Silent - too Long’ loyalist hypocrisy exposed

three Dunlop children from . mena (whose mother was accidentally sibility for the deaths of civilian victims rests with the Republican forces, Thatcher said so explicitly in a recent speech.

On 23rd August, however, a meeting took place in the Felons Club, New Lodge Road, Belfast of people determined to fight these lies and propaganda. They were relatives of people killed by the British Army, the RUC, the Ulster Defence Association, the Ulster Volunteer Force and other Loyalist terror groups.

The meeting was an emotional one. People told of relatives murdered, often in the most brutal and sadistic fashion, comparable to the victims of government terror in El Salvador. One victim, Frank Rice, was almost decapitated: he was found with his religious medals pulled up through his his throat to hang out his mouth. Other equally brutal stories were told. In the local area alone (including Unity Unity Flats, Dock, New Lodge and ed aw. 6 ee eee ———— — a ee civilians who had no involvement in military groups had been murdered. Upwards of six hundred have been murdered throughout the North. Indeed the worst single bombing incident in the North occurred in and children.

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and the security forces. December 1971 when McGurks Bar in the New Lodge was blown up by loyalists killing fifteen civilians, adults The meeting decided to set up a group called Silent-too-Long with three main 1. To get further meetings of relatives of victims of British forces and loyalists. These are not to include members of Republican military groups. 2. To get the UDA proscribed. 3. To produce a book on the murders for national and international They hope also to demonstrate the collusion that exists between loyalists The new group, if successful, should prove a useful and effective means of countering the British propaganda offensive. In the particular context of the hunger strike campaign, where the security forces collaborated with loyalists in the murder and attempted abroad. murder of H Block activists and where the British army land the RUC have brought death by plastic bullet onto the streets, Silent-too-Long is important because it highlights, in a broader sense, British crime in Ireland and the suffering of the nationalist minority. Anyone wishing to help the group should contact Seamus MacAlorum at 2 Duncairn Parade, Belfast. translated on the streets into carte blanche for the British Army and RUC. The continuing support of the Catholic Church and the SDLP for these sectarian and racist murderers makes their protests ring hollow and the British treat them with contempt. This contempt is underlined by William Whitelaw’s comment that plastic bullets would not be used in Britain because “someone might be killed”. Peoples’ Democracy have consistently called on all organisations in the H-Block/Armagh campaign to organise to defend the campaign. We called for defence after the murders of Miriam Daly, Ronnie Bunting and Noel Little; defence not only of the people supporting and working for the campaign but also of our democratic right to campaign and demonstrate without. persecution.

The siience from the Trade Union leadership over the plastic bullet deaths and banning of H-Block rallies at City Hall in Belfast must not go unchallenged. Neither must the pious hypocrisy of the Catholic Church and SDLP. They must be challenged at every turn and by every means. In every trade union, tenants association, cultural and sporting body at home and A campaign against plastic bullets will not only restrict Britain’s arsenal of terror but supply the H-Block/Armagh movement with another opportunity to split the SDLP and the Church, dragging them off the fence. They must be forced to use their influence with the Southern Government to ensa the withdrawal of the ‘plastic death’ on our streets.

Ji™M MULVENNA