THE Provisional IRA recently tied a 22-year-old mother of three children to railings outside a pub in Derry City and poured paint and feathers over her shaved head. She and the 17-year-old girl who was similarly punished alongside her had admitted to the armed robbery of two shopkeepers who had asked the IRA to intervene.
From the first riots of the Northern troubles, October 5, 1968, violence in Northern Ireland was brought before the eyes of the world by the cameras of press and television journalists. It was the first occasion in Irish history to be fully documented visually. We present here a visual account of these ten years by some of the world's outstanding cameramen.
(See PDF document of this edition for photographs)
Ed Maloney investigates the role of the SAS and of the British Army generally in Northern Ireland as a counter insurgency force
IT seems that the issue of Brian Maguire's death will continue to bother Northern Secretary of State Roy Mason for some time yet. His attempt to speed the inquest into the death of the Castlereagh prissoner was stymied by the family's solicitor, Pascal O'Hare, who requested more time to examine evidence and assemble witnesses.
FIGURES just released by the British Government show that since the abolition of Stormont in 1972 and the imposition of direct rule in the North the number of people working for the state has jumped by nearly 40%. In 1972 just under a quarter of the workkforce held jobs in the public sector but by the end of 1977 one in every three workers, 165,000 in all, were dependent either directly or indirectly on Westminster for their weekly wage packet. As either civil servants, teachers, doctors, or utility workers it's the governnment that feeds their families.
IF the wage claim now being pressed by two hundred teleecomunications engineers in the Belfast area is successful the British government's policy of holding pay increases in the coming year to 5% will, as far as the North's 500,000 workers are concerned, be in tatters.
Vincent Browne interviews a member of the Provisional IRA leadership who has been authorised by the army council to speak on behalf of the movement.
The prisoners, by this time three hundred of them, including Kieron Nugent the first such protester who, if he had not taken a stand, would have been released last September, refused to slop out. When their pots were full, they were allowed to overflow. Or the prisoners would use other receptacles, such as their shoes. The contents were hurled out of windows or poured through the cell spy-holes.
WITH HIS HORN-RIMMED spectacles, toothbrush mousstache and three piece slightlyyout-of-fashion suit he looks like an English bank manager. By CHRIS DOHERTY
Kevin Myers reports on the finances of the Peace People. By Kevin Myers