Northern Ireland

Part of Prayers – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 23 September 1971.

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Photo of Mr Stratton Mills Mr Stratton Mills , Belfast North 12:00, 23 September 1971

Those are interesting matters, but that is not the point. The hon. Gentleman knows my personal position and my personal record, so I hope that I shall not have to weary the House by dealing with his intervention.

I turn now to the subject of the tripartite talks and diplomatic initiatives. How very glad I am that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is personally involved in the Northern Ireland situation. I hope that when he winds up the debate this evening he will, as head of the United Kingdom Government, reply to the remarks which Mr. Hillery, the Foreign Secretary of the Republic of Ireland, made yesterday. I also hope that in his capacity as a former Chief Whip he will make some reference to the remarks about the voting position of Ulster Members in this House which were made yesterday afternoon by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Fulham (Mr. Michael Stewart), a former Foreign Secretary.

My right hon. Friend is a determined man. I hope that he will realise that, as has been said, many of the problems in Ireland are not rational, and that that realisation will not cloud his understanding of Ireland. I hope that he will not be put off by remarks that have been made already on this score, and I say to him this evening that he will be most welcome indeed if he pays a visit to Belfast, because that will be taken as a sign of commitment by the people of the United Kingdom to the people of that city. I would greatly welcome such a visit.

In holding tripartite talks my right hon. Friend is, I suppose, looking for solutions. One does not want to be unhelpful, but I find it a little difficult to reconcile tripartite talks with his telegram to Mr. Lynch: one can have one or the other, but one cannot have both. I hope that I may be wrong, but my fear is that this is a blind alley which may do more harm than good. I am not encouraged by the attitude of Mr. Lynch who, in private briefings to journalists in Dublin, made it quite clear that he was holding off having tripartite talks until after this debate in the House of Commons, on the basis of "softening up" Her Majesty's Government.

The Home Secretary has announced that he is holding discussions with a wide range of people, organisations and bodies in Northern Ireland to see whether he can establish a basis for discussion. To do this is right, and I wish him well in that work.

I am sorry that the hon. Member for Belfast, West is not now present, but I shall not be saying anything particularly unkind. His speech was, I suppose, on a slightly superficial level, sweet and reasonable. He was asking merely three things. He asked firstly for the removal of internment. He asked secondly for what amounted to the abolition of Stormont and then to return in a little while and to create a new Stormont. He said thirdly that in the new Stormont one would have a new Cabinet in which, although he did not specify himself, some of those in his party or from the minority would have a rôle presumably as of right.

My view is that this is not realistic. Is it possible to have in Government a party which wishes the abolition of Northern Ireland? This seems to me a total delusion. I am sorry to say that I find it difficult to find common ground with him on his three proposals.

I think he would accept from me with sincerity that if a genuine olive branch is offered to the Unionists of Northern Ireland they will not be slow in their response, but the House must understand a little more of our positions and problems. For our part, we must ask for a recognition of the constructive rôle of Unionist Government in trying genuinely to meet community problems over the last couple of years. I do not wish to raise the temperature, but one must ask—as people are asking—to what extent some members or parts of the Social Democratic and Labour Party are riding along on the coat-tails of the gunmen—[HON. MEMBERS: "0h."] This is a real question.