In December 1972, the US launched ‘Operation Linebacker II’, its heaviest bombing of North Vietnam, as negotiations to end the Vietnam War collapsed. This scenario is one that people in Northern Ireland can relate to. There had been numerous attempts at peace throughout the year, with the majority failing. Thankfully, we got there in the end.
Whilst December is usually full of festive spirit, hope and joy, in Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland for that matter, it was the opposite; filled with fear and trepidation.
From a political standpoint, December began with a meeting between the Secretary of State, Cardinal Conway and Bishop Philbin at Stormonth Castle on the 5th of December. The objective of the meeting was to discuss the British Government’s wish to devolve powers to a new assembly, to provide the effective participation of the minority and to set up a Council of Ireland (which would include The Republic). However, the most intriguing thing that I found in this meeting was the Cardinal’s wish to discuss the assassinations of Catholics. He made 5 key points;
The total number of Catholics assassinated since the 1st of January 1972 is 77 (at present averaging about 4 per week). The Cardinal said there may be some doubt as to the sectarian nature of a small number of these deaths but there can be no reasonable doubt that the overwhelming majority of the victims were innocent Catholics.
So far there had no official recognition of the existence of this campaign. On the contrary, official statements, until very recently, have tended to obscure the statistics and the clear inferences to be drawn from them.
The result is that British public opinion, and world opinion, are as yet virtually unaware of the existence of this campaign.
He suggested strongly that either the Prime Minister or the Secretary of State should at an early date draw clear and explicit attention to this anti-Catholic campaign.
The location of corpses indicates that it is in the areas in which the troops are very thin on the ground that the victims are murdered or dumped.
He strongly suggested that the number of troops should be considerably augmented and that the “saturation” policy should be extended to many areas outside the Catholic ghettoes.
The Secretary of State then met leaders of the Presbyterian Church the following day. During the meeting, the Secretary of State explained the reasons for holding the current series of discussions.
Present at the meeting was Rev Dr R Lynas. He had said that many people were concerned about the security situation and the breakdown of law and order, whilst also stating that he feared that the new assembly would be nothing like the old Stormont. As a result, people felt that this was the beginning of the end and that if the assembly was to be a watered-down Stormont, then he expected there to be a violent reaction on the Protestant side. He also stated that it would however be difficult to assess the strength of this reaction and the number of people willing to resort to violence.
Rev Dr A Weir was also present. He stated that he thought that the Protestant community were in greater fear about what they saw as excessive appeasement than they were about the task of reconciliation. He felt that concessions had been made exclusively on the Unionist side in Northern Ireland.
Whilst working on this month’s instalment, I stumbled upon notes from one of the Secretary of State’s morning meetings on the 9th of December 1972. It details the Army’s arrest instructions in Northern Ireland. Safe to say, it’s quite an interesting read.
As with most months, there was a meeting held at Stormont on the 11th of December to discuss law and order and to review the current situation in Northern Ireland. The secretary of State William Whitelaw and other key figures were present. The meeting covered the following;
Security review
The GOC and the Chief Constable summarised the incidents, arrests and
finds over the preceding five days.
The exchange of prisoners between Belfast and the Maze Prison had been
carried through without incident.
The joint RUC/Military Police Task Force was building up in strength
and acquiring useful information.
The interrogation of Father Desmond Wilson had been justifiable but was,
in the circumstances, regrettable.
Arising out of a discussion on interrogation procedures Ministry of Home Affairs was to investigate the Army's responsibility for fingerprinting.
Detention of young offenders
The Secretary of State spoke of the concern expressed by Lord Diplock about the frequency of escape of young offenders from approved training schools. Mr Harris said that the problem, which was under examination, was one of
balancing security against education. Lord Windlesham thought however that in present circumstances the educational aspect might be subordinated, at
least insofar as the convention that education could only be given by members
of a certain religious order.
Campaign to discredit the army
The GOC highlighted the main features of his Paper on the 25th of November. The Secretary of State and Lord Windlesham commended the Paper, the former emphasising that the campaign of denigration which had done so much damage in the past to the RUC must not be allowed to develop against the army. Mr McDowall gave some indication of the counter-propaganda measures being undertaken by his department.
Extension of the arrest policy
A discussion was based on the GOC's Paper of the 9th of December. The meeting recognised the difficulty in reconciling on the one hand the need for explicit orders which could be immediately implemented and on the other hand guarding against the dangers of a premature disclosure of intent.
Border Poll
Sir Harold Black indicated that a meeting with the Under Sheriffs and Chief Electoral Officer’s staff had indicated that the 8th of March would be the earliest date on which the Border Poll could be held.
Throughout the remainder of December, the Secretary of State also had meetings with the SDLP, UUP and United Loyalist Council to discuss the ongoing conflict and potential political plans for the future.
On the 20th of December, The Report of the Diplock Committee was published. The Committee had been looking at possible changes to the legal procedures used in cases arising out of the conflict. The report recommended that such cases should be heard by a Judge of the High Court, or a County Court Judge, sitting alone with no jury. These recommendations were included in the 1973 Emergency Powers Act.
Sinn Féin President Ruairi O Bradaigh was arrested in Dublin on the 29th of December and sentenced to six months in the Curragh Military Prison. Arrested under the Offences Against the State Act, he immediately commenced a hunger strike. However, a fortnight later the charges against him were dropped and he was released.
On the 31st of December, Provisional IRA Derry Brigade Commander Martin McGuinness was arrested in County Donegal after police found explosives and thousands of rounds of ammunition in his car. At his court hearing, McGuinness declared his membership of the Provisional IRA without equivocation;
"We have fought against the killing of our people... I am a member of Óglaigh na hÉireann and very, very proud of it"
Shootings in December 1972
02/12/72 - The UDA shot dead Protestant civilian Sandra Meli (26) at her home on Flora Street, East Belfast. Gunmen opened fire through her kitchen window. It is believed her Catholic husband was the intended target.
02/12/72 - Catholic civilian, Patrick Benstead (23), was found shot dead in an entry off Crossley Street, Belfast. The man, described in contemporary reports as "mentally retarded", had been kidnapped, tortured and shot in the head by members of the UDA. A cross had been burnt into his back and the letters "IRA" were carved into his skin.
05/12/72 - Off-duty UDR soldier William Bogle (27), was shot dead by the IRA outside a post office, Main Street, Killeter, near Castlederg, County Tyrone.
06/12/72 - Three soldiers were hurt in a gun attack on their APC in the Ballymurphy district of Belfast.
07/12/72 - Widowed mother of ten, Jean McConville (37), was kidnapped and shot dead by an IRA squad, purportedly for being an informer, although her family denied the claim. Her remains were missing for many years until they were recovered and interred next to her late husband. The IRA denied any involvement in the killing until the 1990s when it issued an acknowledgement and helped to locate the body. An investigation many years later by N.I. Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan found no evidence she had been an informer.
07/12/72 - The UDA shot dead one of its members, Ernest Elliott (28, in the Village area of south Belfast in an internal dispute.
08/12/72 - British soldier John Joesbury (18), died two days after being shot by the IRA while on mobile patrol, Whiterock Road, Ballymurphy, Belfast.
13/12/72 - Off-duty RUC officer James Nixon (49), was shot dead by the IRA outside the Chester Park Hotel, Antrim Road, Belfast.
16/12/72 - IRA volunteer Louis Leonard (26), was shot dead by loyalists at his butcher shop in Derrylin, County Fermanagh.
18/12/72 - Ulster Unionist Party councillor, who was also a member of the Police Authority, William Johnston (48), was kidnapped by the IRA from his home on the Drumarg estate, Armagh. He was found shot dead a short time later at Knockbane, near Middletown, County Armagh.
20/12/72 - Off-duty UDR soldier George Hamilton (28), was shot dead by the IRA at his workplace, a building site, Kildoag, Claudy, County Londonderry.
20/12/72 - The UDA killed Catholic civilian David McAleese (37) in a drive-by shooting on Newtownards Road, Belfast. He was waiting for a lift to the Royal Naval Aircraft Yard, where he worked.
20/12/72 - Catholic civilians Michael McGinley (37), Charles McCafferty (31), Bernard Kelly (26) and Francis McCarron (58), as well as Protestant civilian Charles Moore (31) were killed in a gun attack on the Top of the Hill Bar at Strabane Old Road, Derry. It is believed the UDA was responsible. That night, the Top of the Hill Bar (or Annie's Bar) on the Strabane Old Road was packed with customers watching a football match. The pub was in a small Catholic neighbourhood in the mainly-Protestant Waterside of Derry city. At about 10:30 pm two UDA gunmen burst into the pub, one armed with a Sterling submachine gun and the other a pistol. They indiscriminately sprayed the pub with gunfire. At the time it was the UDA's deadliest attack.
20/12/72 - The UVF killed Catholic civilian Alphonsus McGeown (19) in a drive-by shooting at Clonmore, County Armagh.
21/12/72 - Catholic civilian James Mullan (25), was killed in a drive-by shooting on Clandeboye Road, Bangor. He had been waiting for his regular lift to work. It is thought the Red Hand Commandos were responsible.
24/12/72 - British soldier Colin Harker (23), died three months after being shot by an IRA sniper on Lecky Road, Derry. He was injured on the 14th of September 1972.
27/12/72 - IRA volunteer Eugene Devlin (22), was killed by the British Army during an attempted sniper attack on their patrol, Townsend Street, Strabane, County Tyrone.
28/12/72 - IRA volunteer James McDaid (30), was shot dead by the British Army while walking across a field, Ballyarnet, County Londonderry.
30/12/72 - The UVF shot dead Catholic civilian Hugh Martin (56) in his car near his workplace on Lichfield Avenue, Belfast.
Bombings and rocket attacks in December 1972
01/12/72 - Two people were killed and 127 injured when two car bombs exploded in the centre of Dublin, Republic of Ireland. At 7:58 pm a car bomb detonated in Eden Quay close to Liberty Hall, Dublin. At 8:16 pm the second car bomb exploded in Sackville Place (near O'Connell Street), Dublin. Two men, George Bradshaw (30) and Thomas Duff (23) both CIE bus conductors, were killed in the second explosion. An inadequate warning had been telephoned to the 'Newsletter' (a Belfast-based newspaper) by a man with an English accent a few minutes before the first explosion. No organisation claimed responsibility for the bombings but blame initially fell on the IRA. Much later suspicion fell on the UVF.
At the time of the explosions, the Dáil had been debating the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Bill. The amendment would have given the State much greater powers against the IRA. In particular, it meant that suspected members of paramilitary groups could be sentenced on the word of a senior police officer in front of three judges. Before the explosions, many commentators felt the Bill would fail. However, following the explosions, there was a one-hour adjournment after which Fine Gael abstained in the vote and the amendment was passed. In 1973 two English brothers, Kenneth and Keith Littlejohn claimed, during a robbery trial, that they were British agents who had been ordered to infiltrate the Official IRA. They claimed to have acted as 'agent provocateurs'. Many people in the Republic expressed the suspicion that the bombings had been part of a British covert operation to influence legislation in the Dáil.
05/12/72 - The IRA fired 15 rockets and mortars at security posts throughout Northern Ireland.
06/12/72 - Eleven British soldiers were hurt when their APC was hit by a rocket in the Lower Falls district of Belfast, with one of them losing an arm.
10/12/72 - British soldier Stewart Middlemass (33), was killed by a booby-trapped bomb attached to a rocket launcher by the IRA at Fort Monagh British Army, Turf Lodge, Belfast.
14/12/72 - The UVF exploded a car bomb at Dolan's Bar in Killeter, near Castlederg, County Tyrone, which killed Kathleen Dolan (19), a Catholic civilian.
16/12/72 - A Loyalist bomb exploded at a lock-up garage in Manorcunningham, a village in the Laggan district of East Donegal.
28/12/72 - Loyalists associated with the UVF detonated three bombs in the Republic of Ireland within thirty minutes of each other. A car bomb exploded without warning outside the post office in Belturbet, County Cavan. Teenage civilians Geraldine O'Reilly (15) and Patrick Stanley (16) were killed and eight others were wounded. Another car bomb exploded without warning in Clones, County Monaghan, wounding a further two civilians. The other bomb exploded without warning outside a pub in Mulnagoad, near Pettigo, County Donegal. There were no injuries.
As always, thanks very much for reading this and I hope you enjoyed it enough to come back on Sunday to read the next instalment. Don’t forget to click on the share button below to send it to any of your friends who you think would also enjoy reading my work.
Some recommended reading based on research for this instalment of Tales of The Troubles.