July 1 1974
The chief whip of the SDLP, Mr Paddy O’Hanlon, and another Assembly member, Mr Frank Feely, have asked the Secretary of State, Mr [Merlyn] Rees, that the officer commanding the British Army in south Armagh re-open the Flagstaff Road which runs across the Louth-Armagh border between Omeath and Newry.
The members stated that the closing of the road was causing severe inconvenience and hardship to the local residents.
“The attitude of the army on the issue is far removed from their attitude during the loyalist workers’ strike,” the statement said.
At the weekend several motorists who used a new temporary road provided by the local people across a field were detained by British troops for several hours.
A British army spokesman said they were determined to keep the road closed because it was suspected of being used for terrorist gun-running and bringing in explosives from the Republic to the north.
To tighten security, the British Army closed and destroyed roads close to the border, severely inconveniencing and curtailing the activities of people who lived close by.
Luther King’s Mother Shot Dead
Mrs Alberta King, mother of assassinated black American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, was shot dead as she played the Lord’s Prayer at a Sunday morning church service in Atlanta, Georgia yesterday.
The 70-year-old was playing the organ in the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where her husband, Martin Luther King Sr, is the Pastor, when a young black man stood up in the congregation and after shouting obscenities, opened fire with two guns.
The Rev Martin Luther King Sr was in the Pastor’s study beside the church at the time, preparing to officiate at the service. His wife and a deacon at the church, Edwards Boykin (69), died after being hit in the fusillade of shots.
A church spokesman said the unidentified gunman was a visitor who had stopped over for the service after attending a Sunday School Bible class earlier.
About 10.50am local time, just after the service had begun, the young man stood up began shouting obscenities and yelled: “I’m tired of this hell.” He then began firing wildly with guns in each hand.