"The British Army chief on the spot, Maj. Gen. Robert Ford, maintained that the soldiers fired only at snipers and grenade-throwers.

"A member of the Northern Ireland Parliament, Ivan Cooper, said that the meeting had just begun and Bernadette Devlin, the fiery civil rights leader, was speaking when the shots rang out.

"The speakers threw themselves to the platform and I shouted for people to keep down,' he said. 'I could see the army systematically picking off people who had got up to run away.

"There was complete panic and confusion,' he went on, 'and I thought the best thing I could do was to tend to the injured with a friend. I was carrying a white pillowcase. We were both fired on and my friend was hit on the side of the face. Many of those who died were friends of mine, people I've known all my life. "I can state absolutely positively that there were no snipers whatsoever. There had been stone-throwing, which had been taken care of. Sniper fire came 10 minutes later from local terrorists.

""The British Army shot down unarmed people and I hope no one has the audacity to stand up and say they were firing at snipers. They murdered innecent men."

DEATHS CALLED MURDER

"Another local member of Parliament, John Hume, said that the soldiers had opened fire indiscriminately in an act that was 'nothing short of coldblooded murder.' He said that the city was numb with shock, revulsion and bitterness. "The March began quietly in a city housing development overlooking the historic city of 50,000 where the Protestant garrison held out successfully against the Catholic army of James II in 1689 and where the civil rights movement was born in 1968.

"About 15,000 demonstrators from all parts of Northern Ireland marched on the city center. When their way was blocked by an army barricade about a quarter of a mile from their destination, the organizers diverted the parade toward a meeting point in the Bogside, a Roman Catholic area. But some marchers wanted a confrontation and showered stones and later nausea gas cartridges, stolen from the British Army, on the soldiers.

"The soldiers replied with volley after volley of gas and rubber bullets and called in water cannon to spray the demonstrators with a purple dye.

"The Paratroop Regiment, especially hated by Roman Catholics for their methods, then drove armored cars through the rioters and it was at this stage that rifle fire was heard over the duller thud of rubber bullets.

"Civilians were shot down and one report said that a priest giving the last rites to a dying man was arrested and taken away for questioning.

"The Roman Catholic Bishop of Londonderry, Dr. Neil Farren, sent a telegram to Prime Minister Heath demanding a public inquiry. William Cardinal Conway, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, also called for an independent and impartial public inquiry. 'I am deeply shocked at the news of the awful slaughter in Derry this afternoon,' he said.

"He called on Catholics to maintain their calm and dignity in the face of 'this terrible news'.

"In Belfast, Brian Faulkner, the Ulster Prime Minister, issued a statement saying that the day's events 'illustrate precisely why it was found necessary, with the full support of the government at Westminster, to impose a general ban on all processions throughout Northern Ireland.' He said that the deaths today arose from 'a meaningless and futile terrorist exercise.'

"The army headquarters, in a statement late tonight from Lisburn, near Belfast, said that the troops had come under nail-bomb attack and a fusillade of from 50 to 80 rounds.

"Fire was returned at seen gunmen and nail bombers,' the statement continued. 'Subsequently, as the troops deployed to get at the gunmen, the latter continued to fire. In all a total of well over 200 rounds was fired indiscriminately in the general direction of the soldiers.'

"In Londonderry, Miss Devlin, who is a member of the British Parliament, described the deaths as 'mass murder' by the British Army. 'This is our Sharpeville,' she said, referring to the massacre of 72 black demonstrators in South Africa in 1960. 'We will never forget it.'

"She said the soliders had shot at a peaceful meeting and declared there was no point in calling for 'whitewash' inquiries.

All we can do is to continue the struggle to rid ourselves forever of this savagery,' she said, calling for a general strike until the British Army was withdrawn. Other civil rights leaders have called for a day of mourning in Londonderry tomorrow.

"In Belfast the killings are seen as a possible turning point in the Ulster crisis. Already there is speculation in political circles that if the Irish Republican Army retaliates the British may be forced to take over responsibility for security from the Northern Ireland Government. In extreme circumstances, the government here might have to be suspended and Ulster ruled directly from London.

Many have predicted a clash like today's and there will be little criticism in Protestant quarters for the army's action.

"A clear warning was issued yesterday that the march would be stopped by force if necessary and it was on this assurance that militant Protestant leaders in Londonderry called off a counterdemonstration."

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1972

NORTHERN IRELAND-FAITH IN THE SYSTEM IS SHATTERED

Mr. Ribicoff: Mr. President, last week the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy) and I had the opportunity to meet privately with Irish Foreign Minister Hillery to discuss the present situation in Northern Ireland in the aftermath of Londonderry. I hope that Minister Hillery's visit to our country will help to convince our leadership that our country should take a stand on this issue.

It is unfortunate that the basic issues at stake in Northern Ireland have too often been obscured by the more dramatic events taking place there. I hope that more Senators will take the time to acquaint themselves with the long and complex background to the violence in Ulster and examine the measures called for in Senate Resolution 180. In this connection I note that the distinguished Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Pastore) is the most recent cosponsor of this proposal to end the bloodshed.

Last Sunday's New York Times presented two excellent analyses of the present situation in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I previously had printed in the Record articles by both of these writers, Anthony Lewis and Bernard Weinraub. These two newspapermen have continued their excellent job of reporting a very volatile and little understood subject. I ask unanimous consent that both of their articles, entitled "Can't Stay In, Can't Get Out," written by Anthony Lewis, and "Faith in the System Is Shattered" written by Bernard Weinraub, be printed in the Record.

There being no objection, the articles were ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:

BRITAIN: CAN'T STAY IN, CAN'T GET OUT

(By Anthony Lewis)

"London.-'Now for our Irish wars,' says King Richard II, full of confident vigor in Act II of Shakespeare's play. He returns from Ireland in the next act a broken man, ready to say:

"For God's sake let us sit upon the ground.

"And tell sad stories of the death of kings.

"English kings and politicians have been trying to master the Irish problem for 800 years, and few of them to their benefit. The struggle has most often turned out to be self-destructive, draining their energies abroad and producing division at home.

"Now once again Ireland dominates British political life. The pressures have been building up, along with the toll of violence in Ulster, for three years. Then, last Sunday, came the killing of 13 Catholic civilians by British soldiers in Londonderry. It was one of those incidents that dramatizes history, making clear the direction of events.

"The political effect for Britain became quickly visible. There was an immediate flow of emotion in the House of Commons, almost a throwback to the unruly Irish debates there a century ago. Bernadette Devlin, the Catholic radical from Ulster, crossed the floor to punch the Home Secretary, Reginald Maudling—and was not even called to order by the Speaker lest martyrdom raise the temperature even higher.

"More significant than Miss Devlin's assault, or the fiery words in many Commons speeches, was the new sense of division between the parties on the Irish issue.

"Conservative ministers and backbenchers cheered the British Army and had hardly a word of sympathy for Sunday's victims. On the Labor side, member after member identified himself with the Catholic underdogs in Northern Ireland.

An experienced Parliamentary observer, Alan Watkins of The New Statesman, wrote: “I have rarely seen the House of Commons so polarized."

"A previous bipartisan truce on Irish matters had been pretty well frayed by the violence of the last two years, but last Tuesday night was the first time Labor forced a Commons vote on the Ulster problem. The issue they chose was a demand that London take over all security responsibility from the Ulster Provincial Government in Stormont.

"The Tory majority held. But the vote was only a mild hint of the partisan conflict that could lie ahead on Ireland. The leader of the Opposition, Harold Wilson, is desperately trying to avoid a real fight. But his backbenchers, centrist as well as left-wing, want him to take stronger positions-against the whole policy of internment without trial, for example, and for a commitment to a united Ireland.

"Prime Minister Edward Heath and his colleagues faced a general demand from their critics for a "political initiative" on Ireland. But each idea that is suggested the Conservative Government has reason to fear.

"End internment? The critics point out the terrible alienation of the whole Catholic community that has occurred since the Government began putting men in prison without trial last Aug. 9. The Government's reply is that it cannot put suspected terrorists back on the streets.

"Take control of security away from the Protestant regime in Stormont? The argument for that step is that it would restore Catholic confidence in the impartiality of British forces. But officials are skeptical that, for example, it would have made any difference to Catholic feelings in Londonderry on Sunday if the troops had not been nominally working for Stormont.

"Impose direct rule of Northern Ireland from London, eliminating the Stormont regime altogether? This, it is argued, would recognize the inescapable truth that Stormont is a sectarian system and can never win back the Catholics' allegiance. But the British Government fears that Britain would then be caught between the Catholics and Protestants in Ulster-Protestants aroused by what they would see as the beginning of British abandonment of the province.

"Withdraw the troops? More and more voices are calling on Britain to pull her forces out on the ground that they are provocative. Such a man as Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien, the writer who is a Labor member of the Irish Parliament and who until recently opposed withdrawal as a formula or civil war, now has changed his mind. But the Government has no intention of taking a step that it thinks would lead to massacres for which it would be blamed.

“Any idea that can be suggested will have flaws, for the intractable problem remains underneath: the existence of two communities that hate and fear each other in one small island. But it does seem essential for the British Government to take some political step soon. For the posture of the army at the moment has the appearance of coercing people for no positive goal. And meanwhile the politics and daily life of Northern Ireland keep disintegrating.

"The irony is that over most of the terrible Anglo-Irish history, Britain's goal in Ireland was conquest. Now it is withdrawal, and that is proving to be just as difficult and bloody a challenge."

IRELAND: FAITH IN THE SYSTEM IS SHATTERED

(By Bernard Weinraub)

"Londonderry. An icy rain fell on the bleak hilltop overlooking Londonderry, One by one the 13 coffins were borne from St. Mary's church, the names of the dead echoing through the streets from loudspeakers. Patrick Doherty. . . William Nash . . . Michael Kelly

"The sight of frenzied children weeping, women shrieking in the agony of loss, men trembling and bereft somehow the tragedy of Northern Ireland reached a brutal peak with the burial of the men who were killed by British soldiers last Sunday during a massive demonstration by Roman Catholics.

"Londonderry is, in some ways, where it all started and Londonderry is, perhaps, where it will all end.

"The second largest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth largest in Ireland, Londonderry was the site of a Protestant victory in 1689 when James II of England, a Catholic convert, was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne by William of Orange, the beloved 'King Billy' of Ulster's Protestants.

"Londonderry's narrow streets were the site in October, 1968, of civil rights demonstrations that spread to the countryside and touched off mass riots in Belfast the following August.

"The city is a site of Catholic power (over 60 per cent of the citizens are Catholie), of Irish Republican Army strength and now, of sullen, total fury at the political Establishment. After 'Bloody Sunday' the situation, in effect, is one of war against the British Army and the Northern Ireland Government.

People are stunned and angry, people are hopeless,' said the Rev. George McLaughlin, a 39-year-old priest standing inside the packed church where reqniem mass for the 13 dead was held. 'This tragedy is the final blow.'

"To the Catholic minority the deaths of the 13 symbolize the death of Northern Ireland in its present political form. Virtually all Catholics have withdrawn from government. Catholic lawyers are seriously discussing a boycott of the courts. Thousands of families have stopped paying rents and electricity bills.

The demand for civil rights-such as the march set for today at Newry, a border town-has been overtakea by a surge of feeling that both the Belfast and London Governments are no longer tolerated in the Catholic community, which forms one-third of the population in Northern Ireland. Catholics have been radicalized, and even moderates now see their future only in the context of a united Ireland.

"To the Protestant Union Government the prospect of unity is abhorrent because it would mean being swallowed up by the Catholic majority to the south. The Protestants have offered housing and voting reforms, but Catholics insist these measures came too late and offered too little. At the same time, Catholics here feel that reforms are now out of the question in view of the Government's policy of interning suspected terrorists without trial.

"The Londonderry killings-with soldiers insisting that they attacked only after Catholics tossed nail-bombs and opened sniper fire, and Catholics furiously denying the allegations-turned the minority even further against the Protestant Establishment and the British Army.

"Derry has closed the book on Britain as an arbitrator, a neutral force in Northern Ireland,' said Tom Conaty, the head of the Central Citizens' Defense Committee, a powerful group in Belfast's Catholic ghettos. 'People are now seeing Northern Ireland only in terms of unity with the Republic. For most of us, there is no other answer.'

"The depth of feeling about last week's killings-and the controversial British role in the tragedy was underlined in Dublin, across the border, when a mob estimated at up to 50,000 marched with mock coffins on the British Embassy (see picture at top) and burned the building down.

"Clearly the question of Irish unification is now intertwined with the simmering historic anger that the Irish feel toward the British. And one need only read the British newspapers, or watch British journalists in Belfast questioning Catholic civil rights leaders, to realize that among many Britons the Irish are still viewed with remarkable, quite personal, disdain.

"The Irish Government itself has taken its firmest action in years over the developing crisis in Ulster. Previously, Premier John Lynch had sought to steer a delicate course over his country's involvement in Northern Ireland and had given lip service-but little beyond that to the prospect of unification. Now, sensing the surge of anger over the Londonderry killings, Mr. Lynch has harshly criticized Britain and struck up his demands for unity.

"British soldiers who were welcomed in the Catholic ghettos less than three years ago with tea and biscuits are now the enemy. That change in attitude began with a British act that most observers now regard as a blunder.

"The army, in July, 1970, ordered a 42-hour curfew in the Lower Falls ghetto, placing under virtual house arrest 10,000 Catholics in the search for weapons. Gun hunts continued in Catholic areas with many homes indiscriminately searched while the Protestant ghettos of Belfast were untouched.

"Provocative Protestant marches in Catholic areas were protected by the army it its role in guradian of law and order, leading to confrontation between soldiers and Catholics.

"Most important, the army was used by the Protestant Government to implement the policy of internment without trial, a policy to root out terrorists that has clearly had a disastrous impact in Northern Ireland. The violence that followed internment-which the minority views as blatantly anti-Catholicshook the British Government. Almost overnight, the army was identified with a Protestant regime that Catholics detest. And the I.R.A., who were a mere handful of cranks and desperadoes in the early sixties, turned into a symbol of liberation.

"A sense of crude tragedy now grips Northern Ireland. An outraged minority, which began with demands for job equality and better housing, has torn away

from the government and refuses to accept it. The Protestant majority is haunted by fears that the British will take over Northern Ireland completely—and will then wash their hands of Ulster and take steps to erase the border with the Republic, where 95 per cent of the population is Catholic.

"The 15,000-man British garrison here is serving as an occupation force, defending the Protestant Government of Premier Brian Faulkner whose policies have alienated a restless and powerful minority. Physically and emotionally, the Catholics and the British Army have moved into warning camps.

"It's all over with what we have now,' said Kevin McCorry, a civil rights leader, shortly after the funerals of the Londonderry victims. 'People feel helpless. Their faith in the system is shattered. And it's the system that now has to be replaced. It will be.' "'

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1972

NORTHERN IRELAND SECRET PEACE PROPOSAL—“THE DOVE THAT DIED” Mr. Ribicoff: Mr. President, since my introduction last October of Senate Resolution 180 dealing with the tragic situation in Northern Ireland, I have warned that Ulster was becoming Britain's Vietnam. The most dramatic evidence of this sad fact was the bloody Sunday in Londonderry. Now, Columnist Pete Hamill writing in the New York Post, has revealed how the British Government rejected a secret five-point peace proposal acceptable to both the Catholic and Protestant leadership in Northern Ireland. This is reminiscent of the many abortive efforts to find peace in Indochina.

There is reason to believe that the events related by Mr. Hamill are substantially correct. In any event, the failure of this attempt to find a peaceful solution lends additional weight to the need for our won Government to play a role in ending the bloodshed and discrimination in Northern Ireland. The recommendations contained in Senate Resolution 180 provide a suitable framework for bringing peace and justice.

I ask unanimous consent that Mr. Hamill's article of February 12 be printed in the RECORD along with Senate Resolution 180, which has been cosponsored by Senators KENNEDY, WILLiams, Pastore, and HARTKE.

There being no objection, the items were ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

S. RES. 180

Resolution calling for peace in Northern Ireland and the establishment of a United Ireland.

"Whereas the continuing violence and bloodshed in Northern Ireland is a cause of the deepest concern to Americans of all faiths and political persuasions; "Whereas the causes of the present conflict may be traced to the systematic and deliberate discrimination in housing, employment, political representation, and educational opportunities practiced by the governmental authorities of Northern Ireland against the minority there;

"Whereas the Governments of the United Kingdom and of North Ireland have failed to end the bloodshed and have failed to establish measures to meet the legitimate grievances of this minority;

"Whereas continued repression and lack of fundamental reforms in Northern Ireland threaten to prolong and escalate the conflict and the denial of civil liberties: Now, therefore, be it

"Resolved, That the Senate of the United States expresses its deepest concern over the present situation in Northern Ireland, and in accord with fundamental concepts of nondiscrimination, fairness, democracy, self-determination, and justice, requests the Government of the United States at the highest level to urge the immediate implementation of the following actions:

"1. Termination of the current internment policy and the simultaneous release of all persons detained thereunder.

"2. Full respect for the civil rights of all the people of Northern Ireland, and the termination of all political, social, economic, and religious discrimination. "3. Implementation of the reforms promised by the Government of the United Kingdom since 1968, including reforms in the fields of law enforcement, housing, employment, and voting rights.

1 See p. 447.