1972 AD - 1 - January

                                                                                                  "The Republic of Ireland was this year accepted into the "E.E.C. / European Economic Community."  

1972 AD The Republic of Ireland's population 26 Counties had risen to 3,000,000, in which the non - Catholic population had decreased by 24 %, which was mainly due to their "intermarriage" with the Irish Catholics, and the "declining" birth rates, rather than by emigration, and the population in the 6 Counties "artificially partitioned" from the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province was now composed of 1,000,000 non - Catholics and 500,000 Irish Catholics. 

    The clause in the Republic of Ireland Constitution, which gave the Catholic Church a "special position," due to 90% of the population there being Catholic, was "rescinded" to allow for a greater "perspective" throughout the whole of Ireland. 

   The Republic of Ireland was this year accepted into the "E.E.C. / European Economic Community" by an 83% majority vote of the Irish people.

   The Republic of Ireland passed legislation, to further control the "Anti -Treaty I.R.A." from operating out of the Irish Republic into the 6 Counties "artificially" partitioned in Ulster, which were still under the control of the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist Stormont Government and Edward Heath the British Conservative Prime Minister and the Conservative Government in England.   

 January: In the 6 Counties "artificially partitioned" from the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province, still under the control of the British Conservative Government and the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist Government, the British Military Forces were to be "increased" once again from 2,400 Military troops to over 14,000 with 3 British Military Brigades in Belfast in Co. Antrim, Derry and Largan for 4 months at a time.

     A Local Government Act was introduced into these 6 Counties for a Permanent Staff Commission, but "gerrymandering" by the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist Stormont Government, continued to be "blatant," as they had managed to obtain 62 seats once again in the Stormont Parliament, along with 9 to the moderate Unionist Alliance Party, and the Irish Nationalists 25, and in the elections for the Dungannon Council where "one half "of the voters were Irish Catholics, and the other half were Unionists, the Unionists still won 14 seats to the Irish Catholics 7. In the election for the Co. Fermanagh Council 53 % of the voters were Irish Catholics, but the Unionists still won 33 seats, while the Irish Nationalists finished up with 17. Also there were 75 bus drivers employed there, and only 7 were Irish Catholics. In East Co. Down the voters were composed of 50 % Irish Catholics, but the Unionists still won 19 of the seats, while the Irish Nationalists only won 7 again. 

     By this period in time the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist Stormont Government in these 6 Counties in Ulster Province, had managed to intern nearly 600 Irish Catholic men in their "Internment Camps" there using their "Internment without Trial" legislation, where they were controlled by guards, who had been "especially recruited" in England for higher pay and because of the continuing constant "arrests" that were being carried out under this legislation there was great "overcrowding," so the Asccendancy "Official" Unionist Stormont Government, and Edward Heath the Prime Minister of the British Conservative Government decided on opening an "extra" Internment Camp in these 6 Counties in Ulster Province.    

     Meanwhile, the Parker Report was released, into the "cruelty" being carried out by the British Military Security Forces in these 6 Counties in Ulster Province, which was as usual, only a "whitewash," and Lord Gardiner dissented from it and the Crompton Report, stating "The methods used were secret, illegal and not morally justified" and this was to be a great "propaganda" victory especially for the "Anti - Treaty I.R.A." among the Irish Catholic population on whose behalf they had personally suffered, and they now began a "rent and rates strike" also, against "Internment without Trial." A "new" Irish Catholic defence organization, was also set up in these 6 Counties in Ulster Province, to be known as the Catholic Ex - Servicemen's Association, which put it's energies into getting Irish Catholics who were in the "Defence Regiment" in these 6 Counties in Ulster Province, to "resign."

      The N.I.C.R.A. / Civil Rights Association members in these 6 Counties in Ulster Province, had been reinspired to action, by the introduction of "Internment without Trial," and they also came under the influence of the "Official Anti - Treaty I.R.A." through their Republican Clubs, and they continued to carry out their "protest" marches, whenever possible, endeavouring to bring pressure on the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist Stormont Government and the British Conservative Government to bring in further "reform" as the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist Stormont Government had previously "banned" all marching, and the Civil Rights members in these 6 Counties in Ulster Province, were now to be "stopped" by the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist R.U.C. police and "charged" with various offences.

 January 16th: In these 6 Counties "artificially partitioned" from the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province, still under the control of the British Conservative Government and the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist Government, the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist Stormont Government's "new" Internment Camp was set up at Magilligan Point in Co. Derry in the north - east or the Ulster Province, and the "Internment without Trial" prisoners were brought in, who were then being kept at Crumlin Road, Long Kesh, or on board a "prison" ship, the H.M.S. Maidstone, which was moored in Belfast Harbour in Co. Antrim.  

January 22nd: In these 6 Counties "artificially partitioned" from the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province, still under the control of the British Conservative Government and the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist Government, the N.I. C.R. / Civil Rights Association in these 6 Counties in Ulster Province, was now composed of nearly 3,000 anti - "Internment without Trial" people, including Ivan Cooper and John Hume the two political S.D.L. P. / Social Democratic Party M.P.'s, and they were all mostly from the Derry area also in Co. Derry, and they all assembled on the Magilligan Strand, at the approach road to the new British Internment Camp. The British Military Forces brought in their 1st Parachute Regiment known as the Royal Green Jackets, especially from Belfast in Co. Antrim, and the marchers approached 80 of them who were in a group, with another 50 Ascendancy "Official" Unionist R.U.C. police stationed behind the barb wire barrier. A crowd of the "anti - Internment" marchers decided to go out into the water to get around the barb wire, and the British Military Paratroopers opened fire with "gas" guns and "rubber bullets," and many of the protestors there were injured and these further violent actions by the British Military Forces made the Civil Rights people more determined then ever to persist, especially after other British Military Forces "gassed" another group of protestors in Newcastle in Co. Down in the south - east of Ulster Province also. Another incident along similar lines occurred when a group of people were filling in a crater made by the British Military forces on a roadway near the "artificial border," where the British Military Forces also "gassed" 5 members of the Republic of Ireland's Garda Siochana / Irish police and this was then followed by "rioting" in Lurgan in Co. Down with further "gas" attacks being carried out against the population there, and the Civil Rights Association was now determined more then ever to get the people out on the streets to "protest" with the backing of the "Official Anti - Treaty I.R.A."     

      An Ascendancy "Official" Unionist R.U.C. policeman was then "shot dead" in Belfast in Co. Antrim, and another was "captured" by the "Anti - Treaty I.R.A." at Warren Point, and then "released," while "bombs" went off inside the British Military Paratroopers base at Hollywood Barracks, and 2 more Ascendancy "Official" Unionist R.U.C. police were "killed" in Derry in Co. Derry and the most extreme Unionist leaders, then came out stating that 1972, was to be the year that they would be making their stand.  

January 29th - Saturday: In these 6 Counties "artificially partitioned" from the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province, a Civil Right's march was planned from Dungannon to Coalisland, which was to follow the same route as the original Civil Rights Association marchers had previously travelled way back in 1968, after the housing incidents at Caledon, and this time the British Imperial Military Forces blocked the town centre and Bernadette Devlin and nearly 200 people there, who had gathered in a field outside of the town, decided to go overland instead, traversing through another of the 6 Counties "artificially partitioned" from the Ulster Province, in Co. Tyrone for 4 hours. They were followed by the British Imperial Military Forces, who fired "gas" at them via long range "launchers" and also "blocked" their progress at every crossing with their British Military "armoured cars" and by evening, only Austin Currie, Bernadette Devlin and 60 others were left in the Civil Rights group, but they eventually made it to the outskirts of Coalisland and settled down in a brick maker's yard, just as the rain and the snow came pelting down. They were then surrounded by 2 British Military Divisions Forces who had their rifles pointed directly at them, and they were held there until late in the night, until they were finally released by the British Imperial Military and allowed to go on their way, one at a time.      

January 30th: "Bloody Sunday" The Civil Rights Association was now even more determined to peacefully march against the imposition on the population in the 6 Counties "artificially partitioned" from the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province, firstly of the "Internment without Trial," followed by the terrible "interrogation methods" being used on those Internees, and especially the "ban" on their Civil Right's marches, to gain publicity to bring about what should have been "further reform" of their normal Civil Rights, but the disgusting unbelievable horror of this day, that would be carried out by the British Imperial Conservative Military Forces, would be long remembered in these 6 Counties in Ulster Province in Ireland, that were still under their control, and all over the "World" for generations to come. Thousands of Irish people from all the different groups effected there in these 6 Counties intended to come together to rally "peacefully" against the continuing abuses by those in total control of all of their lives, by marching from Bishop's Field in Derry in Co. Derry, through the Irish Catholic Bogside area to the Old Guild Hall.

    The Rev. Ian Paisley, the embittered religious fanatic, had once again condemned the Civil Rights Association march, and told the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist Stormont Government in these 6 Counties in Ulster Province, that if they did not stop the walk, he would be using his group of Democratic Unionists to do so, and because of this Brian Faulkner the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist Prime Minister then extended the "ban" on marches for another year", while on the other hand, Sir William Craig, the other hard - line anti - Catholic "Official" Unionist leader, was against the ban, as he believed it would only "reinforce" the ranks of the "Anti - Treaty I.R.A." John Taylor, another of the extreme hard - line anti - Catholic Ascendancy "Official" Unionists, was now predicting a "Civil War," and 2 of the M.P.s from the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist Party were to be "expelled" for not voting with the "Official" Unionist Stormont Government, on the extension to the marching ban.  

      On this fateful day, now known as "Bloody Sunday," the Defence Regiment, in these 6 Counties in Ulster Province, stopped all vehicles at Templepatrick, nearly 10 miles out of Belfast in Co. Antrim as they were heading west, and carried out internal searches on them, one by one, while the "Anti - Treaty I.R.A." anticipating trouble and immediate searches, (although no police had been game to go into the Catholic Irish Bogside area since the previous July,) removed all their weapons from out of the area. The British Imperial Military Forces commander of the 8th Infantry Brigade in Derry in Co. Derry, called for British Imperial Military reinforcements and he was sent the 1st Battalion of the British Parachute Regiment, who were stationed at Holyrood Barracks just out of Belfast in Co. Antrim in north - east of the Ulster Province.

     The Civil Rights Association marchers, assembled at Creggan at 2.30 p.m., and headed towards the Irish Catholic Bogside area peacefully, with a truck out in front of their procession, carrying Lord Brockway and Bernadette Devlin, followed by a contingent of 200 young boys and girls, and ahead they could see the British Imperial Military's Green  Jackets waiting for them behind their barricades and the truck containing Lord Brockway and Bernadette Devlin, veered off to lead the marchers on a different route to the Free Derry corner, and the main Civil Rights Association marchers followed after them. The 200 youths in the Civil Rights group instead continued on straight ahead towards the British Imperial Military barricades and the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist R.U.C. police, and the British Imperial Military Forces then began firing "rubber bullets" directly at these youths, and also turned their Mercedes water cannon on to them, followed by "gas" and their Military armoured cars. The British Military Paratroopers were then everywhere firing "live" ammunition, and a young boy and an older man who were "shot" immediately fell down on the ground and never moved again, and all up 13 innocent people were to be "killed" there in "cold blood" on this day by sheer bloody "murder," carried out by British Imperialism occupying forces. Another 29 people there were "wounded" by the 105 recorded shots of "live" ammunition fired directly at them by the British Military Paratroopers who also then "arrested" 50 of the other marchers just for good measure. Patrick Doherty was "shot dead," while he was still crawling on his hands and knees trying to assist a young boy in the middle of the street who had also been "shot." and also "killed" in cold blood, by the British Imperial Military Forces were Gerald Donaghy, John Duddy, Hugh Gilmore, Michael Kelly, Michael Mac David, and Kevin Mac Elhinney a 17 year old boy who was at that time crawling towards a doorway for safety, Bernard Mac Guigan was blatantly "shot" directly in the head in cold blood while he was waving a white "handkerchief" as he was trying to assist Patrick Doherty. Gerald Mac Kinney was also "shot" at close range in the chest, by a British Military soldier while he was standing there in front of him with both his hands on his head, William Nash, and James Wray were "shot" while laying face down after previously being "shot" in the back and was then "shot again" at close range by another British Military soldier, as was John Young. (Not one of the British Imperial Paratroopers were injured in any way.) The Coroner, in the City of Derry in Co. Derry, found that all of these "cold blooded killings" against the peaceful Civil Rights Association marchers that was carried out by the British Military Paratroopers were just "sheer murder." The British Widgery Report carried out by Lord Widgery, on behalf of Edward Heath and the British Conservative Government, that was handed down later, was to be nothing but the usual British Government "whitewash." Once again, all of this "bloody mayhem" carried out by the British Imperial Government raised the "profile" of the "Provisional Anti - Treaty IRA / Provos / P.I.R.A " as the only real "protectors" of the population in these 6 Counties in Ulster Province, and they now became the real "Anti - Treaty I.R.A" again, as the Irish Catholic population there now had "nowhere else to turn for protection."

      This terrible Massacre that had been carried out on this day against the "peaceful" Civil Rights Association marchers in these 6 Counties in Ulster Province, on "Bloody Sunday" by the British Imperial Military Forces, so "upset" the general Irish population in the Republic of Ireland, that Jack Lynch the Prime Minister in the Irish Republic declared a day of "mourning" in Ireland and 20,000 people came out and marched in "protest" there, with retaliatory action also occurring there, when the British Imperial Government's Embassy was "burnt" in Dublin, with Jack Lynch so moved by it all as to release all of the "Anti - Treaty I.R.A." prisoners that were being held in the prison at Dundalk in the Republic of Ireland.

     Sir William Craig, the anti - Catholic hard - line Ascendancy "Official" Unionist M.P. in the 6 Counties "artificially partitioned" from the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province, who had been against the ban there, now wanted to "secede" the Irish Catholic areas of the Bogside, Creggan, Newry and Strabane in these 6 Counties in Ulster Province "back" to the Republic of Ireland.  

     John Hume, from the political S.D.L.P / Social Democratic Labour Party M.P., who was a committed peace loving Democrat, now also stated, "It was now a United Ireland or nothing," while Bernadette Devlin was so upset, that she physically assaulted Reginald Maudling, the incompetent British Conservative Home Secretary in the British House of Commons and Edward Kennedy in the U.S.A. publicly "condemned" the terrible killings, and sponsored a resolution calling for, "The end of "Internment without Trial," withdrawal of the British Imperial Military Forces, the "abolition" of the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist Stormont Government, and that an International "Peace Keeping Force" should to be put into these particular 6 Counties in Ulster province.and the Labour Party Opposition in the British Westminster Parliament also came out "against it." 

    N.B: Later on in the "21st Century," Tony Blair would be elected as the Labour Prime Minister of Britain and would instigate a proper inquiry into the Massacre that was "Bloody Sunday," which would finally bring out the actual "truth" of the British Imperial Government's responsibility, for the blatant taking of "random innocent" Irish lives by the British Imperial Military Forces and although it would be 38 years later (June 15, 2010) David Cameron, the then newly - elected British Conservative Prime Minister, would also be forced to make a "public apology" for all of those innocent Irish lives that were taken on that particular occasion on "Bloody Sunday" to their remaining Irish relatives who were still under their control in these particular 6 Counties in Ulster Province.   

     With the continuing reinforced attitude of the British "Conservative" Government under Edward Heath that prevailed at that time, the Ascendancy Unionist Defence Association / U.D.A. feeling further empowered to do as they liked now began a fervent campaign of "further violence" in these 6 Counties in Ulster Province, against the Irish Catholic population there, and a steady "rising toll of murders" were to be carried out there once again against "innocent people," who in no way had any connection with the "Anti - Treaty I.R.A.,"  whose only offense was that they were Irish Catholics still living in this British Imperial sponsored "bigoted ethnic and sectarian part " of their own Country.

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