Refugees flee from Ulster

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32970, 17 July 1972, Page 1

Refugees flee from Ulster

(N.Z.P. A. 'Reuter—Copyright)

BELFAST, July 16.

Many more Ulster Roman Catholics fled south across the border today in the mass exodus to the Irish Republic to escape the violence that has carried Northern Ireland to the brink of civil war.

Three more deaths during the week-end have raised to 32 the number of people killed since the collapse of the I.RA. cease-fire seven days ago, and to 440 the toll of almost three years of political and sectarian violence in the province.

It has been disclosed by the British Army that the I.R.A. is now using American-made rocket-launchers in its fight to prise Northern Ireland from British rule, and the British Secretary of State for Defence (Lord Carrington) has given a warning that Ulster stands closer to all-out war between the troops and the I.R.A. In Dublin, the Prime Minister of the Irish Republic (Mr Lynch) has firmly declared that the LR.A. can expect neither sympathy nor support from the South if it pushes Ulster into civil war. Mr Lynch, who told the Dail that his Government would be ready to take part in four-sided talks with Britain and representatives of the Protestant and Roman Catholic communities in the North, said: “Those who are seeking the country’s unity through violent means are driving the two communities further and further apart, and postponing the date of reconciliation. “If these people who use violence stop to think, they must surely arrive at the same conclusion as any objectively-minded person would arrive at—that they are coldly, calculatingly, and deliberately trying to drive the North into full-scale civil war. “If the violence is pursued to the point of civil strife, the men responsible can expect no support, resources, or sympathy from anyone in the Republic.” , Tearful farewells The refugees streaming out of Belfast today were all women and children. They

said their tearful farewells to their men at Belfast’s main railway station before leaving for the safety of Dublin, from where refugees are usually transferred to special reception centres in hospitals, convents, and schools elsewhere in the country.

Roman Catholics on the western edge of Belfast today threatened to abandon their homes en masse unless British troops withdrew from the Lenadoon estate, the scene of a fierce battle on Thursday night, when about 700 soldiers moved in to relieve a beleaguered Army post which was under rocket fire.

The troops eventually occupied a group of streets on a hillside from which I.R.A, gunmen had poured continuous fire on to the post. It was on the Lenadoon estate that trouble broke out a week ago, resulting in the end of the truce called by the I.R.A. Whitelaw criticised There is likely to be renewed Protestant criticism of British policy in Ulster if it is true that many republicans released from internment have rejoined the I.R.A. gun squads fighting the troops, as is reported. The British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Mr William Whitelaw) has already come under strong fire from militant Protestants in Belfast, and from Rightwing members of his own Conservative Party in London, because of his recent efforts to negotiate with the I.R.A. One of Mr Whitelaw’s moves to reduce the tension in Ulster has been to release gradually the many I.R.A. sympathisers interned without trial. Informed sources in London say that the Government is confident that it can ride

out a revolt among its Parliamentary followers over its policy in Ulster, but that the rebellion may be more serious than the Cabinet will admit.