think praved for God to take my pipes. I remember being left.
room looked at them, felt them, and eventually smoked them. singing, 'Four Green Fields remembered thinking that martial law had been declared and that they were I had shoot me. given up all hope.
I think then I asked for a priest. I would have liked to have seen my wife and children before i died. AT 4.30am on the morning of 9 August 1971, the British Army raided hundreds of houses throughout the counties of the North of A total of 342 men were arrested in these first swoops. Hundreds of others were to follow. They were held the Special Powers Act, a piece of legislation once envied by a prime minister of racist South Africa.
Those arrested were told that they were to be held without trial in prison camps.
It was not the first time that internment had been inbut it was to prove of greater significance than on any of the previous occasions.
At the time, the parliament of Northern Ireland was Sex stence. headed Unionist Party Prime Minister, Brian Faulkner.
This campaign was led by the Provisional IRA, which declare unate experience of the first two years of the civil rights had Enta ine Ireland was beyond reform that the real 'civil right' which should be fought for was the right of all the Irish people to rule all of Ireland.
raulkner had also to con tend with his own right wing and the rising popularity o Paisley. lali DUlli weTt aemanding inat Faulkner should go more onto the ofRepublican population.
Failure Faulkner decided that the introduction would all these blems: it would answer ira call of his own right wing for more 'action', and it could be used to imprison the leaders of the civil rights movement ane lne IkA The Unionist Prime Minister's faith in internment dated back tr 1956-62 when, as Minister of Home Affairs, he had used it against an IRA callaiel North of Ireland border.
Others in runNorth of were not so sure of the value of internment. General Tuzo, the most senior British Army orticer then serving North of Ireland, was against ou such ooponents wert out-manoeuvred by Faulkner WIIO persuaded Tory minister Reginald Maulding, then responsible for the North back ment.
The Tory government agreed, as much in an attempt to save raukaer rom nis owi right wing than for any other When came to a I casual. vote in parliament the Labour opposition abstained.
on every level the policy was d failure. Kritish inrelligence sources were later to admit that less than a quarter ot inose pickea-up nac. an) connection with the IRA. The interning of civil rights activists. such as 15 members o Peoples Democracy, secretary Northern tion, was proof that Faulkner ponents, not just the 'men of was alic his political the majority of Catholics ir Northern Ireland than that of IN G regime or te unionis party.
Lesson Internment was a savagt lesson for those who lived in the North of Ireland and who voice mer •oooson o e Union with Britain. But the lesson was learnt well, and the resistance which internment was meant to defeat remain ed. In a different form it re mains today the full implications of naopened ony Aueusy I Northern Ireland have not yet been assimilated ALLel all. that a liberal Western democracy can jail political opponents wirnout tal is not sometnin which the population of this country has been taught to ap preciate. happened nevertheless, in the North of Ireland, nine years ago. Anc that's worth remembering The aftermath IN late 1975 internment was brought to an end. I had proved political disaster for Britain and militarily counter. productive.
replaced in ternment was, in civil rights terms, little better.
These were the Diplock courts', so called because of government-sponsorer report written Lord Diplock which recommend.
style of British lIcW "justice'.
the Diplock courts the 'accused' is tried Unlike normal 'trials', hear.
evidence is. permitted abolished The accused, in the case cones on prove such a confession was obtained bi force if s/he wisest emerge detor mally it is up to the police t admission was extracted willingly.
consequence studie have shown thai over 90 per cent of • CONVE tions in the Diplock court based on evidence.
Amnesty International has shown that many of thes UCCH UR tained under torture In fact whole Diplock svstem of 'justice is internment under another name; internment the sense that thi accuseu an convicted and locked away without the ¡democratic Varu justice applying.
Socialist Challenge 14 August 1980 Page 9