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Abstract
On 9 August 1971 the Stormont administration in Northern Ireland introduced internment without trial. This article challenges accepted narratives of Operation Demetrius and provides a more nuanced interpretation of the nature of the operation. It argues that intelligence on loyalist paramilitaries and their activities was ignored by the authorities because of the fear of a Protestant backlash. It establishes that there was ample intelligence on known IRA activists for a more targeted arrest operation to be carried out but that the arrest lists were augmented, most probably in an effort to provide intelligence and reduce support for the IRA. In addition, it argues that Operation Demetrius was not an indiscriminate attack on the nationalist community. The article maintains that the operation was carried out in part to placate demands for tougher security measures from hard-line unionists.
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to Dr Margaret O'Callaghan and Prof. Paul Bew and the two anonymous referees for their constructive comments. All errors are the author's own.
Notes
See Smith (Citation1995: 101), English (Citation2004: 139–140), McKittrick et al. (Citation2007: 80), Bardon (Citation2005: 682) and Moloney (Citation2002: 100).
See Adams (Citation2001: 157), Anderson (Citation2002: 224–225) and Moloney (Citation2010: 155).
Some commentators refer to the period when internment was in operation, 1971–1975, as Operation Demetrius. However, I use the term solely for the initial arrest operation on 9 August 1971.
Interview with Jim Auld (former PIRA member), 21 July 2010. Auld was arrested at 3.30 a.m. on 9 August 1971, the first person to be arrested in Operation Demetrius. He appeared in front of the Advisory Body when Harry Taylor (RUCSB) presented the evidence against him from behind a screen. Both men addressed each other by their Christian names during the hearing. Auld was also one of 12 men arrested during Operation Demetrius subjected to the controversial sensory deprivation treatment during interrogation.
Northern Ireland Civil Rights (NICRA) and Peoples Democracy (PD) were the two main civil rights organisations in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Most probably Ken Bloomfield, a long-serving, distinguished, Northern Ireland civil servant.
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is a loyalist paramilitary group.
See a chronology of internment events, available at: http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/intern/chron.htm, accessed 8 November 2010.