Under the Shadow of Martial Law
Bloody Sunday etc.
Letters from Vienna #72
Under the Shadow of Martial Law
A friend of mine recently told me that there are preparations afoot in Australia to impose martial law. The same undoubtedly applies to all “liberal-minded, democratic” countries, including Austria. While some countries have built vast concentration camps to incarcerate dissidents Austria has enough ready-made. The old ones built in the Nazi-era need be merely reactivated.
Many are calling for “sending in the army” to deal with protests but few have given any thought to what this actually means in practice. In Northern Ireland, in 1972, many found out to their cost.
Bloody Sunday
“In January 1972 when Derry’s major shopping areas were threatened with extinction by bombers, a deputation of traders asked Gen. Robert Ford, the Commander of Land Forces in Northern Ireland, to introduce curfews and shooting on sight.”
“…In his memo, Gen. Ford himself recommended that selected rioters should be shot with “less lethal” .22 ammunition. He wrote to Gen. Tuzo: “I am coming to the conclusion that the minimum force necessary to achieve a restoration of law and order is to shoot selected ring leaders amongst the DYH (Derry Young Hooligans), after clear warnings have been issued.”[1]
Lower down the command chain the “selected ring leaders”, “less lethal” and “after clear warnings” part of the order somehow got lost. “Private 027” wrote “in his memoirs that as a 19-year-old soldier in Derry, on the night before Bloody Sunday, a lieutenant told his platoon: “We want some kills tomorrow”.”
According to one eyewitness: “The civil march proceeded down William Street in quite an orderly…gay sort of fashion. They were stopped…by an insurmountable barricade at William Street which they…couldn’t overcome and turned back under barrages of C.S. gas and rubber bullets and entered Rossville Street in their thousands, right up to the door of my house. C.S, gas was being thrown about in large quantities and people were absolutely saturated with it and didn’t know whether they were going or coming for quite a long time.”
“Eventually at about four o’clock, I happened to look down Rossville Street and I saw seven Saracen armoured cars proceeded by a Ferret scout car corning up Rossville Street at about forty miles an hour and firing out over the West area…over on my side of the Glenfarra Park. I thought at the time that it was going to be the usual C.S. gas and rubber bullet attack by the troops which nobody sort-of minded, they had got quite used to that over the years and there probably would have been a few broken bones and that would have been all, the crowd would have been dispersed and that would have been the end of the matter, but it was not to be so.”
“The troops immediately got out of their armoured cars, followed by about a hundred paratroopers, which I recognised from their red berets…They immediately got down into firing positions and fired indiscriminately into the fleeing crowd who were running past my house.”
“…I watched them shooting indiscriminately into a fleeing crowd of several thousand people…and I saw three bodies fall after being shot…”[2]
“John Duddy, 17, was shot in the back and died of his injuries…William Nash was shot in the chest at the rubble barricade and killed. John Young and Michael McDaid ran to help William but were both shot in the face and killed. William Nash’s father, Alexander, ran forward to help his son and was shot, but survived.”
“Michael Kelly, Hugh Gilmore, Kevin McElhinney and Patrick Doherty also were killed by soldiers. Two of them were shot in the back as they attempted to crawl away.”
“James Wray, 22, Gerald McKinney, 35, and William McKinney, 26, were all killed and a number of other civilians were injured. Gerald Donaghy,17, was shot in the stomach and mortally wounded.”
“Across from the Rossville Flats, a man lay injured and was calling out for help. Bernard McGuigan, 41, rushed over to his aid, waving a white handkerchief at the British soldiers; he was immediately shot in the head and killed…”
“After the shooting had stopped, the mortally wounded Ger Donaghy was brought to a nearby house where he was treated by a civilian doctor. He was then put in a car and driven to a nearby hospital. On the way, the car was stopped by a British Military checkpoint, where the driver and other passengers were arrested. The wounded Donaghy was then brought by a soldier to an army first aid post where he was pronounced dead.”
Altogether thirteen unarmed civilians were murdered on what became known as “Bloody Sunday”. This was no isolated incident.
The Ballymurphy Massacre
“Over a 36-hour period between August 9-11 (1971), 11 people – one a priest and another a mother of eight – lay dead in the Ballymurphy area of West Belfast at the hands of the British army’s Parachute Regiment – the same unit that five months later would go on to shoot dead 13 people in Derry during what became known as Bloody Sunday, with another victim dying four months later.”[3]
For many of the soldiers this was merely a form of sport: “Members of his company, 2 Para, ran a sweepstake to see who would be the first to make a kill. Cash was paid into a kitty to be collected by the winning squaddie at the end of the week and spent on a boozy celebration.”[4]
Those affected were scarred for life and are still fighting, fifty years on, for both truth and justice for their loved ones.[5]
The Conway Brothers
The shootings on the part of the army (as well as the disinformation, propaganda and downright lies about what actually occurred) went on unabated: “On 15th April (1972)…Gerry and John Conway were walking to the Falls Road to catch a bus when, at the gates of St. Thomas’ School near the junction of Ballymurphy and Whiterock Roads, a car pulled up in front of them. Three men wearing sweaters jumped from the car and fired automatic pistols at the two brothers who fled up Ballymurphy Road. One of the men pursued them, firing as he went, and succeeded in wounding both of them.”
“An eyewitness observed the man who had carried out the shooting return to his car and speak into a microphone. Two Saracens arrived on the scene and a uniformed soldier conferred with the ‘civilian’ gunman. The Saracens then left the area accompanied by the civilian car.”
“A statement issued from the Army press office claimed that a ‘mobile patrol’ had come under fire from the Whiterock Road and that they had returned fire wounding one man who had dropped his pistol and escaped.”
“Despite the fact that the Conway brothers were treated immediately after the shooting in the Royal Victoria Hospital and made statements to the Association for Legal Justice, which were released to the press, neither of them was ever charged, or even questioned, about the pistol, which the Army claimed was dropped and which would, presumably, have had fingerprint evidence on it.”
“The MRF (Military Reaction Forces) operatives mistook the Conways for two very prominent IRA members, Jim Bryson and Thomas Tolan, who had escaped with five others from the prison ship, HMS Maidstone…”[6]
The catalogue of bungled, nefarious and murderous shootings continued throughout the Troubles and there is strong evidence to suggest that the army managed to gain control of both the Catholic Provisional IRA (which had been formed with the help of the CIA) and the Protestant terrorist forces in the course of the struggle. In fact, the sad thing is that the army had every incentive for escalating and dragging on the conflict.
The army had a role to play, could ask for more money, and individual soldiers could gain combat experience at minimal cost in terms of lives lost. In fact, without the army there probably wouldn’t have been a war to begin with.
It would be wise and prudent for those calling for martial law to think carefully about what this actually means in practice. The consequences are lawlessness, fear and bloodshed on the streets.
[1] https://www.irishtimes.com/news/memo-records-shooting-on-sight-request-1.260899
[2] https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/education/bloodysundaypack.pdf
[3] https://www.irishecho.com/2021/5/relief-and-celebration-after-ballymurphy-verdict
[4] https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/ballymurphy-soldiers-competed-kills-win-cash-prize-inquest-hears
[6] pp. 8-9 https://spinwatch.org/images/Countergangs1971-76.pdf
Your essays are invaluable, MB. Danke schön.