Sir, – Michael J Donnelly (December 27th) claims Terence O'Neill, the prime minister of Northern Ireland during the nascent campaign for civil rights in the 1960s, initiated no reforms until after the second civil rights demonstration which took place in Derry on October 5th, 1968.
This is true but there were sinister forces at work at that time which prevented O'Neill from initiating reform. The Irish Times of January 15th, 1965, reported on the visit of taoiseach Sean Lemass to Belfast, who had been invited by O'Neill to Stormont for talks. Both Mr Lemass and O'Neill were confronted by the Rev Ian Paisley and some supporters who rejected any dealings with Dublin.
A further report by Fergus Pyle in The Irish Times of December 12th, 1967, notes taoiseach Jack Lynch, on a visit to Stormont for talks with O'Neill, suffered a similar fate when a mob led the Rev Paisley again denounced O'Neill's attempts at cross-border talks.
Following the formation of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in 1967, O’Neill, prepared to consider mild legislative change, looked favourably on the introduction of more moderate policies which included “one man one vote” for all in local elections. This political accommodation of Catholics was regarded as appeasement to civil rights demands and enraged the virulently anti-Catholic shadowy figures in loyalism.
Calls were made for O’Neill to resign.
Although not yet prepared to fall on his own sword, sinister forces within loyalism were about to apply the final push. If political pressure alone would not force O’Neill to stand aside, then a few strategically placed bombs might, especially if republicans were believed to be responsible.
A decision was taken by a coalition of loyalist organisations to attack Belfast’s electricity and water supplies in an attempt to cause maximum political damage to O’Neill, who would be unlikely to survive the consequences if these bombings were shown to be the work of republicans.
The first target was Castlereagh electricity substation, which was bombed by members of the UVF and the Ulster Protestant Volunteers.
The following day Rev Ian Paisley's newspaper the Protestant Telegraph reported, "This is the first act of sabotage perpetrated by the IRA since the murderous campaign of 1956 . . . the sheer professionalism of the act indicates the work of the well-equipped IRA. This latest act of terrorism is an ominous indication of what lies ahead for Ulster . . . Loyalists must now appreciate the struggle that lies ahead and the supreme sacrifice that will have to be made in order that Ulster will remain Protestant".
Four days later the loyalist co-conspirators changed targets and, confident that the IRA was the primary suspect, bombed Belfast’s main water supply at Dunadry and two weeks later another explosion destroyed the pipeline between the Silent Valley reservoir in the Mourne Mountains and Belfast.
A further four explosions on pipelines carrying water supplies from Lough Neagh to Belfast quickly followed, all reportedly carried out by the IRA.
O’Neill knew he could no longer survive and resigned just days later. O’Neill later said the explosions “blew me out of office”.
The deaths, injuries and appalling suffering inflicted on thousands of innocent people in the following decades could have been prevented if O’Neill had been supported by moderate unionism. – Yours, etc,
TOM COOPER,
Templeogue,
Dublin 16.