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The Falls curfew, July 1970: the turning point of the Troubles

RICHARD RUDKIN recalls how the actions of the British army in West Belfast 50 years ago changed opinions in the community forever

FOLLOWING the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police on May 25, here in Britain, there have been calls for the government to be more proactive against discrimination, and rightly so. 

However, British history shows that it was not just the colour of your skin that could single you out for unfair treatment. 

As many people in the North of Ireland will testify, being of the wrong religion could be dangerous too.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of what was arguably the turning point of the Troubles. 

On Friday July 3 1970, British soldiers, accompanied by RUC officers, arrived in the Lower Falls area of West Belfast to search a house for IRA weapons. 

However, within hours, the British military commanders had imposed a curfew on the area. A curfew that will not only be remembered for the mayhem, death and destruction that occurred but for how it was brought to its conclusion. 

To find the answer to what prompted the search and why the reaction of the locals was so hostile, we need to look at what occurred only days earlier in East Belfast.

Despite the threat to the Catholic community of being burnt out of their homes by loyalist gangs, for whatever reason there were no army units available to respond. 

With no military presence on the streets, members of the IRA retrieved weapons and a gun battle commenced with loyalist paramilitaries. 

The gun battle lasted over five hours, claiming three lives and leaving many more injured. 

Now, only days later, following a tip-off, the security forces had arrived in a known republican area to search for IRA weapons.

What had initially begun as a skirmish between the security forces and local residents soon escalated into wide-scale rioting throughout the Lower Falls area. 

It is difficult to comprehend how the military commanders never anticipated such resistance. 

However, there is a school of thought that this was exactly the opportunity the military had been waiting for to seal off the area and systematically search every inch of it. 

Later that evening, with the area on lockdown, thousands of troops saturated the close-knit streets while a helicopter flew overhead to announce the curfew was in place and warn residents to stay indoors or risk being shot by the British army. 

A search of shops and homes commenced but here was no knocking on doors to gain entry. 

Instead, security forces kicked them in. During the search process, rooms were ransacked, furniture damaged, televisions broken, floorboards ripped up and there were allegations of gas meters being forced open to steal the cash. 

In addition, there were many reports of unnecessary violence by the security forces on the occupants. 

In all, about 100 weapons were recovered dating from the first and second world wars belonging to the Official IRA, along with ammunition and bomb-making equipment. 

The threat of being shot by British soldiers for stepping over the doorstep was not an idle one. 

By the end of the curfew, four innocent civilians were killed. 

Billy Burns (54) was shot while closing his shop, Patrick Elliman (62) was fatally wounded when he went out to get some air and a freelance photographer, Zbigniew Vglik (23), was shot while attempting to get film for his camera. 

A fourth fatality occurred when Charles O’Neill (36) was crushed by an armoured car. The military suffered a number of casualties too.

Remarkably, the curfew was broken not by bomb or bullet, but by the spirit of the women of West Belfast. 

On Sunday July 5, on hearing that families had been prevented from buying provisions, women from the Andersonstown, some pushing prams, set off to walk down to the Lower Falls area, carrying with them bags of groceries.

The numbers continued to grow as other women joined the march along the route. 

Taken completely by surprise, the British soldiers could do nothing as approximately 3,000 women pushed past them ignoring their order to “Halt,” pulled aside the barbed wire with their bare hands and shouted to the families to come out of their homes. 

Powerless to stop this show of civil disobedience, the military commanders had no option but to declare the curfew over. 

For the Catholic community of West Belfast, the mask of impartiality worn by the British army had slipped. 

What other conclusion could they reach? If the initial search was in direct response to the gun battle days earlier, as a “peacekeeping force,” you could argue the British army was right and justified to search for weapons used by the IRA. 

However, that argument loses any credibility once the question is asked, why then was the search focused on republican weapons, and not a joint operation to find loyalist weapons too?

To add insult to injury, only hours after the curfew ended, while the residents of this small community were still trying to put what was left of their homes back together, two Ulster Unionist MPs, John Brooke and William Long, were given a tour of the Lower Falls by the British army, to survey what action they had taken during the curfew.

Days later, while the streets of the Lower Falls still reeked of CS gas, such was the excessive amount used by the military, back in the House of Commons, both Tory and Labour MPs praised the actions of the British army, describing their conduct as “impeccable,” adding: “Parliament had nothing but admiration for the humanity and discipline with which the British army conducted itself.”

The actions by the British army that weekend changed opinions in the community forever. 

Many who had been neutral or even sympathetic towards British soldiers now had nothing but hatred. 

Moreover, the curfew was the final confirmation that the British army had chosen sides. 

It was no longer part of the solution but now part of the problem. If the British government is serious about righting the wrongs of the past, as it should, then an apology to the people of the Lower Falls is long overdue.

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