Paisley’s “defense of the Protestant constitution.”

Posted By: December 02, 2019

On This Day [in Irish history]

The Irish News, December 3, 1969

‘Copters Blot Out Paisley!

Eamon Phoenix. Irish News, Tuesday, December 3, 2019

            A telegram protesting about low-flying helicopters interrupting a Paisley service in Armagh yesterday has been sent to the Minister of Defense at Westminster by the chairman of the Mid-Armagh Division of the Ulster Protestant Volunteers. At one stage the service, which was to commemorate the ‘siege of Armagh’ [at a Civil Rights march] on November 30 last year, two Army helicopters circled overhead and drowned out the voice of the Rev Ian Paisley.

            Mr. Paisley said that the UPV was not linked with the proscribed UVF. He said that attempts were being made to blacken the name of the UPV which was a body of ‘patriots’ dedicated to the defense of the Protestant constitution by all lawful methods. ‘We do not indulge in subversive activities and we have no relationship with any banned organization,’ he said.

            Mr. Paisley said the Army was not in Ulster for peace, but ‘to do down the Protestants’. He warned that all should be aware of having evidence planted in their homes and of attempts to obtain their fingerprints.