Irish guerrillas killed as Thatcher visits

Press, 30 May 1981, Page 9

Irish guerrillas killed as Thatcher visits

NZPA-Reuter Belfast A British soldier in plain clothes has killed two Irish Republican Army guerrillas and wounded a third in a shoot-out in the Northern Ireland town of Londonderry. The outlawed I.R.A. said later that the soldier was a member of the elite Special Air Services unit. Both the British Army and the I.R.A. confirmed’ the casualties hut gave conflicting details. A British Army spokesman said ; that the soldier had been alone, in plain clothes, and driving a car when he had been stopped by four guerrillas who had opened fire. The soldier had shot two dead with his automatic pistol and had wounded another. The fourth had escaped. The I.R.A. said that its guerrillas had recognised the soldier as an “S.A.S. undercover agent.” Five more S.A.S. . men had quickly appeared in other cars and had joined in the shooting. The S.A.S., the force which

attacked the occupied Iranian Embassy in London last year, had been aiding other British, troops assigned to Northern Ireland.

The shooting incident came as the British Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher, made an unannounced visit to Belfast, her first trip to Northern Ireland ..since the violence provoked by the deaths of four I.R.A. hunger strikers.

Mrs Thatcher was greeted enthusiastically by. Protestant shoppers.but was heckled by Catholics as she walked about Belfast's, heavily guarded city centre soon after her surprise arrival. She later told community leaders at Stormont Castle, which houses the Government's offices, that Britain would not concede political status to the hundreds of jailed I.R.A. guerrillas. She said, “Faced with the failure of their discredited cause, the men of violence have chosen in recent months to play what may

well be their last card. They have turned their violence against themselves through the prison hunger strike to the death.

“It would seem that dead hunger strikers who have extinguished their own lives are of more' use to the Irish Republican Army than living members.”

No official purpose was announced for Mrs Thatcher's one-day visit, but local people assumed that she wanted to boost the morale of the security forces and those opposed ’to the I.R.A. now that rioting over the hunger strikers has begun to wane.

Three Catholic guerrillas in the Maze prison are still on hunger strike. A fourth, suffering from a perforated stomach ulcer, has ended his fast.

The I.R.A. has named a new man to join the hunger strike. He is Martin Hurson, aged 27, of Cappagh, County Tyrone, who will replace Brendan Mclaughlin, who

gave up after only 14 days. Hurson was. sentenced’ in November. 1977. to 20 years jail for causing explosions and for conspiring to kill members of the security forces.

McLaughlin, aged 29, of Greysteel, near Eglington, County Londonderry, started eating again after doctors had warned him that he could die within days from his ulcer.

The deaths of the two guerrillas in Londonderry brought the toll since March 1 to 33, including six British soldiers killed and four Catholics who died after having been hit by British Army anti-riot plastic bullets during the- nightly disturbances in Republican districts.

The over-all death toll in the conflict is 2114, including 17 killed in the violence that erupted after the death on May 5 of Bobby Sands, the first I.R.A. hunger striker to die and a member of the British Parliament.