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Undramatic reception for Scarman in North
The Scarnian Tribunal Report, published yesterday, has
had an uneventful and undramatic reception in the
North. As reaction began to settle last night in Belfast,
Derry and the other centres which were the subject of
the massive investigation into the riots and distur-
bances from March to August 1969 it emerged clearly
that the years since those tragic and traumatic events
have blunted the impact of the findings.
As Opposition and Unionist representatives spoke
about the report last night, it was clear also that since
the report criticises many times the command and beha-
viour of the R.U.C. and the now defunct B Specials,
there is more to satisfy the Catholic population than
there is to comfort Protestants.
But politicians on both sides were joined by the new
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mr. William
Whitelaw, in appealing to all in the community not to
engage in recrimination over past events.
Most politicians, it seems, reading the report now
after two and a half years seem to agree on one point :
that the community should take from the Scarman
findings what lessons it can to prevent a recurrence of
the 1969 sectarian violence.
The tribunal's report runs to 300 pages and is in two
volumes, one being appendices and the index.
Among the major findings of the three-man tribunal,
which sat for 171 days and heard 422 witnesses in
several centres throughout the North, are : that in 1969,
contrary to what was at the time claimed by the
Unionist Government of the day, there was no "plot to
overthrow the Government or to mount an armed
insurrection" in the August rioting in Belfast, Derry
and Armagh. Mr. Justice Scarman and his two col-
leagues, Mr. G. K. G. Lavery and Mr. William Marshall,
dismiss claims that the I.R.A. was the organisation
behind street violence in Catholic areas. They also reject
suggestions that there was organised Protestant violence.
Instead they come to the conclusion that the riots were
"communal disturbances arising from a complex poli-
tical, social and economic situation". On the economic
point, the tribunal adds in an appendix that the cost to
Northern Ireland can be estimated at something in the
region of £3m. The report itself cost nearly £500,000
to produce.
R.U.C. faulted
Dealing with the police, Scarman has found that
there were six occasions on which the R.U.G. were
"seriously at fault". These were : 1, A lack of firm direc-
tion in handling the disturbances which followed the
Apprentice Boys parade in Derry on August 12th; 2,
The decision of a county inspector to put B. Specials
on the streets of Dungannon on August 13th without
disarming them and ensuring that they were com-
manded by an experienced police officer; 3, A similar
decision in Armagh on August 14th where the tribunal
finds B Specials who fired into a crowd killed Mr. John
Gallagher and wounded two other men. Of Mr. Galla-
gher's death. Scarman says : "After making all allow-
ances for the strange, difficult and frightening situation
in which they found themselves, there was no justifi-
cation for firing into the crowd." 4, The use of Brown-
ing machine-guns on police vehicles in Belfast on August
14th and 15th. During their use a nine-year-old boy,
Patrick Rooney, was killed by police fire and the tri-
bunal have summed up their views on the use of the
Brownings as follows : "The weapon was a menace to
the innocent as well as the guilty, being heavy and
indiscriminate in its fire." 5, The failure of police to
prevent Protestants burning down Catholic houses in
the Conway Street area and in Brookfield Street, Belfast,
between August 14th and 16th; 6, The failure to take
any effective action to restrain or disperse the Protestant
crowds to protect lives and property in the riot areas
on August 15th before the arrival of British troops.
R.U.C. not a partisan force
But while it faults the police on these occasions and
on other points by implication, the report says : "The
charge that the R.U.G. was a partisan force cooperating
with Protestants to attack Catholics is devoid of sub-
stance and we reject it utterly." Mr. Justice Scarman
and his colleagues say that the great majority of mem-
bers of the R.U.G. "were concerned to do their duty to
maintain order on the streets using no more force than
was reasonably necessary to suppress rioting and pro-
tect life and limb."
All the familiar household names on the Northern
scene are referred to in the report and the politicians
are fully cleared of actively promoting violence. Their
speeches, however, are criticised and are regarded by
the tribunal as contributory factors in the spread of
tension. In this respect, the tribunal says that the
speeches of the Rev. Ian Paisley were "fundamentally
similar to those of political leaders on the other side of
the sectarian divide".
And of Miss Bernadette Devlin, M.P. for Mid-Ulster,
who served a six-month prison sentence for her part in
the Bogside riots, the report says : "Although her parti-
cipation was limited, her principal activity being asso-
ciated with the building and manning of the Rossvil^
Street barricades in Derry, she must bear a degree
responsibility once the disturbances had begun for en-
couraging Bogsiders to resist the police with violence-
Scarman says that one of the fundamental causes for
the failures of the police was that R.U.C. strength was
not sufficient to maintain public peace. But in August
the then Inspector-General Mr. Anthony Peacocke,
acted as thougfi it was. "Had he correctly appreciated
the situation before the outbreak of the mid-August
disturbance, it is likely that the Apprentice Boys' parade
would not have taken place and the police would have
been sufficiently reinforced to prevent disorder arising
in Derry. Had he correctly appreciated the threat t°
Belfast that emerged on August 13th, he could have
saved the city the tragedy of the 15th. We have n°
doubt that he was well aware of the existence of poe-
tical pressures against calling in the Army but tbetf
existence constituted no excuse as he himself recognised
when in evidence he stoutly and honourably asserted
that they did not influence his decision."
Insufficient police and soldiers in hot situation
Not only does the report point to lack of
numbers
among the police but it also makes clear that violence
continued in Belfast after the British Army moved
irl
on August 15th because there were not enough soldiers-
And in the Clonard area, for example, the report say
5
that the commanding officer did not know the dividing
line between Catholic and Protestant ghettos.
Ten people died and over 700 were injured during
the period covered by the report. Eight of the dea
were Catholics.
The Irish Times
(7th April 1972)
126