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GV PAN..U.N. building
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SV Dr. Hillery speaking sound starts: "I must say......" SOUND ENDS: "... people of Ireland".
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TRANSCRIPT: SEQ. 2: DR. HILLERY: "I must say that my delegation would find difficulty in accepting the foreign Secretary's opening remarks on the situation in the North of Ireland. He is quite right of course in speaking of the existence of a highly dangerous situation there, but it would not be correct to suggest that this arises solely or mainly from a confrontation stemming from religious differences. Rather would I invert the order of Sir Alec Douglas-Home's observation that in Northern Ireland there goes a terrifying manifestation of the old danger of religious confrontation has reappeared.... complicated in this case by other political and social problems. In my view, what we have there is a confrontation because of political and social problems, complicated by the exploitation of a religious factor. I venture the opinion on the same occasion that the use of British troops alone was unacceptable, and that in the long run they would prove to be more a hindrance than a help. Events have vindicated my opinion. British troops have been used in one-sided arms searches and to implement a policy of mass arrests and internment. From a peace-keeping force, they've become in the eyes of the minority a coercive instrument to prop up the Northern regime. It is in these events that we can find the causes of the present violence, and through understanding them, endeavour to bring about the changes which will bring the peace and stability we all long for, to the suffering people of Ireland."




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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Eire's Foreign Minister, Dr. Patrick Hillery, blamed the situation in Northern Ireland on social and political problems in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on thursday (7 October). He was replying to an address by the British Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home who had earlier maintained that the religious differences between the two factions in Northern Ireland had led to the recent Violence in Belfast and the surrounding areas.

Dr. Hillery criticised British troops in Northern Ireland, saying that they have been transformed from a peace-keeping force into what the eyes of the minority saw as coercive instrument being used to assist the Northern Ireland Government.