"Total War"

In a laudable but politically ineffective display of unity, Protestants and Roman Catholics, Tories, Laborites and Liberals gathered last week at London's Westminster Cathedral to pray at an "ecumenical service for intercession for Northern Ireland." More than 1,500 worshipers attended the ceremony at which the Archbishop of Canterbury, who presided with John Cardinal Heenan, praised Ireland's patron, Saint Patrick, as a man of forgiveness.

There was, unfortunately, little forgiveness in Ulster itself, which erupted in another week of bombings and blastings after the end of a surprisingly successful 72-hour cease-fire declared by the Provisional wing of the Irish Republican Army. The Provos had listed their conditions for securing a permanent ceasefire; they included the setting of a date for British troop withdrawal from the province, abolition of Ulster's parliament, and amnesty for political prisoners. But the initiative stirred little response from either the Stormont or Westminster government, leading one I.R.A. leader to declare: "It's now total war." The day after the truce ended, a 200-lb. gelignite bomb shattered windows and tore the roofs off several buildings in downtown Belfast. Another I.R.A. explosive, left in a parked car, killed two British Army specialists who were trying to dismantle it.

Upon returning to Westminster from a visit to Dublin, British Labor Leader Harold Wilson warned Prime Minister Edward Heath that any further holdup in announcing his long-delayed settlement proposals for Northern Ireland would probably lead to open civil war. In fact, Heath has not been able to decide on any plans because his Cabinet has been divided. A few weeks ago, his Tory government was apparently ready to offer a series of reforms that would have given Ulster's Catholic minority a bill of rights and a share in the Protestant-dominated Stormont government. Then a step-up of I.R.A. bombings strengthened the hand of right-wing Tories who oppose any reforms that might be construed as concessions to violence.

As if the I.R.A. were not trouble enough, Northern Ireland is faced with yet another threat to what remains of peace: the prospect of a militant Protestant backlash. One Catholic youth was killed in his Belfast home last week by two men who police think might have been Protestant extremists. Publications put out by such militant organizations as the Loyalist Association of Workers have grown tougher in their statements regarding the need to "destroy for all time this evil in our midst." At week's end, more than 50,000 Protestants staged a mass rally to display their solidarity against a "sellout" by the Heath government. Even though demonstrations are illegal in Northern Ireland these days, Catholics responded with a march of their own through the Andersonstown section of Belfast.

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