Thousands march in London to call for peace in Ulster

Press, 29 November 1976, Page 9

Thousands march in London to call for peace in Ulster

NZPA-Reuter

London

Nearly 15,000 marchers, singing “We shall overcome, and “When Irish eyes are smiling,” have staged Britain’s largest demonstration urging an end to violence in Northern Ireland.

The heavily-guarded march, ending in Trafalgar Square, was led by two Belfast women, Mrs Betty Williams and Miss Mairead Corrigan, who two months ago began the peace movement in Belfast.

‘We have lived with violence for seven years, and not one single life was worth it,” Miss Corrigan told the rally.

‘We now say to the people outside northern Ireland, the people of the world, we say look to Northern Ireland and never make our mistakes.”

Many of the marchers on Saturday were from Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic, and Britain, as well as West Germany. Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United States. The aim of the march was cement international support for the peace movement in Ulster and, for many of the marchers, to show the British that numerous Roman Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland abhorred the terrorism.

“We may not win but, by heavens, we’ll give the terrorists a good fight,” said Miss Gloria Kirkwood, a Belfast stenographer, walking through Hyde Park with the demonstrators as marchers sang, “It’s a long road to Tipperary."

She added, “There are bully boys on both sides, gangsters, and the last thing in the world they want is peace and to have Protestants and Catholics working together. Well, that’s what this movement is doing for ordinary people — having us sit down together and work together. We’re sick of the gunmen.” Although the organisers of the peace march had hoped

to gather at least 25,000 people — similar to the emotional rally held two months ago on the Protestant Shankhill Road in Belfast — it was clear that many Roman Catholics and Protestants in Ulster could not afford the £36 round-trip air fare to London, or were uneasy about marching in Britain.

The leaders of the march included Mrs Williams. Miss

Corrigan. Joan Baez, the singer, and the wife of the murdered British Ambassador to Dublin, Mrs Jane Ewart-Biggs. Mrs Ewart-Biggs, speaking in a quavering voice as dusk gathered on chilly Trafalgar Square, said that she now felt permanently linked to the Irish people because, like many of them, she had suf-

fered the loss of a loved one through violence. “I want something constructive to come out of my husband’s destruction,” she said. “I feel a compulsion to turn the sense of waste into something constructive.” The marchers — many carrying white carnations symbolising peace gathered at noon at Hyde Park Corner, and then walked three miles to Trafalgar Square. They included housewives, students, youths from Ireland working in Britain, church leaders, families, and such show business personalities as Diana Rigg, the actress. At the head of the march were contingents from all over Northern Ireland. The movement itself has attracted nearly a million dollars in contributions, two permanent offices, 120 active groups in Ulster, and offers of help from supporters in Europe and the United States. The peace movement has come under strong criticism from the Irish Republican Army, the Rev. lan Paisley, the Protestant extremist, as well as various militant pacifist groups demanding the withdrawal of British troops from Ulster.

One of the groups, the “Troops Out Movement” had a noisy contingent of 100 at the rally that shrieked “Troops out,” during the 90 minutes of songs and speeches. There were 12 arrests.

In Belfast four men were taken to hospital after an explosion early yesterday at the Talk of the Town bar at Newry, County Armagh.

Two men were treated and discharged, but two others were detained, although they were said to be not serious.

The explosion was in an upstairs lounge.