Victims of worry

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32902, 28 April 1972, Page 9

Victims of worry

(By

RICHARD NORSWORTH,

N.Z.P.A.-Reuter correspondent)

LONDONDERRY. Behind the barricades of Londonderry, more people • collapse from nervous breakdowns than fall from a bomb or a bullet. Most casualties in the war between the outlawed Irish Republican Army (1.R.A.) and the British troops are the victims of wony and fear. The heavy tension is taking an expanding toll on the health of the 65,000 men, women and children in Northern Ireland’s second largest city where bombs and gun battles are almost daily occurrences. Ironically, it is the noncombatants whose health suffers most from the war-

fare between the militant Provisional I.R.A. and the British troops. “Indeed.” said Dr Donald Macdermott, who has a practice in the Roman Catholic Bogside and Creggan Estate, “the exhilaration of the struggle helps the active ■ fighters stay healthy.” i It is the families of the I fighters and people who live or work in the target areas s who suffer most from neri vous disorders. 1 The streets of Eastman 1 Gardens and Demean Terrace 1 look down across a field on ' to the lone Army installation 1 in the Bogside, which is con- ■ trolled by the provisional • I.R.A. From behind the row l of houses on these two ; streets, gunmen take frequent shots at the sandbagged look-Out posts. The return fire from the soldiers often damages the houses and frightens the residents. Nearly every house along the way has at least one bullet hole in or round it. “I’ve never had nervous trouble before in my life,” said one father of nine. “But last month I had to have an emergency operation foi stomach ulcers.” He said he knew of another friend who died on the operating table during such an operation. Mothers along the street say that their children are suffering and that some are afraid to go to school in case they should get caught in crossfire between I.R.A. gunmen and the British troops. Dr Macdermott says that many children suffer from nightmares and bed-wetting But others, the ones whc daily attack British armouret vehicles with stones ant sometimes petrol bombs, are like their older counterparts unlikely to be affected “They get the tension out o: their systems by attackinf the troops,” says the doctor. Stoning the troops and col lecting the rubber bullet: fired in return has becom<

t a game with gangs of youngs sters, some of them nine or 10 years old. 1 “The children don’t play ■ cowboys and 'lndians any- : more,” said one mother, “it’s , the provos (I.R.A. Pro- : visionals) against the Brit- ! ish. “Other children are not so ; lucky and cannot adjust to > growing up in the armed s camp atmosphere of the Bog- . side or the fortress-like Creggan Estate above it. ( One mother admitted to , giving her young son one of J her own tranquilisers occa- ) sionally. “I have to do it,” . she says. “He’s becoming a 1 nervous wreck.” , Dr Macdermott says that > the use of tranquillisers in . Londonderry has increased . tremendously since the pre- • sent troubles began to inten- ; sify in 1969. s The atmosphere of bombing, shooting, killing and the , constant threat of death has ‘ drastically increased the de- > mand for pills. > “The constant tension pre- > vents many people from t sleeping at night,” says Dr ! Macdermott. “But they are r afraid to take sleeping tablets for fear of not being alert if . trouble breaks out at night.” s Few householders appear J to have escaped the tension in this atmosphere. Parents tell of one or more members J of their families who have ' nightmares and frequently ; wake up screaming. Others " tell of stomach trouble, skin * trouble, headaches and a host ‘ of other complaints. ' The Protestants in London- : derry, one of the few places in die province where they 5 are in the minority, suffer as i well. “The Protestants live in d fear of the Catholics and the ’’ Catholics fear a Protestant [’ backlash,” said Dr Macderf rnott. 8 “And the result of these troubles will be with many s of them for a. long time to e come.”