Further Riots In Belfast; Police ‘May Call On Army9

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30563, 5 October 1964, Page 17

Further Riots In Belfast; Police ‘May Call On Army 9

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) LONDON, October 4. The British Army may be called into action if the vicious rioting which broke out in Belfast, Northern Ireland, last week cannot be quelled, says the “Sunday Times.” The Northern Ireland Prime Minister, Mr Terence O’Neill, has turned down a demand for a full-scale public inquiry into the riots.

A mother of eight and two men were gaoled, and 26 other people remanded in custody in Belfast yesterday. On Friday night police batoncharged rampaging crowds.

The riots broke out in Belfast’s predominantly Roman Catholic Davis street area after police had battered their way into the Republican Party’s headquarters and removed the Irish Republican flag. Gangs roamed the streets raiding and looting shops while armoured cars toured the troubled area. More than 30 rioters were treated in hospitalfor minor injuries. An injured policeman is still seriously ill with a fractured skull. A Belfast police spokesman said: “The situation could worsen nearer polling day, so

we cannot rule out the possibility of having to ask the Army for support.” “The trouble has been almost entirely the work of

undisciplined young hooligans,” the Belfast Police Commissioner (Mr R. Shillington) said last night. The “Sunday Times” cor-

respondent said that only 11 days before the General Election, the city faced the prospect of civil commotion on a scale which could equal the bitter troubles in the early 1930’5.

“What is happening in Belfast now is far from being an isolated constituency disturbance sharpened by bigotry, unemployment and a traditional hatred for the police,” he said. “It needs only one shot to be fired by the perpetually armed police to send the city into even worse turmoil,” The Republican Party wants union of Northern Ireland, now a part of the United Kingdom, with the neighbouring Irish Republic. Many of the Republicans, who are challenging every seat in Northern Ireland during the election, are members of the Sinn Fein (the political wing of the Irish Republican Army) which has been proscribed by the Northern Ireland Government, the correspondent said.