12 JUNE

WORKHOUSE TURNS AWAY 260 STARVING IRISH FAMINE VICTIMS

[ 12 June 1847 ]

An incident occurred today in 1847 which was typical of many similar during the Irish potato famine which claimed at least a million lives.

BRITISH ARMY URGES TOLERANT APPROACH TO LOYALIST PARAMILITARIES IN ITS RANKS

[ 12 June 1972 ]

On 12 June 1972, the British Military HQ in Northern Ireland urged the Ministry of Defence not to dismiss Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldiers with links to the paramilitary Ulster Defence Association (UDA), despite its known terror links and its involvement in multiple bombings and shootings.  It argued that any such dismissals would

‘lead to men joining a paramilitary organisation such as the UDA as an alternative to the UDR. For these reasons it is felt that it would be counter-productive to discharge a UDR member solely on the grounds that he was a member of the UDA. I am sure the moderate line towards UDA supporters is the right one in the light of the role of the UDA as a safety valve.’¹

As for being a ‘safety valve,’ it is estimated that the UDA, along with the UFF (Ulster Freedom Fighters) which the UDA used regularly as a flag of convenience for its paramilitary operations, was responsible for as many as 400 sectarian murders in Northern Ireland.²

FOOTNOTES

1. Anne Cadwallader, Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, Mercier Press, Cork, 2013, p, 36.
2. ‘UDA confirms guns decommissioned,’ The BBC News, 6 January 2010, accessed online at url http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8442683.stm

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