Northern secretary Douglas Hurd faced sharp criticism during a dinner with Catholic priests in the mid-1980s, who roundly condemned the behaviour of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).
Some of the most trenchant criticism during a dinner in Belfast came from Father Hugh Murphy, who was kidnapped by two hooded loyalist paramilitaries in 1978 from his home and told that he would be killed unless a kidnapped RUC officer was released. In a later court case Fr Murphy told the Conservative politician that the judge had “expressed sympathy with the convicted man, a Protestant in the RUC”, but had said nothing to him.
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“It was well known that counsel sought to have their cases heard before particular judges to take account of their biases one way or the other,” an official recorded the priest telling the secretary during the dinner in February 1985.
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“There was general condemnation of the UDR. When patrols came across people they knew to be Catholic they would as a matter of course stop them, get them out of cars and spread-eagle them against walls and otherwise abuse them,” the note records.
Many “reasonable Catholics” judged the UDR in the same light as the loyalist paramilitaries, the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association, or their republican equivalents, the IRA or the Irish National Liberation Army.
Another priest told Hurd that the UDR should simply not be allowed by the British authorities to police Catholic areas or roads leading into Catholic areas, while all UDR patrols should be led by officers, not NCOs, or be accompanied by RUC officers.
Seeking to defend the reputation of the UDR from the criticisms that were then widely shared among nationalists, Hurd said there “were many worthy men in the UDR who, sometimes at considerable personal risks, went about their duties in an even-handed efficient manner”.
