October 22 1974
The British private, nay even the major-general, who carries a field-marshal’s baton in his knapsack, should never plan to advance his career in any part of this island. The Irish problem, as the influential British “New Statesman” observed a long time ago now, in September 1971 just after the introduction of internment, “has been the graveyard of British generals and statesmen”.
British statesmen, the writer noted, had watched the tragedies of Algeria and Vietnam, and had been grateful that Britain had divested herself of empire. Yet on their very doorstep a “similar, blind tragedy” was being enacted, for in Ireland “British pragmatism, the ability to devise empirical solutions to logically insoluble problems” had been “conspicuously absent”, and Ireland, consequently, “has always been the sinister joker in the British pack”.
It is the massive misunderstanding which never fails to astonish and dismay. That, however, is a theme which has engaged the thoughts and words of historians and politicians on an enormous scale. It is only possible at this instant to comment on the immediate manifestation of it.
It is perfectly clear that the Catholic population of these six counties is, at this moment, scandalously unprotected. There are more than 15,000 British troops here, yet in the past two weeks 12 innocent Catholics have been brutally murdered by a sectarian killer squad. There have also been consistent attempts at murder, woundings and terror tactics on Catholic victims from the same source.
Obviously this is not by the wish of the British army. Obviously, too, violence directed against the British army makes hypocritical nonsense of statements which demand army protection and at the same time refer to the army as the enemy of the people.
What is more, IRA violence, emanating from areas in which Catholics live, has invited vicious revenge on completely innocent Catholics from violent men whose sole aim in the past 50 years has been to make life intolerable for their Catholic fellow citizens.
Whatever the army may feel about IRA extremists its first duty is to protect innocent subjects of the United Kingdom from murderous assault. The enemy is any man of violence, whatever his affiliations. An army exists to keep all citizens safe.
