Paul McElhinney: 1974 - ‘Bad fashion and bad haircuts’ as violence intensifies north and south

(To read the first article, click here)

Firstly, in order to set developments in Northern Ireland in a wider context it is useful to see what was going on in the rest of the United Kingdom and the world at the time.

In January of that year, the UK entered its first post-World War 2 recession. The oil embargo imposed by OPEC on the western industrial nations was lifted after five months in April of 1974.

In March, the Littlejohn brothers, convicted of a bank robbery in Dublin and claiming to be British spies, escaped from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin. The far-right National Front received more than 10% of the votes in local elections in some London areas. ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest with ‘Waterloo’, held in Brighton in April of that year.

West Germany saw the resignation of Chancellor, Willy Brandt in May following a spy scandal and President Valery Giscard d’Estaing was elected President of France also in May.

Of major significance in that half of 1974, was the General Election held in February. It had significant implications for subsequent developments in Northern Ireland. Prime Minister Edward Heath called a ‘who governs?’ election in the midst of the miners’ strike, electricity outages and the three-day week, seeking a mandate for his policies.

Labour, under Harold Wilson, won the most seats of any single party, but without a majority in the House of Commons.

In Ulster, the Unionist Party under Brian Faulkner won seven seats, William Craig’s Vanguard won three seats, the DUP one seat, the SDLP one seat and an independent nationalist, one seat.

Unionist members would not take the Tory whip and the Liberals saw the election result as a rejection of Heath’s policies, but were unwilling to go into coalition with Labour.

This was a seeming endorsement of Brian Faulkner’s support for the Executive and power-sharing, but trouble was brewing among grassroots unionists, a force that was to prove irresistible in time.

Labour ultimately formed a minority government under Wison who appointed Merlyn Ress as Secretary of State.

The votes of Ulster unionists were tactically important in this period. Seeking a clearer mandate, Prime Minister Wilson called an election in October of that year – a subject of the third article in this series.

Acts of violence continued with even greater intensity in 1974. The months of February and March saw a massive 600lb bomb explode in Dungannon and major incendiary attacks in Bangor town centre, both carried out by the IRA.

In April, the Provisional IRA carried out a robbery of fine paintings form Russborough Hose in Co. Wicklow. Among the robbers, was Rose Dugdale, an English heiress who joined the IRA. She died in March of this year.

In early May, the UVF carried out an attack on a bar on the Ormeau Road which resulted in the deaths of six people. The times were febrile and the political backdrop was soon to become even more fraught with the province-wide strike organised by the Ulster Workers’ Council and imminent collapse of the Executive.

The Dublin-Monaghan bombings were carried out on May 17th 1974, resulting in 33 civilian deaths and over 300 injuries.

Believed by many to have been carried out by the UVF in collusion with members of the security forces, it is an issue that remains a major source of controversy to this day and a matter of dispute within the communities in Northern Ireland and between the British and Irish governments.

Coming as they did so close to the eventual collapse of the Northern Ireland Executive, the bombings show how historically intertwined politics and security are in Irish and Northern Ireland politics.

Other developments of significance during those months were the Provisional IRA bombing of the Houses of Parliament in June, seriously damaging Westminster Hall.

British Airways was founded as a combination of BOAC, BEA, Cambrian Airways and Northeast Airways. Portugal saw a peaceful transition from military dictatorship to democratic, civilian rule in April and Isabel Peron was elected the first female President of Argentina in June.

At a socio-cultural level, this period was noted for its bad fashion and bad haircuts, for Spacehoppers, the Slinky toy and for the creation of the Rubik’s Cube.

Slade and the Bay City Rollers were top of the charts in the UK, along with more tame stars such as Donny Osmond and David Cassidy.

Coleraine won the Irish League and Ards beat Ballymena Utd in the Irish Cup final. Ireland won the Five Nations Championship in that year, beating England and Scotland, drawing against Wales and losing to France. Ireland was captained by famous Ulsterman, Willie John McBride and the championships’ top try scorer was Mike Gibson.

l The third - and final - part of Paul McElhinney's look back on 1974 will published in the News Letter next Friday (May 24).

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l Paul McElhinney is a full-time writer living in Wexford. He is author of ‘The Lion of the RAF’, a biography of Air Marshal, Sir George Beamish and of many articles in Iroish and international journals. He was an official in the Department of the Taoiseach in Dublin in the 1980s and an oil and gas executive in London and Washington with British Gas Plc.

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