Rioting again in Derry

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33065, 4 November 1972, Page 15

Rioting again in Derry

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) BELFAST, November 3. British troops clashed with rioting Roman Catholic youths in London* derry early today, in one of the worst outbreaks of trouble since the Army seized control of the city’s guerrilla strongholds.

The soldiers fired rubber bullets and tear-gas to quell mobs in the grim streets of municipal housing that form the Creggan Estate, formerly one of Northern Ireland’s most secure strongholds for the Irish Republican Army. The rioting continued for almost two hours after troops had arrested a man carrying a loaded Colt .45 revolver. The incident underlined the fragility of the situation prevailing in Roman Catholic precincts that were barred to troops and policemen until the I.R.A. was forced out by an armoured assault last July. Similar trouble flared in the Ardoyne district of Belfast on Wednesday night, when soldiers moved up in force in a search mission which netted at least four senior I.R.A. district commanders.

In Omagh, County Tyrone, late last night, three armed men planted a bomb which exploded, wrecking a tavern owned by Mr Charles McAlear, the Roman Catholic son-in-law of the Minister of Justice in the Irish Republic (Mr Desmond O’Malley), who has recently talked of bringing charges against I.R.A. members in the South. Mr McAlear’s bar is said to have failed to obey a civil resistance strike called earlier this year. Earlier, guerrillas drove a car up a long driveway to deposit a bomb on the doorstep of one of Northern Ireland’s stately homes, a mansion occupied by Lady Mulholland, the widow of a former Speaker of the provincial Parliament.

Army experts defused the device which, a spokesman said, could have “made a nasty hole” in the rambling Ballyscullion Park mansion.

Elsewhere, two police officers were slightly injured by guerrillas who pumped 12 shots into their patrol car near Moy, County Tyrone; and a bomb badly damaged a hotel in Magherafelt, County Londonderry. DUBLIN INCIDENT In Dublin, the capital of the Irish Republic, traffic in the city centre was halted last night while policemen and troops investigated a report that a car parked outside the city post office contained a bomb.

While they worked, two armed men raided a bar three miles away, and escaped with £lOOO in cash.