The Gazette 1972

Undramatic reception for Scarman in North The Scarnian Tribunal Report, published yesterday, has had an uneventful and undramatic reception in the North. As reaction began to settle last night in Belfast, Derry and the other centres which were the subject of the massive investigation into the riots and distur- bances from March to August 1969 it emerged clearly that the years since those tragic and traumatic events have blunted the impact of the findings. the innocent as well as the guilty, being heavy and indiscriminate in its fire." 5, The failure of police to prevent Protestants burning down Catholic houses in the Conway Street area and in Brookfield Street, Belfast, between August 14th and 16th; 6, The failure to take any effective action to restrain or disperse the Protestant crowds to protect lives and property in the riot areas on August 15th before the arrival of British troops. R.U.C. not a partisan force

As Opposition and Unionist representatives spoke about the report last night, it was clear also that since the report criticises many times the command and beha- viour of the R.U.C. and the now defunct B Specials, there is more to satisfy the Catholic population than there is to comfort Protestants. But politicians on both sides were joined by the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mr. William Whitelaw, in appealing to all in the community not to engage in recrimination over past events. Most politicians, it seems, reading the report now after two and a half years seem to agree on one point : that the community should take from the Scarman findings what lessons it can to prevent a recurrence of the 1969 sectarian violence. The tribunal's report runs to 300 pages and is in two volumes, one being appendices and the index. Among the major findings of the three-man tribunal, which sat for 171 days and heard 422 witnesses in several centres throughout the North, are : that in 1969, contrary to what was at the time claimed by the Unionist Government of the day, there was no "plot to overthrow the Government or to mount an armed insurrection" in the August rioting in Belfast, Derry and Armagh. Mr. Justice Scarman and his two col- leagues, Mr. G. K. G. Lavery and Mr. William Marshall, dismiss claims that the I.R.A. was the organisation behind street violence in Catholic areas. They also reject suggestions that there was organised Protestant violence. Instead they come to the conclusion that the riots were "communal disturbances arising from a complex poli- tical, social and economic situation". On the economic point, the tribunal adds in an appendix that the cost to Northern Ireland can be estimated at something in the region of £3m. The report itself cost nearly £500,000 to produce. R.U.C. faulted Dealing with the police, Scarman has found that there were six occasions on which the R.U.G. were "seriously at fault". These were : 1, A lack of firm direc- tion in handling the disturbances which followed the Apprentice Boys parade in Derry on August 12th; 2, The decision of a county inspector to put B. Specials on the streets of Dungannon on August 13th without disarming them and ensuring that they were com- manded by an experienced police officer; 3, A similar decision in Armagh on August 14th where the tribunal finds B Specials who fired into a crowd killed Mr. John Gallagher and wounded two other men. Of Mr. Galla- gher's death. Scarman says : "After making all allow- ances for the strange, difficult and frightening situation in which they found themselves, there was no justifi- cation for firing into the crowd." 4, The use of Brown- ing machine-guns on police vehicles in Belfast on August 14th and 15th. During their use a nine-year-old boy, Patrick Rooney, was killed by police fire and the tri- bunal have summed up their views on the use of the Brownings as follows : "The weapon was a menace to

But while it faults the police on these occasions and on other points by implication, the report says : "The charge that the R.U.G. was a partisan force cooperating with Protestants to attack Catholics is devoid of sub- stance and we reject it utterly." Mr. Justice Scarman and his colleagues say that the great majority of mem- bers of the R.U.G. "were concerned to do their duty to maintain order on the streets using no more force than was reasonably necessary to suppress rioting and pro- tect life and limb." All the familiar household names on the Northern scene are referred to in the report and the politicians are fully cleared of actively promoting violence. Their speeches, however, are criticised and are regarded by the tribunal as contributory factors in the spread of tension. In this respect, the tribunal says that the speeches of the Rev. Ian Paisley were "fundamentally similar to those of political leaders on the other side of the sectarian divide". And of Miss Bernadette Devlin, M.P. for Mid-Ulster, who served a six-month prison sentence for her part in the Bogside riots, the report says : "Although her parti- cipation was limited, her principal activity being asso- ciated with the building and manning of the Rossvil^ Street barricades in Derry, she must bear a degree responsibility once the disturbances had begun for en- couraging Bogsiders to resist the police with violence- Scarman says that one of the fundamental causes for the failures of the police was that R.U.C. strength was not sufficient to maintain public peace. But in August the then Inspector-General Mr. Anthony Peacocke, acted as thougfi it was. "Had he correctly appreciated the situation before the outbreak of the mid-August disturbance, it is likely that the Apprentice Boys' parade would not have taken place and the police would have been sufficiently reinforced to prevent disorder arising in Derry. Had he correctly appreciated the threat t° Belfast that emerged on August 13th, he could have saved the city the tragedy of the 15th. We have n° doubt that he was well aware of the existence of poe- tical pressures against calling in the Army but tbetf existence constituted no excuse as he himself recognised when in evidence he stoutly and honourably asserted that they did not influence his decision." Insufficient police and soldiers in hot situation Not only does the report point to lack of numbers among the police but it also makes clear that violence continued in Belfast after the British Army moved irl on August 15th because there were not enough soldiers- And in the Clonard area, for example, the report say 5 that the commanding officer did not know the dividing line between Catholic and Protestant ghettos. Ten people died and over 700 were injured during the period covered by the report. Eight of the dea were Catholics. The Irish Times (7th April 1972) 126