The Irish mess

Sir: Though Mr Kerr (October --ke did not spot the identity of redoubtable 'Mad Mike' (Brigasi Calvert), he surely has a _P°`,..." made months ago by Mr w°")/ throne in the Sunday TelegraP and worth constant repetition. uidi Only ruthless brutality, vh"-t would not be sanctioned 1,11 ; Westminster except by a 01' totalitarian government of the Plon, portrayed on the recent televieLer series 'The Guardians,' could ell, hope to achieve a military solul'h"t, (of the French revolutionary fulness in the Vendee mention by Mr Kerr). It would appear to be his professionalism which makes 13r„; gadier Calvert over-optimistic, ,,,"r a colleague of his at Manche54ie University had an article in Manchester Evening News, S4, gesting that a sharp and but brief, operation could c" with the actual military situationii, But the failure has been P°1'

cal. A power-vacuum was created by the easing of repression (disarming of police; disbanding of B specials). The Wilson/Callaghan team achieved the impossible by securing a welcome for British troops among the traditionally suspicious minority. This good-will has evaporated, without the Unionist working-class being consolidated.

The situation now includes dangerous aspects of Cuba, Algeria, Vietnam and Rhodesia. It is SO complicated that, as the Daily Telegraph has suggested, the Russians if faced with a similar situation at home, would forcibly

transport populations. Tanks, bomber aircraft and hermetically sealed frontiers are expensive in men and materials.

Mr Paisley, whose mother lives In Edinburgh, has himself said that, in the event of majority opinion working against his ideas, he would advise his followers to emigrate.

Meslinga, the Dutch geographer, has put his finger on the vital ' cultural divide '; Scots Irish: Irish:: Scots: English. Even Irish Catholics are affected; there is a considerable psychological difference between a true southerner and a man from Newry.

Mr Kerr rightly points to the danger of the trouble spilling over to his side of the Irish Sea. Already there has been a running light in the streets of Glasgow between the two sides. Already Scots Irish in Scotland have said that they are ready to cross the North Channel to reinforce their own kind if civil war starts.

Over here, trouble could snowball southwards, td the Mersey, the Midlands and London, taking in on the way industrial and Black Power militants and that means civil war here, too.

Nor should the inherited bitterness — largely due to the doctrinaire laissez-faire folly in handling the Irish potato famine — of the Irish Americans be ignored. It is unwise to smear Senator Kennedy as a mere ambitious vote catcher; he is the tip of an iceberg. America also houses UNO which contains many members influenced by Leninist auto-imperialist dogma to interpret the situation entirely In colonialist terms. An interpretation given plausibility by the pressure of the Scots-Irish Colony' however long it is since they moved in.

It only needs the replacement of Mr Lynch by a right-wing republican prime minister for there to be a danger of the Irish armoured cars, withdrawn from Cyprus, being used to engage British troops, straying over some meandering county boundary, a classic ' frontier incident' with international repercussions. As Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell, t.nmself the victim of political incomprehension over Aden, wrote (October 2), the Army has been Placed in an impossible position. Like the French Army and Foreign Legion which fought well ln Indochina and Algeria, the Army iS being made to bear the brunt of the failure of the politicians. For it Is a universally, , recognized sub versive tactic to provoke troops (and police as well) to take stern measures of Intelligence and Se curity in self-defence and the longer the politicians delay, the more the strain on the troops Whose freedom of action is severely limited by their orders.

Delay there is. It is over two months (August 15) since Mr Douglas Brown, in a Sunday Telegraph article, reminded every

one that a Council of Ireland was envisaged when Stormont was set up. Mr Wilson has repeated this idea, though he obscured its paramount importance by launch ing it with a host of other proposals. As this is an official idea, half a century old, any government can accept it without loss of face or fear of appearing to give way to violence. No one anywhere in these Anglo-Celtic islands wants an Anglo-Celtic war for the sake of war. Neither the Scots-Irish nor the Irish are romantic anarchists, for they both believe in the sinfulness of the human race. But, to the dismay of the Left, bath old and 'new,' they do not believe in Economic Man. They are motivated by heroic myths — on one side by the Boyne (which is misunderstood by both Protestants and Catholics) and the ' Glydevalley " gun-runner, and on the other by 1916.

What better place for immediate 'talks about talks' with a view to establishing the long-planned Council of Ireland than the Celtic Isle of Man with its special relation to the Crown?

It is time the English appealed to the imagination of both sides on the Celtic fringe instead of talking down to them in the schoolmasterly fashion which both abhor. George A. Short 5 Scarsdale Road, Manchester From the Rev Robert C. Sinclair Sir; With reference to your issue of October 16, the only solution which will give any basis of hope for those who wish to live in decency with their fellow Christians in Northern Ireland and yet respect the will of the majority is one in which the political ingredient is seen to be as meaningful and humane as the military is seen to be firm and decisive.

Evidence of any long-term thought, or of any thought at all, other than the blind use of force is woefully lacking from the present Westminster government.

It is necessary, they say, to smash the IRA first. A greater Irish protestant than any alive today, Edmund Burke, taught us that: "Necessity is the excuse for every infringement of human liberty . . . it is the plea of the tyrant . . . the creed of the slave. . . ."

The British public have little idea of what is needed in the North. For this, the largely Conservative press must be blamed for deliberately representing the issue solely as one of gunmen versus society. It is not appreciated that in Northern Ireland, after fifty years of virtual self-rule, the position is not one of a few anarchists disturbing the even tenor of life. Instead, the authority of Stormont can only be upheld by 14,000 British troops. The only significant Opposition party has withdrawn from par liament. Many prominent members of the Roman Catholic community have resigned from public office. We have internment without trial.

There are unpleasant allegations of vile torture. (The type of conduct that Britain gallantly fought a world war to cleanse civilization from.) The allegations have been given confirmation by a distinguished Belfast surgeon who served the Crown in Aden. They deserve a better investigation than the hole and corner Compton inquiry.

Westminster has no plan to make the Opposition at Stormont play a constructive role with honour. Instead they must crawl back, humiliated and, in consequence, forfeit their credibility with the minority. Unlss there are Political initiatives, there will be no hope of removing sympathy and support for the gunmen, from the minority. There will be nothing but a hollow military victory and a gaping void of bitterness and hatred instead of a prospect of reconciliation and charity.

Even if it offends the hard-line Unionists. Christianity, that much abused term, demands political action, before the revolting measures of Mr Calvert gain credence. Robert C. Sinclair 79 Antrim Rd, Lisburn, Co Antrim.