World: TWO FLAGS OVER ULSTER

• Share

(2 of 2)

B Special force is an object of particular fear and hatred. The Royal Ulster Constabulary consists of 3,000 men, who are on full-time duty, and 8,400 Class B Specials, who serve part-time in emergencies such as the present one and have been blamed for most of the casualties. Two other branches of the Special Constabulary, Class A and Class C, have lapsed. To Ulster Catholics, the B Specials are nothing more than armed hooligans. To such militant Protestants as the Rev. Ian Paisley, an anti-Catholic fanatic, they are "the teeth" of Ulster's defense.

Firmly in Command. Though Chichester-Clark denied that the arrangements implied any diminution of his government's power, it was obvious that the British were in command and that the Catholics had won a major battle. Almost immediately, Protestant hard-liners began demanding the Prime Minister's resignation and raised a howl about the disarming of the B Specials. They complained that they would be left defenseless in the face of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, whose spokesmen were boasting of having sent "a number of fully equipped units to the aid of their comrades in the six counties." Though the I.R.A. is rich in song and legend, the fact is that it has little contemporary muscle. Poorly armed, undermanned (membership estimates go no higher than a few hundred), it has limited its recent activities to firing random shots at visiting British warships or setting up roadblocks to mar a tour by Britain's Princess Margaret.

The Protestant militants might do better to concern themselves with last week's visit to the U.S. by 22-year-old Bernadette Devlin, who was elected to the British Parliament from Ulster last spring as a staunch fighter for Catholic rights. While the I.R.A. was doing little more than talking, Bernadette flew to New York to begin raising $1,000,000 for her constituents back home.

At week's end, with stability largely restored by the British troops, the moderates on both sides seemed to be asserting themselves. Ulster Catholics, vastly encouraged by the promises of broader civil rights and the disarming of the B Specials, reportedly refused to stir up trouble by cooperating with I.R.A. emissaries. A Protestant member of Northern Ireland's Parliament, Dick Ferguson, resigned from the Orange Order, a Protestant organization that virtually runs Ulster. "Now is the time," said Ferguson, "for all people in Northern Ireland to try to come together." Strangely enough, the English seemed on the way to bringing peace to Irishmen.