Teen-age gangs in Belfast rampage

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32903, 29 April 1972, Page 15

Teen-age gangs in Belfast rampage

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright?

BELFAST, April 28.

Teen-age Protestant gangs went on the rampage in east Belfast early today, smashing property and setting fire to cars.

At one stage a pitched battle erupted when police charged a crowd of about 600 who were hurling stones and bottles. Lamp-posts were uprooted as the teen-agers —members of the local “tartan gangs”—threw up barricades and started fires in the streets.

A witness said that the trouble began when gangs formed up for a raid on a nearby Roman Catholic district in reprisal for attacks on Protestant homes the night before. Police intervened, but the gangs refused to disperse until soldiers arrived at the scene. There was trouble else-

; where in the city. A 12-year- . old boy and' an 18-year-old youth were seriously woun1 ded by shots fired from a i passing car in a “border . street” dividing militant Protestant and Roman Catholic communities. “Gunmen are going into border areas and shooting , people like this in a deliberate ' attempt to provoke a confron- ! tation between the two sides,” a police spokesman said today. Two bombs were thrown at an Army patrol in a Roman Catholic district and at Lurgan, a few miles outside Belfast, troops dispersed Catholics and Protestants who were stoning each other. No ; injuries were reported. In the far west of the province, the Army said that . Irish Republic border police ■ had complained they were ' fired on from inside Northern 1 Ireland. * ‘This is the first time 1 1 have heard of shots being ] fired into the Irish Republic. 1 The bullets usually fly in the opposite direction," an Army ‘ spokesman added. ‘ These incidents came after 1 a day of political develop- 1 ments in London. The British Government increased its efforts to cool religious tension by lifting a ban on protest marches in Northern Ireland and freeing more men held without trial. The Government also de-

dared an amnesty for all those convicted of taking part in past marches. The amnesty covered Roman Catholic leaders such as Miss Bernadette Devlin and Mr Frank McManus — both members of the British Parliament —who faced sixmonth sentences for taking part in marches. The scrapping of the nomarching law was welcomed by both Ulster Vanguards, the hard-line Protestant group, and the largely Roman Catholic Civil Rights Association.

Those freed today included 11 suspected extremists, reducing to 609 the number still held, and 11 detainees—men awaiting either trial or internment.

Dr Patrick Hillery, the Irish Republic External Affairs Minister, made a surprise visit to London and had a 40-minute discussion with the Foreign Secretary (Sir Alec Douglas-Home) on British plans for the province. The visit, arranged at Dr Hillery’s request, was seen as a sign of improving relations between the two Governments.