Thomson, the ambush was extremely professional and successful. It had achieved what it had been set up to do.
* 'It was not a question of people running around the place shooting at each other. It was a controlled action and the only thing that was wrong was in the question of mistaken identity.
'The battalion now unenviable record of collecting the most casualties of any unit during a tour of Northern Ireland since the troubles started more than ten years ago.' Boom, boom! Atkins followed this up by an old, but nonetneles. popular joke among members of his 'Of course the IRA DOC SUI. not beaten yet. We all know that. they can be and we all know that too.
The only thing Humphrey didn't know was how. Never mind, on to the conference itself at which the cast was enlarged to include lan Paisley of the Democratic (a joke in itself) Unionist Party, John Hume of the Democratic and Labour Oliver Napier of the Alliance Party. Napier and Alliance have been figures ot fun in ine Nor or Ireland lol some time, but like coconuts in a fairground every time knocked down the stall-owner goes under the grand title of the Secretary of for Ireland — keeps putting them back on their stand again.
Still, Alliance _for an easy jibe and perhaps the best crack came an participant at the conference who said