Paisley's strike short of support in community

December 29 2007 04:47 AM

Support for the Paisley-led 1977 Loyalist Strike was lukewarm amongst both local communities and paramilitaries, according to a confidential report.

Writing on June 8, 1977, civil representative E Cadden wrote: "Intimidation was very active. Unrecorded episodes witnessed by civil representatives merely add to the log of perverted ingenuity of the paramilitary. In many instances brutal threat was avoided and innuendo or implication used to play on nerves.

"Reaction was overwhelmingly against the strikers in most majority (ie Protestant) community areas. There was, however, a notable caveat, that whilst the strikers' method was abhorred, the need for increased security was as much a desire of those who opposed the strike as of the strikers."

Cadden said the RUC's effective action was admired by the whole community and seemed to produce "a beneficial psychological reaction in the Catholic community".

Similarly, admiration of the Protestant community's resistance to the strike was common in Catholic areas.

Turning to the involvement of the UDA and UVF, Cadden concluded: "Paramilitary turnout was mediocre as compared with previous spectaculars and there was a heavy preponderance of youth in the ranks. Enthusiasm was easily quenched in most areas although East Belfast was more persistently belligerent."

Some key estates, he added, failed to contribute to the disruption even though they had been to the fore during the UWC stoppage of 1974.