Bloody Sunday And The End Of Stormont Flashcards
Operation Demetrius August 9th, 1971
Internment without trial, Codenamed Operation Demetrius was introduced in August 1971, almost exactly a year since the major riots in Derry and Belfast.
• In a bid to stem the rising violence, Brian Faulkner and the Unionist government in Stormont approved internment – the arresting of people without evidence or charge.
• According to Brian Faulkner, internment was designed to ‘smash’ the IRA and approval for it was given by Reginald Maudling. The British government also advised Faulkner to intern Loyalist suspects to not alienate catholics as the British home secretary who warned Faulkner that it could lead to even more chaos. Faulkner however chose to ignore this advice, claiming their threat was much lower.
• (spoiler – it leads to more chaos)
Internees would be held Long Kesh camp (now Maze Prison), Magilligan Army Camp (now Magilligan Prison) and the Maidstone Ship, docked in Sydenham Wharf in Belfast Harbour.
Interned and what it is
Faulkner hoped that by following the internment policy, he could crush the IRA, stop UVF/UDA revenge attacks, gain popularity and prevent the collapse of government in Northern Ireland – not too much to ask.
• A list was drawn up using MI5 and RUC intelligence on 452 names, 350 of which were detained, the families of those arrested reported being assaulted and threatened by the soldiers.
• Some of the names on the list managed to slip the net, catching wind of the arrests before they could be reached.
Initially, Unionists appeared happy with the introduction of internment, it had worked in the past in Northern Ireland and most were confident it would lead to a swift reduction in violence
Interment and why did it fail?
The operation as a whole was an absolute disaster:
• The intelligence used to create the list was either wrong or years out of
date.
• Many of the people arrested had no involvement with the IRA and those that did were only known because they were involved in the IRA twenty years previously.
• None of those arrested were leading members of the IRA.
• No loyalists were interned until 1973, despite the fact the UVF & UDA
were also carrying out acts of violence.
Because of internment, the fractured relationship between Catholics and the police/army had now been totally shattered. .
