The United Irishman, Iml. 25, Uimh. 3

This document joins the library of United Irishman in the Archive. This particular edition is the first from 1971 and of course dates from a period when the Official IRA was still publicly active. Indeed the language used in the newspaper is striking. For example in the front page article it discusses the aims of the British in Northern Ireland and states:

The Tory-Unionist statements also played on the differences between the Official and Provisional I.R.A. in an attempt to provoke internal conflict. The British officers are looking forward with glee to a repeat of their Aden experience where they managed to get two rival factions in the liberation struggle, Flosy and the Liberation Front, to attack each other.

And it notes:

The British Army activity on Rathlin island would seem to bear out fears that internment of all Republicans active in the North is in prospect.

It would be foolish to expect that, in the event of internment, there will be any discrimination between Official or Provisional I.R.A. This is one area where there is no discrimination in the North.

The other front page article ‘Common Market – Common Fight’ notes in passing ‘If Norway’s fishermen and small farmers can force their Government to withdraw, can Ireland not compel their own Quisling government to withdraw before it is too late?’ Notably the editorial mentions the ‘[welcome] decision of the Irish Labour Party too oppose entry to the Common Market’.

There are articles on ‘Irish political prisoners’ and calls for people to join both the Republican Movement and Clann na h-Eireann in Britain. Another mentions the attempted abduction of an Official Sinn Féin member in Meath and Louth and notes ‘The breakaway Sinn Féin group issued a statement disclaiming responsibility and deploring the attack. In answer to a question Donnchadh Mac Raghnaill stated that he did not think the men belong to the Provisional I.R.A.’.

There are photos of ‘Fianna Plan for Summer Camps’. Another page examines ‘Fianna Fáil – the full circle’.

Another page is given over to a piece entitled ‘Who Wants Republican Fighting Republican?’ This carries an appeal from Tomas Mac Giolla that ‘all those opposed to the British Army and British rule in Ireland be united in their efforts or ‘at least co-operate with each other’. It notes that ‘Issued on February 10, the appeal was met with an instant retort in a statement signed by Ruairi O Braidagh which described Mac Giolla as a bankrupt politician seeking to avoid political eclipse for his party. The reply also rule out any possible effort at unity or co-operation. In this the statement by the Provisionals continued the consistent attitude adopted by them since the walk-out from the 1970s Sinn Féin Ard Fheis.’.

It notes that a second statement from Mac Giolla evinced no response and concludes:

Therefore it is up to individuals in the breakaway group who have a sense of history to say nothing hat would worsen relations and to do nothing that would cause friction. The history of the Republican Movement is riddle with examples of the present bitterness and hatreds. Nothing ever came of it but regression and defeat. How long the present atmosphere will prevail is difficult to predict but Republicans fo the future will have to judge the events of to-day and try expelling them to the Irish public. What has passed to date will be difficult enough to explain without adding further bitterness to an already tragic era.

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