January 11 1975
IRISH film star Richard Harris has hit back at Edward Heath, accusing the opposition leader of trying to slander a plea made by Mr Harris and Irish film producer Kevin McClory for peace, justice and reform in Ireland.
At a news conference at his home on Paradise Island, in the Bahamas, the actor said he was saddened by what he called a prejudiced slur Mr Heath gave in response to the New Year “message of goodwill”.
The full-page message signed by Mr Harris and Mr McClory ran in the “Nassau Tribune” last week while the Opposition Leader was in the islands.
In the message, Mr Harris and Mr McClory demanded an end to internment without trial and also for a free vote by Irishmen to determine their political future. They called on Mr Heath to use his offices and “humanitarian grounds to bring this about”.
At a news conference called at the end of his four-day holiday in the Bahamas, Mr Heath responded to the message by urging “these two gentlemen to ask their friends to stop murdering people”.
In a statement yesterday, the two men said that Northern Ireland’s problem was a political one, created by artificially dividing Ireland in 1922 “against the wishes of the majority of the people of Ireland”. They said it should be remedied by political means.
Neither saw a solution by violence or military means. Both abhorred the use of violence but said Mr Heath was not being impartial when he indicated that terrorism came only from the IRA.
“Terrorism is carried out by all sides involved in the conflict in Ireland – there’s killing, brutal and final, carried out on innocent people by the paramilitary forces and the British Army and there is also internment and interrogation in depth carried out on untried and innocent people”, they said.
Mr Harris said he was appalled by the bombing of the Birmingham pubs. It was “an appalling act and whoever was responsible did an irresponsible and outrageous deed”.
He said the root cause of violence in Ireland is “injustice practiced in many ways”.
“A deliberate policy of discrimination has been enforced in the British-occupied artificial state (Northern Ireland) over 50 years, thereby creating enmity among the population”, Mr Harris said.
The “Message of Goodwill to the Right Honourable Edward Heath” by Richard Harris and Kevin McClory, produced as a full-page advertisement in the Nassau Tribune, while Ted Heath was holidaying in the Bahamas, led to a spat between the three men where Harris’s forthright political views on Northern Ireland came to the fore.
