In December 1969, 300,000 people attended the Altamont free concert in California, featuring The Rolling Stones. The concert was marred by violence and four deaths. In Ireland at the time, we were continuing to see violence on the island.
December began with the sad news that another life had been lost in Northern Ireland. During attacks on Unity Flats after an Orange march on the 2nd of August, Patrick Corry, 61, had been struck with batons during an altercation with the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), and subsequently died four months later, on the 1st of December.
On the 8th of December 1969, Neil Blaney, the then Irish Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries was giving a speech to mark 21 years since he was elected to Dáil Éireann. You may be thinking, what significance has this got to the ongoing conflict? Well, I found it quite interesting that he spoke about the partition of Ireland, a topic that is still hot to this day, and in particular, comments made by Edward Carson around partitioning six counties instead of nine. Below is what he said.
“What we are all being asked now is to forget the recent happenings, the murders of innocent people, the armed attacks by partisan police and Unionist gunmen, the hapless families burned out and forced out by threat from their homes - for all of which the Unionist version of justice has so far failed to produce a single culprit. We are being urged to "get back to normality". In other words to permit the Stormont regime to return to "Business as usual”. But normality is fraudulent and "Business as usual" a myth while the Border is maintained.
The people of free Ireland, and those who long for freedom in that portion of our country which is still fettered, are not prepared to accept another 1921 settlement from the British Government. A united Ireland is the answer.
In this connection, it is important to correct some recent misconceptions about the rights of the majority of the people of Ireland in regard to the Partition of this country. We have heard reference in past weeks to the argument that Partition should only end with the consent of the majority in the Six Counties. It should be made clear here and now that the majority in the Six Counties has no moral right to decide on Partition, for the very logical reason that the Six Counties was, and still is, an artificial creation set up against the majority wishes of the Irish people, and drawn up on the sole basis of giving the Unionists as much territory as they could safely maintain, and that only by gerrymander and discrimination.
Carson has told us, for instance, why he did not take in the whole nine counties of Ulster in his conception of an Orange State. The reason was that there were at the time some 275,000 Catholics living alongside 72,000 Protestants in the Counties of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan. These figures would have upset the Unionist majority in the other six Ulster counties. For this reason, Carson (to use his own words) "abandoned them" to freedom.
To say that the majority within the Six Counties should have the right to decide on Partition is to accept that Partition was in the first justified. Ireland was partitioned against the majority wishes of her people, and it is the majority of the people of all Ireland who alone have the right to decide this question. That is the primary civil right of all. It is the right that Ireland has constantly sought from the British Government over the past half-century of Partition.”
Just two days later a meeting took place between the Irish Minister for External Affairs, Dr Hillery, and the Minister responsible for European Affairs, George Thomson. They took the opportunity to discuss Northern Ireland, but also discussed Mr Blaney’s speech, and the subsequent response from the Irish Taoiseach. The most intriguing part of the conversation went as follows.
Dr Hillery referred to the speech which had been made some days before in Letterkenny by Mr Neil Blaney, Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, and to the statements subsequently made by the Taoiseach and Mr Faulkner of the Northern Ireland Government. Dr Hillery said that, as stated by the Taoiseach, the policy of the Irish Government was not to attempt to use force to re-unify the country; he could confirm that the speech made by the Taoiseach in Tralee represented the policy of the Government. Mt Thomson said that he welcomed this assurance and that he thought that the speech made by Mr Blaney had been “rather silly”. Dr Hillery said that the Irish Government considered that, in matters relating to Northern Ireland, they had a great deal to offer and a right to be consulted. he suggested that the British Government should think more of consulting the Irish Government, who would be very helpful.
I found this fascinating on two levels. One is that there was a thought given to the potential re-unification of Ireland by force from The Republic, and two is that there are some parallels to which we can draw with what is happening in Northern Ireland today. There now seems to be a better relationship between the British and Irish Governments, especially around matters relating to the protocol and governance of Northern Ireland.
On Boxing Day 1969, we saw further bombings south of the border. On this occasion, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) exploded a bomb at the Daniel O'Connell monument at the southern end of O'Connell Street in Dublin. The blast occurred at 4:30 am and the bomb was believed to be comprised of 10 pounds of gelignite and exploded behind one of the four cast-iron angels at the foot of the monument. The bomb caused extensive damage to the bronze statue representing the Winged Victory of Courage, one of the figures at the base of the O’Connell monument. Fragments of the figure were blown onto the street and the blast smashed windows within a half-mile radius. Gardaí, bomb disposal experts and Dublin Fire Brigade inspected the area for damage and any potential threats to public safety. Debris from the explosion was cleared from the street and buildings were boarded up to prevent looting. The UVF subsequently claimed responsibility for this bomb in a statement issued on the 30th of December.
I found some footage of a report on the incident in the RTÉ archives that you can watch here.
Just two days later, another bomb exploded in Dublin. This time it was a car bomb that exploded outside the Garda Síochána central detective bureau in Dublin. At the time, the Gardaí believed that the UVF was responsible and said that the nearby telephone exchange headquarters may have been the target.
December and 1969 finished with a reported split within the IRA. The breakaway group became known as the Provisional IRA and the remaining group became known as the Official IRA. However, the split didn’t become public knowledge on 11 January 1970. We’ll go into more detail on this in January 1970’s edition.
Recommended reading based on research for this instalment of our journey through The Troubles.
Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA by Richard English.
A timely work of major historical importance, examining the whole spectrum of events from the 1916 Easter Rising to the current and ongoing peace process.
‘An essential book … closely-reasoned, formidably intelligent and utterly compelling … required reading across the political spectrum … important and riveting’ Roy Foster, The Times