May 17 1974
Belfast was “ordered off the drink” last night by the Ulster Workers’ Council, sponsors of the strike which now has a stranglehold on industry throughout Northern Ireland.
The UWC called on its supporters to stop drinking and gave instructions for all pubs, hotel bars and drinking clubs to close.
The call led to a closedown in the Shankill and other loyalist areas in Belfast, but bars in Catholic districts reported a brisk trade throughout the evening.
The Council also ordered bookmakers to shut down for the duration of the strike. Both moves were said to have been prompted by pressure from strikers’ wives.
Earlier yesterday, dozens of them protested in the Shankill and Newtownards Road districts of Belfast. They said their husbands were losing pay in the strike and should not be spending what they had left on drink. They also argued that it was not right to exempt pubs from the strike as they were not “essential services”.
As electricity cuts paralysed the North, thousands of workers stayed away from factories and roadblocks sprang up all over Belfast to stop others getting to work.
Production was at a standstill in most areas, despite an urgent appeal from the Northern Economic Council for an immediate return to work.
The Council also stressed that political concessions must not be made in the face of intimidation or duress.
And a warning was given that the authorities were prepared to remove barricades set up to prevent people going to work.
The statement said: “The Council is not concerned with the politics of the situation, save to say that political concessions must not be made to intimidation or duress. We simply state that if Ulster people want to protect their livelihood they will now return to work.”
The strike is in support of a demand for fresh Assembly elections aimed at scrapping the Sunningdale Agreement.
But last night there was no sign of a breakthrough in the crisis. Everything now rests on a crucial “make-or-break” meeting expected to-day between top loyalist leaders and the Secretary of State Mr Merlyn Rees.
Prospects do not look good. Indeed, strike leaders are threatening to step up the protest unless their demands are met. But Stormont sources have made it clear that the government will not be browbeaten into surrender.