1970 AD - 1 January - May

     In the Republic of Ireland, the population in Co. Leitrim in the north of the Connacht Province, had fallen by 50 %, and in Co. Roscommon by 37% since 1927. The ban on Catholics at Trinity College in Dublin was finally lifted, and it was no longer a bastion of the Ascendancy in Ireland.

1970 In the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, and still under the control of the British Government and the Official Unionist Government, a Police Act was brought in with a new R.U.C police structure, where the Ascendancy Stormont Government's Specials were to be represented by an R.U.C Reserve, and the first policeman to be killed there was to be by Unionist forces. The Crowther Commission held hearings in Belfast in Co. Antrim on the British Constitution, but there was no review of the Special Powers Act. Sabotage was to re - commence.

January 1st: In the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, and still under the control of the British Government and the Official Unionist Government, the Ulster Defence Regiment / U.D.F. also suggested, was being formed, which was originally supposed to be composed of 20% Catholic Irish. Despite this it was actually to be  composed of Unionist ex - members from the B Specials, and their County commanders also became their Regiments' Battalion commanders and to all those looking on it appeared that it was now only getting a name change, with the main change being that it now began operations under British Government control. Andrew Tyrie the U.D.A. commander in the future would encourage his men to join the U.D.R. Early on the U.D.A. under the Ulster Freedom Fighters / U.F.F. would engage the British Military forces, but later on they were to concentrate on killing the Republicans and the Irish Catholics with the result that there would be far more Irish Catholics then non - Catholics killed over time. 

      At this time, John Hume, from Derry in Co. Derry in the north of the Ulster Province, who was to become a major player in trying to bring about peaceful reform, was a school teacher who was to become a founder member of the political Social Democratic Labour Party / S.D.L. Party. Bernadette Devlin, the young student M.P. was now also an M. P. in the Westminster Parliament pushing for further Civil Rights and democratic reform in the 6 Counties in Ulster, still under the control of the British Government and the Official Unionist Government. She was arrested by the Official Unionist Government's RUC police, and as a result riots broke out again in Belfast in Co. Antrim, and another 6 people were to be killed, and the members of the anti - Treaty IRA were now convinced that the British Military forces were now operating on a Shoot to Kill policy. Bernadette Devlin and Gerry Fitt who were both M.P.s in the Westminster Parliament together with several English M.P.s had tried to change the Ulster Defence regiment's constitution and name.  

January 11th: The split that had also occurred in the anti - Treaty IRA ranks also over the recognition of the 3 Parliaments in Dublin, Stormont and Westminster, had by now produced 2 separate individual parties. One of these was the Official IRA that had Marxist - Socialist leanings under their leader, Cathal Goulding, who were for no further physical action on their part for the return of the 6 Counties in Ulster Province to the whole of Ireland. The other party the Provisional IRA / P.I.R.A./ Provos on the other hand, were to take over the role as the actual defenders of the Irish Catholic population in these 6 Counties in Ulster, who were under the leadership of Gerry Adams, Daithi O Connell and Sean Mac Stiofain / John Stephenson, and at this time they were building up the Provisional IRA organization in the north, in anticipation of receiving arms and support from America to do so. Their intention was to make these 6 Counties in Ulster ungovernable, by attacking commercial and military targets, hoping the Official Unionist Government in Stormont would collapse, and the British Government would then find it easier to finally pull out of Ireland altogether, and the result of all of this would be the re - unification of the 32 Counties of the whole of Ireland. Noraid, had also been set up in New York in America, to support the P.I.R.A. / Provos to give further assistance to the Irish Catholic families there in the 6 Counties in Ulster who were constantly effected by the never ending siege mentality there that continually allowed those, who had their own personal agendas, to continue on with the ethnic and sectarian riots.

      The proposed Defence Force / U.D.F. that had by now been set up in the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, who were still under the control of the Official Unionist Government, was to eventually be composed of a 6,000 paramilitary Ascendancy Unionist force. They were also involved with the non - Catholic Freedom Fighters / U.F.F there, who were attacking and killing the Catholic Irish civilians, while also bombing the Irish Catholic schools and institutions there. The violent treatment, they were now handing out to the Irish Catholic population there, generally was based solely on religious bigotry and ethnicity, pushed along by others who had their own agendas, who always took the opportunity to make full use of the entrenched siege mentality that still existed there in the protagonists' minds. Even though the results of all of this continual ethnic and religious conflict was to be catastrophic, it was to unsettle and renew not only the Republican Nationalist spirit in the Irish population there in the 6 Counties in Ulster, but also in the whole of the Republic of Ireland population in the other 26 Counties. Bombing campaigns were begun, and the Official Unionist Stormont Government there offered 1000 pounds reward for any information on who the actual bombers were.    

February 25th: In the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, and still under the control of the British Government and the Official Unionist Government, the Central Housing Authority was set up, which was now supposed to actually represent all of the population living there in the 6 Counties in Ulster, regardless of their ethnicity or religious affiliations. The Rev. Ian Paisley, and William Beattie his new right hand man, who were anti - Catholic hard - liners, were elected to the Stormont Parliament at Belfast because of their extremist views, by their Paisleyite followers and they were installed in the Stormont Parliament on the nominations of another two hard - line Official Unionist leaders in Desmond Boal and William Craig.           

March: In the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, and still under the control of the British Government and the Official Unionist Government, the reward offered by the Official Unionist Stormont Government there for any information on the bombers was now increased to 5,000 pounds.

April 1st:  In the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, and still under the control of the British Government and the Official Unionist Government, the RUC B Special police were disbanded and the Ulster Defence Regiment / U.D.F was now to be instituted as their replacement, which had been based on the premise of assisting the British Military forces there. Although William Craig was against it, they began with 7 Battalions, with one being placed in each of the 6 Counties there, and the other additional one in Belfast in Co. Antrim.  A day is a long time in politics and at Ballymurphy, which had the reputation of being the worst Housing Estate in the British Isles, there was an Irish Catholic majority of tenants, and a hand to hand clash occurred with the youths there. They were mostly unemployed, and were young bucks seeking excitement, which made it hard for the P.I.R.A. / Provisional IRA / Provos as well as the British Military forces to keep control over them. Because of this, the struggle was to finally be between the Irish Catholics there and the British Military forces, after being brought on by the confrontations with the young bucks also among the Orangemen. How it was to all come about, was that the Orangemen were supposed to be holding a march to Bangor, which is situated 10 miles east of Belfast in Co. Antrim on the Belfast Loch, but instead, to create further conflict there, they had decided to continue to march backwards and forwards on the Springfield Road instead, This area separated the Irish Catholic tenants from the non - Catholic tenants at New Barnsley, and they were well aware that this type of taunting could only lead on to further conflict between the 2 opposing groups. The British Government's Military commander sent off a contingent of 70 of his soldiers from the British Scots Guards into Ballymurphy, with the end result that rioting then broke out there, as the individual conflicts between them occurred. The P.I.R.A. / Provo members who were now intending to combine with the various Defence Committees in these areas, to protect the Irish Catholics in Belfast in Co. Antrim, and in Derry in Co. Derry, were not yet ready to take on the much better organized British Military forces, and they also did not want them coming into the Irish Catholic areas upsetting their training schedule. As the rambunctious youths were unstable there the P.I.R.A. / Provos were being blamed for the trouble that these youths alone were causing.           

     In the Irish Republic,  James Kelly had been working in with John Kelly in Belfast in the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, to assist the Catholic Irish population there, to try and secure arms for their defence should they come under any further ethnic or religious attacks, and Jack Lynch the Prime Minister of the Irish Republic was informed again of their plans. This time he was forced to act, and the deal was terminated, and he demanded a resignation from the 2 Cabinet members he believed were involved, namely, Neil Blaney and Charles Haughey, who both refused to resign. Jack Lynch's speech on T.V. was to be then blamed for the riots that followed in Belfast in Co. Antrim.

April 2nd:  In the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, and still under the control of the British Government and the Official Unionist Government, during this evening, a full British Military battalion together with armoured cars covered in barb wire, were sent to the Irish Catholic area of Ballymurphy. They were also fitted with riot shields, S.L.R. rifles, batons, a hand gun each and gas grenades and this now meant that they were showing themselves instead to the Irish Catholic population there as an army of occupation. They were confronted by the Irish Catholics there, and after making a few baton charges they turned to using gas, and this unnecessary action only further served to once again unite the population there, who were now under siege, but the message was received, whatever it was, and the area seemed to then quieten down, until the coming July.

      Because Terence O Neill, the previous Prime Minister of the Official Unionist Stormont Government, was now created an English Peer, and had become a member of the British House of Lords, an election had to be called for his previous Bannside seat in Co. Antrim, one of the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, for the Westminster Parliament. It was then to be won by the Rev. Ian Paisley, the extremist ethnic and religious hard - liner, which only encouraged further his followers among the extreme hard - line Unionists. The moderates among the Unionists, seeing which way the wind was now blowing broke away, and a meeting was conducted in East Belfast in Co. Antrim to form a new political non - denominational, non - sectarian Party, to be known as the Alliance Party, made up of the Unionist middle class, who not only supported the Civil Rights Association reforms, but who also still supported the partition of the 6 Counties in Ulster. Their aim was to contest 45 out of the 52 seats in the Official Unionist dominated Stormont Parliament, but timing is a funny thing as unbeknown to them at this time there were to be no further elections for the Stormont Parliament in the 6 Counties in Ulster in the foreseeable future. Sir Ian Freeland, the British Military General, who was the British Government's Commander - in - Chief in the 6 Counties  artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, issued a warning, that anyone caught making, carrying or throwing petrol bombs in these 6 Counties in Ulster was liable to be shot.  

May 1st: Jack Lynch, the Prime Minister of the Irish Republic, (26 Counties) informed his Fianna Fail Cabinet about the previous arms crisis there, where it had been intended by some parties there to import arms for the use of the defence of the Irish Catholic population in the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, but he did not reveal who he believed was personally involved in the scheme.

May 5th: In the Irish Republic, Liam Cosgrave, who was the leader of the Fine Gael Party who were the Opposition at this time, also became aware of the arms crisis situation and met with Jack Lynch over the matter, who once again demanded the resignation of Neil Blaney and Charles Haughey from his Cabinet, but they also once again refused to resign, so he terminated both of their appointments. This was carried out by Eamonn de Valera who was now the Irish President, and Kevin Boland was also forced to resign, but Charles Haughey continued to defend his innocence, and even put out a, Loyalty Oath to Jack Lynch.   

May:  In the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, and still under the control of the British Government and the Official Unionist Government, General Ian Freeland, the British Commander - in - Chief in the 6 Counties issued another warning, that anyone involved in even watching a riot, or not dispersing immediately, would be subject to arrest.

May 28th: In the Irish Republic, Neil Blaney and Charles Haughey, the two former Irish Republic Fianna Fail Cabinet Ministers, were arrested on a charge of, Conspiracy to import arms into Ireland.

      Harold Wilson, the British Labour Prime Minister, was to soon dismiss the British Parliament at Westminster and hold a British General Election, which was to change the whole scenario once again, for the worse in the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province. A Conservative Tory Government would be once again in control in Britain under Edward Heath who would also need the Conservative Ascendancy vote in the 6 Counties in Ulster, and again pander to their individual Ascendancy agendas leading onto another 4 years of further violence, death and general turmoil.

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