Ulster: One Step Nearer Anarchy

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31975, 30 April 1969, Page 12

Ulster: One Step Nearer Anarchy

The resignation of Captain Terence O’Neill takes Northern Ireland one step nearer civil war and anarchy. Captain O’Neill, who has tried harder than any of his recent predecessors to reconcile Protestants and Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland, has seen his position as leader of the Unionist Party steadily eroded in the last year or so. The waning of his influence was attested by the demand last year, signed by 10 members of Parliament, for his resignation, by his mere 1500 majority over the Rev. lan Paisley in the Bannside electorate in February, and, last week, by the 22 Unionist members of Parliament who opposed the introduction of the one-man, one-vote principle in local government.

Unionists in Parliament and outside have repeatedly ignored Captain O’Neill’s appeals to reason. His proposals for the reform of local government were, in all conscience, mild enough, and their effects sufficiently delayed, to give Protestant tempers ample time to cool. Indeed, had the Unionist Party pushed them through Parliament immediately it is by no means certain that Roman Catholic protests would have been silenced. Now even a partial reform of Northern Ireland's oppressive local government system under Captain O’Neill’s immediate successor seems unlikely. Announcing his resignation, Captain O’Neill said he was convinced that in doing so he might also be serving the cause of reform. The sentiment does more credit to his personal integrity than to his political perceptiveness; a leader who has been forced to resign because of pressure from Right-wing extremists is unlikely to be succeeded by another moderate Ominously, the cable messages reporting Captain O’Neill’s resignation name two Right-wingers as contenders for his office: Mr Brian Faulkner and Major James Chichester-Clark.

Either of these men would regard the reform of local government or any other immediate concession to Roman Catholic aspirations as likely to prejudice his chances of political survival. The stage thus seems set for a trial of strength in Ulster; perhaps only a miracle can avert bloodshed. The United Kingdom Government might be unable to avoid much longer intervening directly in the affairs of Northern Ireland—first to restore law and order; ultimately, perhaps, to enforce the very reforms which Captain O’Neill has been prevented from carrying through. It is a prospect which holds even less appeal in Westminster than in Belfast.