The extent of desperation and doomsday planning on Northern Ireland in the Heath government of 1972 are revealed in British Cabinet papers.Joe Carroll reports on documents which throw new light on turbulenttimes.
After three months of direct rule and the suspension of Stormont, the British government in July 1972 was so despairing of the results that it was discussing making Northern Ireland "an independent state within the Commonwealth" and other "extreme measures such as a redistribution of populations" and a redrawing of the Border.
Details of these and other drastic steps are contained in documents marked "Top Secret: UK Eyes Only" now released by the British Public Record Office under the 30-year rule.
The "Independent State" solution was discussed at the Cabinet meeting of July 13th, 1972, following the breakdown of the temporary Provisional IRA ceasefire during which the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mr William Whitelaw, had secretly met an IRA delegation in a minister's apartment in Chelsea.
The Prime Minister, Mr Edward Heath, told the meeting that in case the ceasefire breakdown proved "irrevocable", he had ordered a contingency plan for Northern Ireland to be drawn up by officials. Details of this doomsday situation scenario are revealed for the first time.
Also revealed are the punitive sanctions the British government considered applying against the Republic in the run-up to the decision on direct rule on March 24th if the Taoiseach, Mr Lynch, were to react negatively.
If implemented the sanctions were to be "short, sharp and painful" but the document of March 17th concluded "action on immigration controls seems the only one likely to hurt the Irish without doing even more damage to ourselves".
Other possible sanctions included obligatory identity cards for the estimated 800,000 Irish living in Britain; work permits; trade restrictions; financial penalties such as expelling Ireland from the sterling area, freezing the Irish official reserves of £220 million and no more training of Irish naval cadets or staff courses for army officers.
Under the heading of Hydographic Survey Work which the Royal Navy was carrying out to update charts, it was revealed that "as an exchange for doing this work, the Ministry of Defence are permitted to maintain certain radio stations in the Republic, the government refraining from enquiring too closely into their purpose."
The fact that the existence of these radio stations is now revealed may indicate that they are no longer in operation.
The "Contingency Planning" ordered by Mr Heath in July 1972 was for a scenario where "the security situation in Northern Ireland had deteriorated so far that the government were on the point of losing control of events".
While it excluded a "direct military assault upon extremist-dominated Roman Catholic areas of the Province with the aim of securing a total victory over the IRA coupled with a netural, if not acquiescent, attitude towards the activities of the UDA (Ulster Defence Association)," the plan called for a greatly enlarged British army presence to "swamp all extremist strongholds" and the disarming of licensed guns in the hands of Protestants.
Maps with the secret document show how the existing Border could be redrawn to allow the redistribution and transfer of the Catholic population.
The officials who drew up the astonishing plans for what would be a repartition of Ireland were "extremely doubtful" that they would work and said that such transfers of population would meet "great resistance" and the government must be prepared to be "completely ruthless in the use of force."
"P-Day" would be "Proclamation of a State of Emergency" followed shortly by "R-Day" when the army presence could be boosted by reserves to bring the total from 20 to 47 battalions.
This would mean about 50,000 troops.
Even if up to 300,000 Catholics were moved compulsorily, leading to the setting up of "an avowedly sectarian statelet" in the remaining part of Northern Ireland, the consolidation of Catholics in Belfast "would be likely to create a permanent Catholic armed camp."
In the event, of course, neither the sanctions against the Republic nor the contingency plans for resettling the Catholic population were needed.
Instead, the Taoiseach, Mr Lynch, welcomed the introduction of direct rule and the suspension of Stormont, while the success of "Operation Motorman" by the British Army on July 31st ending the "No Go" areas in Belfast and Derry, meant no more was heard of the government's "contingency plans".
But they were a part of what was the most fraught year of the Northern Ireland troubles which set a record for deaths (467), casualties and explosions.
At times the Heath government was facing the prospect of "virtual civil war" as the IRA stepped up its campaign and the UDA and its off-shoots terrorised the Catholic population by butchering innocent victims caught in the wrong place.