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Houses burn, a police armoured car is attacked and a
petrol bomb flies, centre right, as Catholics riot in the
Bogside area of Londonderry on Thursday before the
arrival of British troops.
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Some hours before British troops brought calm to Londonderry, a
middle-aeed Boesider picks a petrol bomb out of a box-full as he and
compatriots defend their homes.
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STREETS LIKE A
BATTLEGROUND
Six shot dead
in
Ulster
riots
BELFAST, Friday (AAP). — Six
people, including a nine-year-old boy,
have been shot dead and 44 wounded
by small-arms fire as fighting con
tinues in Northern Ireland with
guns, fire-bombs, bricks and batons.
In Belfast, automatic rifles, machine
guns and fire-bombs turned many streets
into battlegrounds only six miles from Par
liament. At dawn parts of Belfast were
burning. Firemen were unable to fight the
fires because of the risk of being shot.
Police, following up a volley of shots
from snipers in the darkness, crouched low
and fired several hundred rounds. With Stirl
ing sub-machineguns, Browning automatics
and pistols.
All through the night the Belfast casualty
list gre\ longer and 100 people, 16 of them
policemen, were treated in hospitals.
Six hundred British soldiers were head
ing for Belfast today where more trouble is
feared tonight.
The Northern Ireland Prime Minister,
Mr Chichester-Clarke, denounced in Parlia
ment the Irish Republic's call for United
Nations intervention in the trouble-torn
country.
Night of terror
Belfast was engulfed
by terror last night and
the six counties form
ing the largely self
governing province are
now in the worst crisis
since the bloody fight
ing of the early 1920s
when they were parti
tioned from the rest of
Ireland and kept under
British control.
The gunman, ominous
figure in the tormented his
tory of Ireland, took con
trol of Belfast's streets to
day.
In the past three days in
the Catholic siege district
of Bogside in Londonderry
it was petrol bombs against
police tcargas shells. Then
the trouble erupted more
than 24 hours ago in half
a dozen other towns.
Police fired warning shots
with revolvers.
Early, today the guns
came out to augment fire
bombs, bricks and batons.
In the town of Armagh
the first fatal shooting of
the crisis occurred last
night when John Gallag
her, father of three, died
in hospital of bullet
wounds. His assailant was
unknown but police de
nied they had fired any
shots.
Protestants and Catho
lics clashed in streets lit
by burning factories, shops
and homes. Blazing de
Children make molotov cocktails. —
Page 4.
fence barricades were con
stantly rebuilt to ward off
fresh atacks.
The screams of the in
jured were heard in
smoke-covered alleys
while machinegun fire, ap
parently directed at police,
crackled across rooftops.
In many areas police
could not penetrate even
with armoured vehicles.
Four policemen were
wounded and a dozen
more injured. One of the
wounded is in a serious
condition.
Sniper
fire
During the pre-dawn
hours police had to call
for fresh stocks of ammu
nition as they sought to
winkle out snipers, some
armed with sub-machine
guns.
For the Northern Ire
land Protestant Unionist
Government the situation
is desperate.
It has already
mobilised the B-specials.
a Protestant - dominated
para-military volunteer
police force armed with
revolvers, rifles and sub
machineguns.
This 8,000-strong reser
vist force is hated by
Catholics.
Its mobilisation, and
the use of British troops
in Londonderry, under
line the Government's de
termination to stamp out
the spreading wave of
violence.
A Northern Ireland
command spokesman said
all but one company of
the 600 British troops
heading for Belfast would
move into the city. The
rest would be based at
Lisburn, about six miles
south.
The 600 light infantry
men will reinforce the 300
garrison troops sent into
Londonderry yesterday.
Britain already has about
3,000 troops in barracks
and training camps in
northern Ireland.
The entry of British sol
diers to besieged London
derry yesterday appeared
to calm Catholics manning
ramshackle barricades
the battle-torn Bogside dis
trict.
Meanwhile a force of
Irish volunteers, prepared
to fight for the civil rights
cause, left London for Ul
ster last night, according
to newspaper reports.
As the British troops
moved into Londonderry
yesterday the Irish Repub
lic to the south sent large
numbers of troops to its
border with the north.
An official spokesman
denied any aggressive
motives, but the Northern
Ireland Prime Minister,
Mr James Chichester -
Clark, told a crisis session
of Parliament, recalled
from recess for the first
time in 30 years, that pros
pects had ended for
friendly relations between
the two countries.
"We must and will treat
the government which
seeks to wound us in cur
darkest hour as an un
friendly and implacable
government dedicated to
overthrowing us by any
means", he declared.
DUBLIN, Irish Repub
lic, Friday fAAP-Reuter).
— The Irish Republic
Government announccd
today it was mobilising
army reserves ready for a
peace-keeping operation
in the riot-torn north.
The announcement said
the first line of reserves,
about 2,000 men, were be
ing called up.
$