Paisley vows to make Ulster ungovernable

Press, 18 November 1981, Page 1

Paisley vows to make Ulster ungovernable

NZPA-Reuter London The Northern Ireland Protestant leaders, angered by sectarian murders and recent negotiations between the British and Irish Governments, have threatened to make the province ungovernable. . They also said they would set up their own force to combat Irish Republican Army guerrillas unless, security against gunmen' arid’ bombers was tightened by today. The Rev. lan Paisley, the anti-Catholic preacher-turned-politician, told reporters: “We have no other option but to tell the people of Northern Ireland to make it impossible for Mrs Thatcher and her Ministers to govern the province. “No longer are we prepared to allow our people to be murdered and not do something about it. "I asked Mrs Thatcher some months ago to set up a third force. We promised 25.000 to 50,000 men, but she refused,” he said. “This week, we will have to show that a third force has already started.” He said that British Government Ministers would not be welcome outside Stormont, the seat of Government in Belfast. “No council is going to invite them. No mayor is going to wine and dine them. “The I.R.A. has done something that is going to be the turning of the road. I don’t think it ever expected that the Protestant population

were going to react in the way they have.” Mr Paisley made the comments yesterday after being suspended for five days, with two other Northern Irish members of the British Parliament, for disorderly conduct in the House of Commons. The three created an uproar by shouting as tributes were being paid to a , fellow Protestant member, the Rev. Robert Bradford, who was shot dead by I.R.A. gunmen in Belfast on Saturday. At one point the Speaker told the three that if they did not leave at once he would suspend them for the rest of the Parliamentary session. Mr Paisley, who said in a grim warning to Parliament that there could be more empty seats in the House of Commons by Christmas, was returning to Belfast yesterday for his colleague’s funeral. Last evening Mr Paisley took the first stepson his bid to make Northern Ireland “ungovernable.” Mr Paisley met his Democratic Unionist Party local councillors after returning from London and the meeting decided to try to make the province ungovernable through a breakdown in local government. The 100 D.U.P. councillors will refuse to cooperate with civil servants or have anything to do with Ministers. “We will take such actions in the councils that will make it impossible for the

administration of councils to continue,” Mr Paisley said. “If they say, ‘All right, we will sack your councillors and put in commissioners,’ I would say — try it.” The Prime Minister (Mrs Thatcher),, who has agreed to set up a joint council with the Irish Government to study the Northern Ireland problem, appealed yesterday for calm. She urged the province's 900.000 Protestants and 600.000 Catholics not to be provoked into civil war. The'LR.A., which claimed responsibility for Mr Bradford's death, said earlier it was not motivated by sectarian reasons but only the need to end British rule in the province. Mr Paisley said, “Our opposition at the present time is against the Government, not the Roman Catholic population. They have nothing to fear from us ... It would be absolutely wrong for Protestants to take up arms against Catholics.” In Enniskillen, 600 Protestant loyalists, many in combat( uniform ano wearing hoo'ds, paraded through the town on Monday evening in protest against the British Government s policies in the province. None of them appeared armed and police patrols kept watch from a distance. In County Armagh, a man was shot dead and a second injured yesterday. London road blocks, page 8.