Republican gunmen lie low after clashes

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32531, 15 February 1971, Page 13

Republican gunmen lie low after clashes

(N.Z. P.A. -Reuter—Copyright)

BELFAST, February 14.

Three days of comparative calm in Northern Ireland have reinforced theories that Irish Republican gunmen took a bigger beating than they admitted in last week-end’s battles with the British Army.

It is widely believed that the guerrilla death toll was higher than the body count. There have been stories of moonlight burials, of secret hospitals, and of dead and wounded gunmen being smuggled across the border into the Irish Republic.

British military authorities believe that the superior firepower of the soldiers devastated the ranks of the gunmen more heavily than was realised. But not even the most optimistic army officer believes he has seen the last of the outlawed Irish Republican Army which is believed to be behind the snipers.

The Northern Ireland Minister of Development (Mr Brian Faulkner), has said that the number of guerrillas in Northern Ireland might run into thousands. SPLIT IN I.R.A.

During the lull, reports are circulating of secret I.R.A. meetings and of new strategies being plotted. Particular interest centres on the split between the militant I.R.A. wing known as “the provisionals, and the more politically orthodox faction called “the regulars.” The killing of five civilians by a road mine intended for soldiers last Tuesday is thought to have weaned sympathy from the provisionals.

The I.R.A. regulars will be certain to make the most of this for their way of achieving the common I.R.A. aim—the union of the Roman Catholic republican south of Ireland with the Protestant, British-controlled north.

One group on the Catholic side is expected to take steps of its own to try to damp down violence. Members of the predominantly Catholic Civil Rights Association are proposing to form flying squads which would rush to outbreaks of trouble and try to calm rioters. TALKS AT CHEQUERS In London, .the British Prime Minister (Mr Heath) has started talks with the object of making Northern Ireland safer. He and several cabinet members met the province’s Prime Minister (Major Chichester-Clark) at Chequers. Observers believe that Major Chichester-Clark wants more troops to be sent to Northern Ireland and the Attack by leopard A leopard which had escaped from its owner, mauled a girl aged nine as she walked home 1 from school at Bry-Sur-Marne, near Paris, on Thursday evening, giving her throat and ear injuries. After the attack, firemen caught the animal and returned it to its owner. The girl was reported to be comfortable in hospital.— Paris, February 14. i

creation of a special Scotland Yard squad to investigates a series of killings believed to have been instigated by the I.R.A.