Ulster has silent night

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33418, 27 December 1973, Page 9

Ulster has silent night

f.V.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

LONDON, December 26. Christmas night passed peacefully in both London and Northern Ireland, after 48 hours of terrorist bombings on both sides of the Irish Sea had left three people dead and 42 injured.

The only reported casualty yesterday occurred in Belfast, where a woman, aged 63, was shot in the mouth during cross-fire between British troops and terrorists in the Roman Catholic district of New Lodge. London was peaceful for the first day since I.R.A. terrorists launched their hit-and-run blitz nine days ago, but Scotland Yard’s bomb squad of 120 men remain on full alert, their leave cancelled until further notice. The violence continued in Newry and Belfast yesterday

with incendiary bomb attacks on stores and businesses. Fists flew in Belfast when 200 marchers, demanding an end to the internment of suspected terrorists, clashed with troops in the city centre. Two of the demonstrators were arrested.

The march was organised by a Roman Catholic group calling itself the Republican Political Hostages Relief Committee. About 550 Roman Catholics and about 50 Protestants are being held without trial on suspicion of terrorism.