British troops welcomed in Ulster under last government

AS an Irish Catholic, may 1 be permitted some space to comment upon the letter of your correspondent, Lord Clifford of Chudleigh. In his opening paragraph it is very obvious that he has little or no knowledge of the Irish question, for seldom have I read such drivel as has flowed from his lordship's pen.
His first blunder is the statement that this is not religion and 1 blame this gross mistake because he took his briefing from, the British G.O.C. stationed in Northern Ireland, Let me remind your correspondent that periodically there have been religious riots in Northern Ireland for over a century and certainly long before such an organisation as the IRA was ever heard of.
We have not forgotten that it was the last Labour Government which committed the British troops to Northern Ireland and I can asssure Lord Clifford that they were welcomed told treated very well by the Catholic community when they came and for many months afterwards. It was only when they came under C onservative/Unionist domination after the British General Election that the Catholic population was made to suffer.
Paragraph 3 of his letter clearly indicates just how little he knows of the notorious "B" Specials and the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Just how much was Lord Clifford informed of the behaviour of the same "B" Specials and the R.U.C. when they, together with the Orange mobs burned down Bombay Street, Belfast in 1969?
For fifty years Catholics in Northern Ireland have been denied ordinary civil rights by the Stormont/Orange regime and have been -treated as third rate citizens. Today. backed by Westminster and the so-called British army which still has all the characteristics of the ,1920 Black and Tans are still persecuting innocent Catholics and many a man is now interned in the Unionist concentration camps of Long Kesh and Magilligan for no other reason than that he is a Catholic and dared speak out against mis-rule by Stormont and backed by Westminster Tory rule.
I trust that his lordship will have read the letter from James McSherry which appeared in the same issue of the CATHOLIC HERALD as his own. Does Clifford agree that Roman Catholics are animals and are parasites on society.
Finally I would suggest to, Lord Clifford that. before writing to you or any other newspaper concerning the troubles in Northern Ireland, he should acquaint himself of facts and not merely listen to one side as given to him by the G.O.C. of the British forces. Michael Donovan. Belfast.
I ORD CLIFFORD writes
(January 21) as the father of a soldier serving in Northern Ireland. To a professional soldier, his letter would appear unrealistic. He refers to the Labour Government sending troops to Ulster (this would be in August. 196). after the large-scale attacks on Catholic homes and premises in the Ardoyne area of Belfast) with "at least one hand tied behind their backs."
This is almost as meaningless as the "shot in the back" stuff much loved by certain journalists. To those of us professional soldiers who were too young to take part in Hitler's war there has been. ever since, a regular diet of just the kind of "war" or civil disturbance that is now going on in Ulster.
Palestine, Malaya, Kenya, Cyprus, British Guiana, Aden, etc., were very similar from the soldier's point of view. It was nasty to be shot at at all, but the particular directions from which the bullet came was not important.
I.ord Clifford complains that professional soldiers in Northern Ireland are shot at, stoned and abused. Nobody enjoys having any of these things done to him but it would be a pretty dim professional soldier who had not perceived that since 1946 this has been the soldier's lot.
Whilst National Service continued, I personally felt very sad when the National Servicemen were the victims of these attacks. But the professionals among us accepted that it was precisely and evidently what we were being paid for.
Perhaps a trifle smugly, we felt that we could help by maintaining some order whilst the politicians got on with, sometimes a little tardily I fear, the formulations of a political solution. We know that vve were only a temporary measure.
To have been a professional soldier since 1945 has landed many soldiers in the not always pleasant historical chapter of our colonial sunset. One thing is certain, the majority of British troops have managed very well. The virtue of unshakeable discipline, and my regiment has a supreme record in this respect, was most apparent and most essential in these situations; where retaliation or revenge would have been both pointless and a sign of ill-discipline.
Lord Clifford talks of tribes and races. He calls the Ulster Protestants, of "dour Lowland Scots" extraction, "the most objectionable race." I almost wonder if he is not giving our legs a gentle pull? He refers to himself as an English (his italics) Catholic; but, tribally speaking, has he not at least as good a claim to calling himself tin Australian (my italics) Catholic?
Michael Stourton London, S.W.I.