Bomb kills four I.R.A. suspects

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32848, 23 February 1972, Page 17

Bomb kills four I.R.A. suspects

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

BELFAST, February 22.

A car and the four men in it, believed to have been Irish Republican Army terrorists on a bombing mission, were blown to pieces in a Protestant district just outside Belfast yesterday.

A British Army spokesman said: “The car was blown to bits, and the men were torn to ribbons. There must have been a very large bomb in the vehicle.”

The blast injured a number of passers-by.

In the chan-ed rubble of the vehicle, soldiers found two pistols.

The blast occurred after other exlosions had caused rush-hour traffic chaos in central Belfast.

In Londonderry, British troops fought against snipers during the night in what the Army described as the worst shooting since “Bloody Sunday.” Widgery Tribunal The Lord Chief Justice of England (Lord Widgery) opened his inquiry into the events of “Blooey Sunday” in Coleraine yesterday. Accompanied by Scotland Yard Special Branch detectives, Lord Widgey had been flown by helicoptar from his undisclosed quarters “somewhere in Ulster’ to Coleraine, which is abcut 25 miles from Londonderry, and is a mainly-Protestant town. • Relatives of the Derry victims contend that because

Lord Widgery was a wartime brigadier in the British Army, his inquiry cannot be impartial. The Lord Chief Justice will hear eye-witnesses of the riot, including journalists, soldiers and a number of Roman Catholic priests.

No ‘whitewash’ Counsel to the tribunal (Mr John Stocker, Q.C.), in an opening statement, said that it would examine the conduct of the British soldiers who fired live ammunition during a riot after an illegal protest march in Londonderry, and that it would also investigate the orders and instructions given to the soldiers, and the circumstances leading to the deaths of 13 demonstrators. It was not for the tribunal to accuse any person, or organisation, or to “whitewash” anyone, Mr Stocker said.

The Army has come in for criticism on three points: that its soldiers had fired at random into streets crowded with people; that they had fired at unarmed civilians;

and that the operation launched by the military, by its very nature, was likely to lead to deaths.

The Army contended that its men had come under fire first, and that when they did fire, they aimed only at what they believed were gunmen or bombers.

Outlining the events that led to the shootings, Mr Stocker said the trouble began when civil rights marchers reached Army barricades on the edge of Londonderry’s Bogside area. Attempts to persuade a hooligan element at the front of the parade to join the other demonstrators at a meeting failed, and rioting broke out.

‘Gunmen fired first’

Counsel for the British Ministry of Defence (Mr Brian Gibbens, Q.C.) submitted that the soldiers had acted in a responsible and disciplined manner. “The troops were doing a difficult task under fire, they did not fire indiscriminately, nor were they carrying out a policy of murder. The gunmen fired first,” he said. Mr Gibbens said that the Army operation that day was aimed at confining the marchers to Londonderry’s Bogside and Creggan areas. An outline Army plan forecast intensified hooliganism, supported by snipers, petrolbombers, nail-bombers, and LR.A. terrorist activity. The Army planned no action until an attempt to breach road-blocks, or violence, occurred. A special arrest force of paratroopers would be launched in “a scoop-dp operation” to apprehend as many rioters and hooligans as possible. Action on the plan was, in the event, delayed for eight minutes to allow the marchers to get clear. “The troops, who fired 103 rounds in 18 minutes, replied with fire only to bombers or gunmen,” Mr Gibbens said. “Some did not return fire because they could not positively identify their targets.” Death mystery

Security forces are looking into the death of a Belfast boy, aged 14, who died on the Republic side of the border. David McCauley, who lived in the Ardoyne area of Belfast, was found to have gunshot wounds when the police examined his body after stopping a hearse at Banbridge, in County Down, Ulster.

It was later established that the boy died in hospital at Dundalk, just across the Irish frontier.

When the hearse was stoped, the body was being taken back to Belfast

But where and how the boy was shot remains a puzzle. A doctor’s certificate produced by the driver of the hearse declared that the lad died from “a non-infectious disease,” on Saturday. Death notices from relatives and friends in a Belfast newspaper today say that the boy died “as a result of an accident.”