ARRESTS IN IRELAND

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28159, 24 December 1956, Page 11

ARRESTS IN IRELAND

I.R.A. Suspects Detained

(Rec. 9 p.m.) BELFAST, Dec. 22. About 32 Irish Republican Army suspects were detained in a round-up by armed police in Northern Ireland during the night, Belfast police reported today. The men were served with internment orders and detained under emergency laws- which grant the police power to arrest and search without warrant.

About eight or nine o. the suspects were arrested in Belfast and will be interned in Belfast prison. The remainder were caught in Tyrone, Fermanagh. Derry and other centres. The detentions came in the first big round-up of I.R.A. suspects since bomb-and-gun attacks on Northern Ireland installations began two weeks ago. The law providing for their arrest was introduced last week-end by the Northern Ireland Government and until yesterday only a few men had been detained. Yesterday, service units began blocking secondary roads in order to stop further raiding parties from crossing from Eire into Northern Ireland. Additional security measures, including powers to impose a curfew on border areas and screen visitors entering North Ireland from outside the United Kingdom, were announced in Belfast last night. Under the new laws, the men can be held indefinitely, without trial. Many more people are expected to be imprisoned before the operation has ended.

Plain clothes detectives visited the men’s homes in all parts of Northern Ire’and. routed them from bed. and rushed them under heavy guard to Belfast prison. The round-up is the largest in history on I.R.A. suspects in Northern Ireland “Some of the 32 suspects may be released after 24 hours.” a Ministry of Home spokesman s-id. “We are examining the background of a iiumber of other people and further detentions can be expected.”