1974 Pop Goes Northern Ireland

The new method of government in Northern Ireland

is the freely declared choice of the people of Northern Ireland.

And for that reason alone,

it deserves the full support of everyone in Northern Ireland,

even from those who are against this or any other new arrangement.

What you must fully appreciate

is that the people we represent have been stood on,

they've lost time after time in every round of political negotiations

that there has been over the last four to five years.

If Mr Faulkner goes on ahead with power sharing,

the Unionist party refused in the past to take a stand.

They along with the SDLP's hands are red with the blood in this province.

We represent the true principles of Unionism

and we believe that Mr Faulkner has diverged considerably

and I think if Mr Faulkner wins, it's the end of the Unionist party.

The Constitutional Act says that no executive can be formed

except it has widely accepted in the community.

Would you be fool enough to say that this Constitution Act is widely accepted in this community

when it took 40 armoured cars and 1,000 army men and police

to do what they did today?

We think it was an explosive device.

We've called in the army experts

but we've been hampered for some time with dense freezing fog.

I think the most important thing is that there is a unity of policy.

This election is coming at a very, very unfortunate time for Northern Ireland.

It will not be fought on the issues on which it is being fought

throughout other parts of the United Kingdom -

the state of the economy, prices, the miners' strike and all the other issues.

It will be fought here on the choosing of those who were opposed to the Sunningdale Agreement

and at the moment, that agreement hadn't had a chance to be accepted by the Northern Ireland people.

People are still fearful and suspicious and that is why

our opponents are using it as an issue in this election.

Well, this has been a day of tremendous triumph for the Loyalist coalition in Northern Ireland.

The followers of Mr Paisley, Mr Craig and Mr West have swept the board in many of the seats.

They have taken over 50 per cent of the votes already cast.

Of the six seats already declared, they have taken five.

It looks as if we're going to have nine or ten Loyalist MPs

coming to Westminster to make problems for the new Prime Minister.

In the words of one Loyalist to me, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

There hasn't been one detection or one arrest on either of these roads

in the entire history of the Troubles.

Does this kind of thing affect your own personal attitude to the British...?

Of course it does. We resent this very much.

The very fact that they come in there and that I have taken a shovel that they have left in the Republic

means that they have been in the Republic, violating our territorial boundary.

And they have absolutely no respect for us.

That's what you got.

Well, I took it. It wasn't given to me.

That's a souvenir, or...?

Well, it's evidence, anyway, that they were in the Republic, inside our territory.

I've got something to say to Mr Cosgrave,

to Mr Lynch, to Dr Fitzgerald and the rest of the members of the Dail.

You shall not rule over us!

We are saying, "No surrender!" CHEERING

# A child arrived just the other day

# He came to the world in the usual way

# But there were planes to catch and bills to pay

# He learned to walk while I was away

# And he was talking 'fore I knew it, and as he grew

# He'd say, I'm going to be like you, Dad

# You know I'm going to be like you... #

There is a responsibility upon the British government and the security forces

to take every action known to them to deal with this.

But above and beyond it all, I come back to the responsibility on all of us.

Let it be clearly understood - the government is going to continue in business in Northern Ireland.

We're going to work hard to get new industry, to give the shop keepers every assistance they need

to deal with this. We certainly won't be licked by these bloody murderers.

At Old Trafford, Manchester United striker George Best failed to turn up for a training session.

Immediately, rumours have started that Best's turbulent career

with Manchester United has finally come to an end.

But United say they are expecting him

to turn up for training tomorrow.

Have you got room for one more? Aye, you can sit on my knee!

THEY LAUGH

You're all right. Before they started the taxi service,

how often did you use to go by taxi?

We didn't.

Before this? Yes.

It was always bus we went by. You never went by taxi?

No. You didn't get a taxi then for two bob.

Sorry? Sorry? You didn't get a taxi then for two bob.

This must be about the cheapest taxi service in the world.

Aye, definitely.

You can get very cosy in a taxi, can't you? Yes, you can!

THEY LAUGH You can.

Oh, god, you can, can't you?

You can get five of us in a taxi, can't you? Yeah.

# Make the same mistakes, yes, they do... #

The footballer, George Best, has been arrested and charged with

stealing a fur coat from the London flat of the reigning Miss World,

19-year-old Marjorie Wallace.

# Make the same mistakes as me and you... #

Well, what has been asked for is a declaration of intent.

That is that the British government should set a date

by which Britain would have completed disengagement from Ireland.

A date over a period of years

for a planned, a phased and an orderly withdrawal from Ireland.

Late appeals by trade union and church leaders

and by some politicians failed to prevent the strike,

the consequences of which were widespread power cuts.

Some factory workers joined the strike.

Others, at factories unable to generate their own power,

had to be sent home as the power cuts began to take effect.

The people in the factories of Ulster

showed quite clearly yesterday that they didn't want to take part

in this strike. They wanted to be at work. They turned up at work.

Then they were told, "If you don't clear off, your cars will be burned",

for instance, at one factory. There was widespread intimidation.

There was no plan on behalf of the Ulster Workers' Council

for any form of intimidation or indeed for the road blocks that we have seen in the province today.

We feel that in such a situation,

that a group of workers, no matter how honourable their intentions,

cannot really be held responsible for the behaviour of the community at large.

No negotiations with industrial, sectarian action for political purposes.

The barricades that were initially going across were not manned

and we were able to remove those fairly simply and swiftly.

The major barricades that were manned,

we were able to get them dismantled by the locals themselves

without any recourse to violence whatever. How did you negotiate that?

By pointing out that it was to the benefit of both sides

to get the roads open without any recourse to violence.

Successive governments here in Dublin have been worried for some time

that the violence of the north could move south.

There have been bombs here before, but nothing of the scale of yesterday's.

If the Secretary of State decides that the army must attempt to keep

the electricity supply working in Northern Ireland,

we will whole-heartedly carry out that instruction to the best of our ability.

There was a latent sympathy for some of the objectives of the strikers,

if not for their methods.

# The marching band came down along Main Street

# The soldier blues fell in behind... #

# ..Waiting to go and join the line... #

I came to assure our colleagues here, our mates in Northern Ireland on the trade union movements,

that they have the support of the British TUC in the standard they've been taking

throughout the disturbances and at this particular time.

# Billy, don't be a hero... #

# ..Billy, don't be a hero. Come back and make me your wife... #

The people on this side of the water, British parents,

have seen their sons vilified and spat upon and murdered.

British tax payers have seen the taxes they have poured out

almost without regard to cost -

over ?300 million a year now, with the cost of the army operations on top of that -

going into Northern Ireland.

They see property destroyed by evil violence

and are asked to pick up the bill for rebuilding it.

Yet the people who benefit from all this now viciously defy Westminster,

purporting to act as though they were an elected government.

People who spend their lives sponging on Westminster and British democracy

and then systematically assault democratic methods.

Who do these people think they are?

We have therefore offered our resignations

to the Secretary of State and have advised him to explore at once

the possibility of constructing a new administration

on a basis which will command general public confidence.

We have secured the downfall of tyranny.

We have established that the will of the people must prevail.

# Waterloo

# Couldn't escape if I wanted to... #

I tired as no man has ever tried in my political generation

to sell the policies that I believed to be right.

And one of them was all the policies involved in the Sunningdale Agreement.

In no way will we submit to the fascist attitude,

which has been expressed here in the last nine days,

to bring down the Northern Ireland Executive

and indeed which stands for an ascendancy position

of one section of this community over the other.

What we want is simply to have elections.

When those elections are held, then all the elected representatives,

no matter what their colour or creed may be,

should sit down around the table with Dublin excluded and London excluded

and Ulster men themselves should find a way.

Power sharing was the right thing to attempt

and power sharing will, in the end, be the way out of this problem.

If you are not prepared to govern Northern Ireland

like any other part of the United Kingdom,

then let the Ulster people do the job for themselves.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

# ..So we're guilty one and all

# Round the world the truth will echo Cromwell's men are here again

# England's name again is sullied in the eyes of honest men

# Armoured cars and tanks and guns

# Came to take away our sons... #

There's a photograph of a minute child.

He's probably doing it because he's seen everybody else do it.

There's a little girl. She really looks as if she's enjoying it.

She probably is. It's their local cowboys and Indians...

Colonel Mike Thorn, Commander of the Second Anglians.

Again, a charming face.

Doing a very naughty thing, though.

# Knick knack, paddy whack, now you're standing back to back

# Knick knock on the door Bump your baby a little more

# Knick knack, feeling fine... #

Me and Emmet through a stone. It hit the side of the Jeep.

And I threw in the bag, and they shot a rubber bullet

and my mate pulled me down and if he hadn't had pulled me down,

I'd have got it in the head.

What would have happened if you'd been hit in the head?

I don't know. You might have died.

When you throw stones, why do you throw them?

Cos we hate.

SONG: "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us"

Civil war is the last thing we want, because nobody will gain nothing from it.

It's an impossible situation.

The strange thing about the whole thing is,

there's very few outside the working class populations

in Milltown Cemetery or City Cemetery.

MUSIC: "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas

That's right. Have you got anything on the condition of the man?

But it is hard, is it?

He is dead.

Which hospital is it?

About half an hour ago, a report was phoned in here

that two armed men went into a local bakery

and we've had an assassination attempt.

Now, our information at this point in time is

that the man is dead. That is unofficial.

One way or another, we shall confirm that before six o'clock.

Right off the reel, there is a very good, strong story.

An unfortunate story of violence, but this is Ulster.

Studio and George. 24 is yours, George.

Cue him.

Election nominations - 43 will fight...

APPLAUSE

We are facing men who set out - all of them -

supposing that they knew and have discovered that they didn't know.

Have discovered... APPLAUSE

Have discovered that what they attempted and what they forced down the throats of the Ulster people

only ended in failure and shame and in the continuance

and intensification of what they claimed to cure.

# Well, they don't care

# No, no, no, no, so, Come join the revolution... #

# ..It's a teenage rampage

# Turn another page on the teenage rampage now... #

After last night's fires, riots and attempted escapes,

the Maze prisoners, all 1,400 of them,

must be behind tighter security than ever before.

Every road is blocked leading into the area

and virtually everyone is turned away.

MUSIC: "Sad Sweet Dreamer" by Sweet Sensation

# Happy birthday to you

# Happy birthday dear Graeme Trafford Stepney Young James Buchan Holton

# Graham Kidd Morgan Macari Anderson Moore McKittrick

# Happy birthday to you! #

Barry's a friend of mine - Barry Fry, the manager,

and he asked if I fancied a couple of games for them.

I didn't see any reason why not. What kind of training have you done for today's game?

Nothing special. I still train anyway, whether I play or not.

I've had two full-scale practice games last week.

Can we expect to see you back playing regularly for Dunstable?

Well, I don't know. I've only signed for two games.

So, anything after that's got to be discussed.

I feel sorry for anybody that has got to use this method

to achieve their political ends.

All day and through the night,

medical teams at three of the city's main hospitals

have been coping with the injured - nearly 200 of them.

Some of them gravely ill.

I was just standing with about four friends

and there was the flash and the blast, which seemed to,

you know, just go on and on.

And after that, there were just things flying all over the place.

What were you thinking at the time?

I was just thinking, "God, help us."

First, we should deal with this threat in every way we possibly can.

And that's why I announced in the House of Commons this morning

that I shall be making proposals on Monday

for emergency legislation next week.

# And pain was the price you paid... #

What I think is tremendously important is,

this should not be allowed to create a division between the community as a whole

and the very large law abiding community of Irish origin

here in Birmingham and in other cities,

because I know the overwhelming majority of them

hate and deplore what's happened

as much as everybody else does in the county.

MUSIC: "The Air That I Breathe" by The Hollies

These men will all appear tomorrow morning at the Birmingham Magistrate.

The six who are accused of murder after the explosions last week in Birmingham

all appear to have bruises to their faces.

MUSIC: "Lonely This Christmas" by Mud

When there is a genuine cessation of violence,

that people are saying, "We're going to act politically

"and not act politically for a short while and then we will go back to violence",

when I am sure that people are acting politically,

a great deal can happen.

# It'll be lonely this Christmas without you to hold... #

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