The La Mon bombing and protests in Maze Prison put a strain on Anglo Irish relations, writes Jonathan Bardon
JUST BEFORE 9pm on Friday, February 17th, 1978 three Provisionals hooked two firebombs on to window security grilles of La Mon House, a large hotel midway between Belfast and Comber. The devices were of a new type attached to gallon tins of petrol. The warning was telephoned too late and the blasts threw sheets of blazing petrol across a crowded function room and sent a fireball through the hotel. Twelve people died and 23 were horribly injured.
A bombastic and pugnacious Barnsley ex-miner, Roy Mason, the secretary of state, was determined to show more vigour in combating the IRA - there would be no more secret conversations with them. Mason's interest in framework talks on a fresh devolved arrangement was distinctly tepid - particularly as unionists continued to demand a restoration of majority rule. He had some sympathy with Airey Neave, the Conservative spokesman, who declared in April 1978 that powersharing was no longer practical politics.
Mason reported to prime minister James Callaghan that "statistically the total casualty figures move downwards". Mason was right. Total deaths, which had been 307 in 1976 had fallen to 116 in 1977 and would drop to 88 at the end of 1978. The revulsion following La Mon gave Mason greater scope to move against militant republicans. Increasing numbers of suspects were being taken to Castlereagh interrogation centre.
Mason believed that the strength of the Provisionals "has waned to the point where they cannot sustain a campaign". His problem, however, was that allegations of ill-treatment at Castlereagh came not only from republicans but also from an Amnesty International report in June which concluded that "maltreatment of suspected terrorists by the RUC has taken place with sufficient frequency to warrant the establishment of a public inquiry".
In private, Mason admitted to Callaghan that "the cross-Border movement of terrorists and supplies continue to present special problems". He was convinced that Jack Lynch's Fianna Fáil government was allowing the Republic to be a safe haven for the IRA.
Michael O'Kennedy, minister for foreign affairs, had drafted his government's policy statement calling for a commitment from Britain to implement "an ordered withdrawal" from Northern Ireland. The taoiseach in an end-of-year interview had said that the solution to the Troubles was the reunification of Ireland. Mason met O'Kennedy in Dublin on May 5th, 1978. He was determined to raise the "ordered withdrawal" question. It was a cantankerous encounter from the start. O'Kennedy decided to strike first. In March Mason had declared that those responsible for La Mon had taken refuge in the Republic.
According to the Northern Ireland record, O'Kennedy "had to say that the Irish government had been very concerned that without any notice at all to them the secretary of state indicated that those responsible for La Mon might have come South".
Mason countered by referring to Lynch's end-of-year interview. "The secretary of state said that that interview had stopped the talks on the framework." "It was not true," OKennedy replied. In response Mason said O'Kennedy "had been misled. It was only necessary to consider what Harry West had said."
West, leader of the Official Unionists, had broken off talks on a possible settlement, giving Lynch's statement on unity as a major reason. The unproductive verbal fencing continued. Mason said that getting the parties to resume talks "would not be helped if there were a further demand for Irish unity from the Irish government". O'Kennedy responded "that Irish unity was the only possible long-term basis for peace. His government were convinced that there could be no real move until the United Kingdom government accepted this and said so."
"There could be no declaration of intent on Irish unity from his government," Mason replied, "Speeches on the goal of Irish unity could bring West and Paisley together by frightening them."
O'Kennedy could not agree: "It was a fact that the Border - partition - had created two sheltered societies; a monolithic Catholic society in the South and an in-built unionist majority in the North."
Mason attempted to convince O'Kennedy that he should persuade the SDLP of the merits of giving serious consideration to his proposals on the restoration of devolution. "If the talks were not resumed and the Conservatives were returned to office," he warned, "they might want a top tier of local government, British-style with majority rule".
The SDLP met in Newcastle, Co Down, between November 5th and 7th. A senior civil servant reported back. "The main motion of the conference was . . . on the inevitability and desirability of British disengagement" which "reflected a growing mood of Irishness and alienation that we did not detect ourselves . . . the fact that the SDLP have upstaged their desire for a long-term British disengagement will make our task no easier".
The SDLP delegates were much concerned by the condition of republican prisoners seeking political status. "Emotion on this issue ran high," Kenneth Bloomfield reported and he noticed that two Fianna Fáil observers "were struck by the intensity of feeling within the SDLP on the issue".
Mason would not yield to the demand of republican prisoners for political status and so the "blanketmen" - those who had refused to wear prison clothes - resorted to a "dirty protest", smearing their excrement over their cell walls. The Catholic Primate, Tomás Ó Fiaich, after a visit to the Maze Prison, said on August 1st that those engaged in the dirty protest were living in "inhuman" conditions which reminded him of a Calcutta slum.
The governor of the Maze Prison reported that "there is a stalemate and that therefore we are in some sense 'losing' . . . there may be a fear that further murders of prison officers could be regarded as a 'victory' for PIRA in their fight for special category".
Indeed, Albert Miles, deputy governor of Belfast Prison, was shot dead by the Provisional IRA on November 26th.
In his Protesting Prisoners Periodical Review, JF Irvine reported: "On 12 April a total of 270 male prisoners had been ordered to lose some 184 years remission . . . They are now refusing to wash, to use the showers, to clean out their cells or to slop out their chamber pots in the ablutions . . . A bin is brought round the wings of the two H Blocks, into which the prisoners empty their pots . . . Some of the prisoners are deliberately emptying their pots so as to cause splashing . . . There seems no doubt that the right course on all grounds - political, presentational, and prison management - is to maintain a firm line on the protest issue."
Mason was certain that the government should not give in: "We cannot make a significant concession without starting on the slippery slope towards political status," he wrote to Callaghan in September.
"I shall continue to give at least as much attention to economic and social matters as to politics and security," Mason continued. "The need is very great: unemployment went over 13 per cent in the July and August figures." He warned the prime minister that "I shall come to my colleagues for more money if I feel I need it in the economic or social field. If direct rule is not seen to be working, we shall be in trouble." Mason had already obtained agreement from his government to provide a state subsidy of £56 million for the De Lorean luxury sports car company in south Belfast.