionists and from British Army rutality. It was only from that time on that the I.R.A. became of any significance. rior to July 1970, there were very few incidents of violence. From the date of the id on the Falls Road such incidents began to increase, but there was still no olence on anything approaching the present scale. In August 1971, Mr. Maudling, ritish Home Secretary, decalared that the British Army was now at war and ternment was introduced with great brutality. People arrested were detained for ngthy periods prior to internment and, many were subject to vicious torture. he whole Nationalist community have since that time quite clearly decided that ne present arrangement must go and, have supported the physical resistance to ternment and oppression. Early in 1970, the I.R.A. split on ideological lines and e two wings are now known as the Officials (Gardiner Place) and the Provisionals Kevin Street.)

The Officials admit to being Marxist and, to being more interested in changing he nature of Society in both parts of Ireland than in reunification. The Provionals primary concern is with reunification and they are by far the stronger in oth parts of the Country. The two wings of the I.R.A. have to a great extent ink their differences in the face of British repression. The pattern of events shows early that the I.R.A. was really called into existence by the British tactics. It now recognised as acting on behalf of the Nationalist community and, from a osition of virtual non-existence prior to July 1970, it is now stronger than ever nce 1924, in both parts of Ireland.

I would appeal to the Committee not to take the view that this is not your oncern. It concerns peace and justice. It is true that the struggle against injustice à Ireland does not appear to endanger world peace but, it involves death and estruction, suffering and victimisation. Military intervention is not suggested or, is there any need or desire to disrupt the Anglo-American alliance. We are sking you to use your influence to persuade the British to end the long martyrom of Ireland and, to allow the emergence of a new and sincerely friendly country their doorstep. We are asking you to convince them that this would be much ore in their real interest than to have to continue indefinitely to maintain by ubstantial financial subsidisation and by force of arms, the type of State that the world now knows the Six Counties to be and, which it must continue to be if it to continue in existence. The Irish people desperately want to be at peace in heir own Country and at peace with their nearest neighbour, and this Resolution asking the Congress of the American people to help in this aspiration.

STATEMENT OF DR. MAIRE BRADSHAW, IRISH REPUBLICAN CLUBS

OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, WOODSIDE, N.Y.

I, Maire Bradshaw, am speaking in behalf of the Irish Republican Clubs of the United States and Canada. Sean Kenny who is the National Co-ordinator is the official spokesman but he is unavoidably detained in Ireland where he is the Joint Secretary of Sinn Fein. The Republican Clubs of the United States and Canada support the policies of Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Army in Ireland. I was born in Ireland and attended the National University of Ireland as well as Cambridge University, England. I hold a Ph. D degree in science. I am a resident of the United States for twenty-one years and an American citizer. for sixteen years. I am here to support the House Resolution #653 as presented to the House by the Hon. Hugh Carey on Oct. 20, 1971.

The Republican Clubs believe that the destiny of Ireland should be in the hands of the Irish people alone. The border exists in Ireland against the wishes of the Irish people. It was drawn by the British without the consent of the majority in Ireland. The British not only dismembered a Country but a Province as wel Ulster consists of nine Counties the most northerly of which is Donegal. Thus, the six Counties have no right to the name Northern Ireland and they have eve less right to the name Ulster. Within the enclave of the six counties a third of the people have no rights. The minority cannot vote because of the gerrymandered districts into which they are pushed, they cannot get decent houses in which to live and the rate of unemployment amongst the minority is exceptionally high. If this were happening in an Eastern European Country, my Government would be loud and clear in its denunciation. However, because the Stormont Government is backed by Britain there is no outcry. It is alright for the minority to be shot and brutalized and put into concentration camps without charge and trial. There is one feature that the Nazis had that is lacking in the British camps. There are no ovens yet but if we keep silent long enough they might appear.

I do not believe that the United States Government should play an active role in Northern Ireland. The United States should add its voice to the other nations who are demanding the withdrawal of British troops. If there is fear of a massacre they should disarm the whole population instead of part of it. There are many groups who could act as a peacekeeping force. One that comes to mind is a large Trade Union who would see to it that both the Catholic and Protestant workers are protected. They form the bulk of the population in the six counties and thus the peace could be maintained until it is possible to hold a general election throughout Ireland.

In conclusion all the might of the American voice should be raised to rescue the beleagured people in the six occupied Counties of Ireland. Britain must be told that she does not have a God-given right to shoot and brutalize people into submission. The Irish are a peace-loving people but they will not be pushed around any further. The minority will be defended by any means possible. The only terrorists in Northern Ireland are the British storm troopers. America can and should get them out.

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