Paisley Calls for “Third Force”

Posted By: September 03, 2021

On This Day [in Irish History]

The Irish News. Belfast, September 3, 1971

 

Eamon Phoenix. Irish News. Belfast, Friday, September 3, 2021

            Rev Ian Paisley, MP said at Balnamore last night that a Third Force was necessary and, if the Government was not prepared to have one, they should resign. What was needed was a new force like the Ulster Special Constabulary controlled by Stormont- not a policy of containment of the IRA but a policy of annihilation.  (The claim by a number of detainees-the so-called ‘hooded men’- that they had been systematically tortured on their arrest were investigated by the Compton Inquiry. They described being hooded, forced to adopt stress positions, and subjected to ‘white noise’ and food and sleep deprivation. The Irish Government would later take their case to the European Court of Human Rights which would find Britain guilty of ‘”nhuman and degrading treatment” but not torture.)