On This Day / September 20, 1971

Summary: On This Day – 20th September 1971, opposition representatives announced an alternative assembly as their break with Stormont deepened, while internees were transferred to Long Kesh. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.

No Going Back! | On This Day – 20th September 1971

THE Opposition’s alternative assembly to Stormont will meet for the first time in Derry on October 5. It will coincide with the official opening of Stormont and the third anniversary of the start of the Civil Rights campaign in the North.

MPs and Senators from the SDLP and Nationalist Party yesterday announced outline plans for the new assembly, to be known as the Assembly of the Northern Irish People.

A draft constitution has been prepared. The Assembly will include the SDLP’s six MPs and two Senators and the Nationalists’ four MPs and four Senators and one Independent MP.

Yesterday’s announcement is seen as the Opposition’s final break with Stormont. Coming immediately after Mr Faulkner’s signing of internment orders, it confirms that the prospect of any meaningful dialogue with the Unionist government has been completely ruled out.

Disabled Children Bombed

TWO handicapped Catholic children were taken to hospital last night after youths attacked their coach with petrol bombs in Belfast.

One of them, an eleven year old boy, was detained with burns on his ear and hand, and another boy, aged twelve, was released after treatment for burns to his right ear and right hand.

There were thirty handicapped children in the bus which was taking them from their school in Somerton Road. Three youths stopped the coach in Ainsworth Avenue and threw petrol bombs.

Internees Moved to Long Kesh

INTERNEES from the prison ship Maidstone and Belfast Gaol were transferred by helicopter to a camp at Long Kesh, near Lisburn yesterday amid reports that a new Army-RUC swoop on the lines of August 9-10 operation is being planned.

Only last week the Army claimed that the camp at Long Kesh was being built for their own use. It has been described as ‘a concentration camp’.

IRA Chief Cahill Returns

MR Joe Cahill said on Saturday night in Letterkenny that he had recently been back to the North and had got a ‘terrific reception’.

‘The rotten English oppressors’ must release all the internees and ‘get the hell out of our country. We must ensure that the voice of the people of the North is listened to. No compromise will be accepted. The struggle for freedom continues.’

(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: WITHIN 6 weeks of ‘Internment Day’ it was clear to all, not least the British government, that internment had not only failed to eradicate violence but the accompanying repression and reports of torture had cast the Provisional IRA in the role of minority ‘defenders’.

As nationalist representatives signalled an irreversible break with Stormont, rioting, bombings and brutal sectarian attacks and evictions became the norm. Civil war seemed a real possibility.)

ÉPF editor’s note: in the 1970s the word ‘handicapped’ was common, but it is now viewed negatively by people with disabilities.

On This Day – 20th September 1971

Further Reading on Irish History:

List of other On This Day columns

Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive

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