Troubled Ulster
Sir: The majority of your contributors and correspondents indicate by their writing a working knowledge of the situation in Ulster, regardless of their views; but of all the puerile unoriginal contributions usually to be found in progressive republican literature the letter from the sociology students of Sussex beats them all.
Had they spent any time on the streets of Northern Ireland they would understand very quickly that no political formula (solution is the wrong term) has any meaning or is worth a two penny damn whatever it may be whilst there is an endemic anarchy, crime and strife, and so long as that continues. When that ceases, and the machinery of government can operate then the political formula concerned with the operation of government may have some relevance.
Most people have a clear idea as to what government entails, including those whose aim it is to destroy it. In the words of Daniel Defoe "The Reason and End, and for which all Government was at first appointed was to prevent Disorder and Confusion among the People; that is in a few words to prevent Mobs and Rabbles in the world." If Messrs Mannering and Godfrey were chased by a mob of howling students, or witnessed a roaring Northern Irish mob rolling down a street, or had his home twice blown up by people with their own idea of solving a political 'conundrum,' they would have some idea of the relevance of Defoe's dictum and would not take Richard Cecil to task.
If they had any political knowledge of their subject they would not state that the agreements made at Sunningdale have the "majority backing of Ulster" — it just is not true. Why have another three Faulkernite Assembly Members just crossed the floor of the Assembly the day before yesterday? Whatever political arrangerrrnt is proposed it must have the support of a majority or be enforced by a government with only minority backing; it is therefore important to take note of the electorate accurately and reasonably. Meanwhile it is absurd to accuse those who demand an end to non-government as purveying a "military solution". That is a well worn cry which comes very easily from those with a vested interest in disorder, and from the opposite camp — i.e. those responsible for order who need to excuse their failure in their prime duty to restore that order within a reasonable time.
David Pilleau c/o Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall SW1 Sir: In God's name, what are British politicians doing to Ireland? First, they force partition on the country in 1921, thereby at least acknowledging the existence of 'Two Nations' in the island, and now with their totally irrelevant 'Sunningdale Agreement,' they want to renege on the past titty years, and force the Ulster-Scots-lrish nation, by slow degrees, through a weighted and loaded 'Council of Ireland,' into an all Ireland Gaelic Catholic Republic! And all for Mr Heath's and Mr Wilson's joint mess of pottage that is called the EEC, meaning Eat European Cabbage (or bust!)! It stinks, you know, that cabbage, worse than any Irish cabbage (or bacon) ever did.
So, again in God's name, I say if Britain will not stand by those in Ulster who would stand by Britain, and remain with Britain, which is to say all those who want no truck with a Gaelic-Catholic Republic, past, present, or future, then Britain ought in any decent human terms to get out of Ireland, and get out quick! And the only way to stand by the pro-British Ulster people, as it has been all along, is to defeat and disarm and disband both wings of the IRA, Official and Provisional. There was no other way from the beginning; there is no other way now. But neither the Marxist nor the Nationalist IRA can be defeated by an Army operating with its hands tied behind its back, and without a Special Force of Police, native to the Province. Here, with the deepest respect, I must disagree with General Sir Walter Walker, who wrote in the Times (May 17) that the penalty for "slinking away" from Northern Ireland would be to transform the whole of Ulster into a devastated shambles. Even if it were only a choice between a slow slide into a devastated shambles, and a quick one, I would say the quick sharp slide would be infinitely better than what is, happening now.
The point is that any battle between the two wings of the IRA, and of the Protestant Loyalist forces in the UDA and the UVF and the Ulster Vanguard, would in my opinion be quickly over. Unless, of course, the Irish Army of the South intervened. In this case, Britain would have a very clear choice to make, and that would be very good, morally and in every way, for Britain and the British people. The point is that in this confused situation which the Sunningdale Agreement has only intensified the victors all the time are the Marxists and the Nationalists of the IRA. But it is really too late playing the old Imperial ploy of keeping one section to play off against the other, as Mr Mervyn Rees is doing in carrying out his Secretary of State (Sinningdale) game, saying on the one hand that "the people of Ulster will decide, of course they will" and on the other hand denying them the right to do just -that! In fact, as all know, they did decide against Sunningdale at the General Election. To refuse them the conclusion that must be drawn from their rejection is described by one word, fascism, and no other. And Dublin last Friday felt the weight of Mr Rees's and the British Government's refusal. Ewart Milne 46 De Parys Avenue, Bedford
From Major T. Davy, RA
Sir: I refer to the letter from Daniel O'Keefe in the May 18 edition of the Spectator.
Whatever Mr Faulkner's reasons for not enlisting during the 1939-45 War — and he had plenty of other Unionist non-joiners — I am puzzled at the reference to General Jimmy Steele. There was indeed a Jimmy Steele in Belfast at that time. He was however a Commandant-General James Steele — Seamus Steele—of the IRA. He lived in Clondara Street toward the top end of the Falls Road. Why he should be interested in Mr Faulkner's efforts — if indeed he made any — to join the TA defeats me.
Was there a British Army General Jimmy Steele who also was living in N. Ireland during that period?
Tom Davy Thorn How, Egremont, Cumberland
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