THE PRESS THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1981. Sympathy for N. Ireland

Press, 7 May 1981, Page 16

THE PRESS THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1981. Sympathy for N. Ireland

After 12 years of violence and more than 2000 deaths the suicide of Mr Bobby Sands in a prison in Northern Ireland should be treated as no more than a side issue to the “Irish Troubles.” Unfortunately, Mr Sands’ colleagues among the terrorists of the Irish Republican Army, and many supporters of Roman Catholic extremist groups in Northern Ireland, will not let the Sands matter rest. Mr Sands is much more use to them dead than alive. Their object, now and perhaps for years, will be to foster the view that Mr Sands was a martyr; they must try to persuade others to forget that he was a convicted terrorist who, unlike the victims of terrorism, had a choice about whether he would live or die. Human compassion for a man so convinced of his cause that he drove himself to death by starvation is not out of place; it also has a very important place in consideration of the victims of .terrorism.

The death of Mr Sands m;<kes no difference to the issues at stake in Northern Ireland, although the pursuit of conflicting political objects may be intensified in a new round of attacks and reprisals. Hunger strikes are being used as a weapon and they are a careful piece of moral blackmail, not achieved without a great deal of dedication to a cause. As an attempt to change British Government policy in Northern Ireland, they are bound to fail unless the British Government is prepared to give up any claim to rule a portion of the United Kingdom, a portion where a clear majority of the population continues to want the association with Britain.

Prisoners who have been convicted of terrorist offences in Northern Ireland are trying to establish a special status for themselves, a status that would, in effect, make them “political prisoners” who were being punished for their political beliefs rather than for criminal acts. The criminal

acts are real enough. Hundreds of people have been killed and maimed as a result of them. For the British Government to concede that murder or robbery in the cause of the unification of Ireland were political offences would be to offer the gunmen a licence to kill. Convicted terrorists cannot be regarded as though they were prisoners of war. To do so would be to imply that a state of war exists between two belligerent States. That, in turn, would be to concede that the I.R.A. and its off-shoots are, in some sense, an alternative government in Northern Ireland. The fundamental point at issue in Northern Ireland is continued British sovereignty over the territory. To concede a special status to I.R.A. gunmen is to admit limits to that sovereignty. > Such concessions would not necessarily reduce the violence in Northern Ireland. Once concessions were made, the I.R.A. would be encouraged to seek others. Concessions to Roman Catholic extremists would also provoke a new outburst of violence from the Protestant majority. Changes sought by the majority of people in Northern Ireland should be conceded, and a fair deal for minorities must be ensured. Neither the minorities nor the majority are being served by terrorism. Appeals for calm from political leaders outside Northern Ireland, and from Mr Sands’ family, are not being heeded. His funeral today is likely to be a tense event. Other hunger strikers may die in the next few days. New names are being added to the grim catalogue of those who have died for their beliefs in Ireland; but a solution to Northern Ireland’s troubles is made more difficult to find as a result. Those who deserve sympathy in Northern Ireland are the living who must still contend each day with the likelihood of new violence.