Seanad Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 2 Feb 1972

Vol. 72 No. 6

Statements on Northern Ireland Situation.

Tomás Ó Maoláin

I feel I express the views of every Member of the House when I suggest it is inopportune for Seanad Éireann to discuss the normal business on its agenda on this day of national mourning.

People throughout the length and breadth of this land are today united in their sorrow at the deaths of defenceless civilians, mown down in a terrible massacre in the Bogside by British paratroopers last Sunday. Out of that has sprung much bitterness, but out of it too has sprung hope, because there has come unity of purpose, such determination among all sections of the people as has not been seen here since the pre-Treaty days of 1921, determination that the time for speech-making is gone, that the time has now come for using every pressure which the Government can use and which the people can use here and throughout the world to get the last vestige of British power out of Ireland. As we had such tremendous unity of purpose and unity among the people for that objective in the years before 1921, so, too, out of these graves we see a new dawn with united effort which will bring to fruition the objective for which so many people in this country have long fought and for which so many people have suffered and died. It would only be right and fitting that Seanad Éireann should join in the national mourning by adjourning, and I now move that we adjourn sine die.

Professor Dooge

Aontaím leis an Seanadóir Ó Maoláin nach chóir dúinn mar Sheanadóirí aon ghnáth-obair a bheith idir lámhaibh againn inniú. Ní chóir dúinn, ach chomh beag, bheith ag caitheamh focal lena chéile lá seo an bhróin. Beidh deis eile againn, amach anseo, an cheist thábhactach seo a phlé go hiomlán, ach níor thógtha orainn é dá bhfhágaimís go fóill tuilleadh díospóireachta.

Our few formal words today should speak only of our horror at the awful events of Sunday last, of our deep sympathy with those immediately affected, of our detestation of the conduct of those responsible, and our sadness at the grievous blow dealt to the fragile hopes for true unity cherished by many men and women of goodwill.

In the short term, the outlook is bleak indeed. In the long term, however, history suggests that the ultimate advantage lies not with those who can inflict most pain but with those who can endure most suffering. If this had not been true in Ireland down through the centuries, we might not be here today as Members of a Parliament of an independent State. If it proves to be true in the future, in Derry and in other parts of the North, then the sorrow and the suffering of today may yet play an important part in bringing justice and peace to all our people.

Mr. J. Fitzgerald

I should like to join with Senator Ó Maoláin and Senator Dooge in an expression of sympathy to the families of those who were so foully murdered in Derry last Sunday. I should like to condemn in the strongest possible manner the British Army and the sectarian regime which was responsible for this awful crime. This is the second occasion in this century that this has happened.

Fifty years ago in this city, when a peaceful crowd were watching a Gaelic football match in Croke Park, the same army—the Black and Tans— went into Croke Park and shot up players and spectators in the same manner as their successors, the paratroopers, murdered 13 defenceless young people in Derry on Sunday last. It is ironic to think that, but for that awful crime on Sunday last, we would at this moment be giving a second reading to the Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill in order to enable us to join the Common Market, because our nearest neighbour and best customer, whose troops shot up the citizens of Derry on Sunday last, are joining that Community. I hope the Irish people will take note.

I should like to commend the action of the Taoiseach in recalling our Ambassador from London. That is supported by all the people of Ireland. It is an act which must bring home to the people and to the Government of Great Britain the seriousness with which the Irish people view the present situation.

I should like to support the leader of my Party, Deputy Corish, in his appeal for a Minister to be appointed who would have full responsibility for the North. As he pointed out in the Dáil, the Department of Foreign Affairs are too preoccupied to give the attention to the North that this terrible situation requires. The Government must do all in their power to muster the support of every friendly nation and organisation to bring pressure to bear on Great Britain to end the Stormont regime and Partition. No money and no effort should be spared. Every nation, even those behind the Iron Curtain, must be contacted at the highest possible level. We must also demand an international inquiry into what happened in Derry on Sunday last, an inquiry in which no Englishman or no Irishman would be a member. We must make every effort to ensure that the perpetrators of last Sunday's crime are exposed to the world for what they are.

The people of this part of Ireland are determined and united, as Senator Ó Maoláin has pointed out, as never before. The Government must lead that united and determined people. They must be seen to support the struggle of the minority in the North in every practical way. I would respectfully suggest here that one of the first things we should do is release all the Republican prisoners who are held in our prisons, because their only crime is that they defended the oppressed minority in the North.

Professor Quinlan

I wish to join with Senator Ó Maoláin, Senator Dooge and Senator Fitzgerald in expressing our deep sympathy. I wish to express, on behalf of the graduates of the National University, our sympathy to the relatives and friends of the 13 men and boys who were so want only killed in Derry on Sunday. We pray the good Lord will give their relatives consolation and comfort in their great sorrow, and that their sacrifice will not be in vain, in that it will, we feel certain, hasten the inevitable day when the unity of our country will be realised.

Today, a day of national mourning, is not a day for oratory or destructive recriminations or incitements to reprisals; rather is it a day for the determined reaffirmation of our national policy of actively seeking a united Ireland by peaceful methods involving the agreement of a majority of the inhabitants of the present Six Counties. On behalf of the graduates of the National University of Ireland, I endorse emphatically the steps taken by the Government involving the recall of our ambassador from London and the despatch of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dr. Hillery, to the United Nations and elsewhere, to bring home to Mr. Heath the ruinous folly of his jackboot political initiatives. I use the adjective "jackboot" advisedly and deliberately, because the longer a real political initiative is delayed, waiting until the defeat of violence by wreaking indiscriminate violence on the national majority, then the more such political initiative will merit the odious adjective of "jackboot" and the less likely it will be to bring a permanent solution.

I welcome Mr. Cosgrave's suggestion that the Taoiseach, Deputy Corish and himself should seek an immediate meeting with Mr. Heath to impress on Britain our national unity and determination to seek an immediate solution by peaceful methods. Further, I would suggest that the three leaders should also meet Mr. Wilson, Mr. Thorpe, Dr. Ramsey, Cardinal Heenan, Mr. Faulkner and Mr. Fitt in order to let them all see our united determination. An all-party committee on Northern affairs has long been an urgent necessity. We await impatiently an announcement by the Taoiseach of its inauguration. I hope we will not have to wait much longer.

Ní gá dom a thuilleadh a rá anois ach comhbhrón chéimithe Ollscol na hÉireann uilig agus mo chomhbhrón féin a chur in iúl do ghaoltá na bhfear agus na buachaillí a cuireadh chun báis i nDoire Cholmchille an Domhnach seo caite. Faoi choimirce Dé agus na Maighdine Muire go raibh siad i bhflaitheas Dé i dteannta na laochra uilig a fuair bás ar son na hÉireann.

The Seanad adjourned at 3.20 p.m. sine die.