The Bloody Truce

McAnoy (suddenly as a result of an explosion) Agnes, dearly beloved wife of the late Daniel McAnoy. Sacred heart of Jesus have mercy on her soul.

--Death notice in the Irish News, a Catholic newspaper in Belfast

They buried Agnes McAnoy, 62, widow and mother of three, in Belfast last week. And Molly McAleavy, 57, mother of eleven. And Marie Bennett, 42, mother of seven. And Arthur Penn, 33, father of three. And Elizabeth Carson, 64, whose husband Willy lost an arm. Pathetic lines of mourners wept after the requiem at the Catholic Church of St. Matthew, half a mile from where the attackers had tossed a bomb into the crowded Strand bar in East Belfast.

A Protestant extremist group, the Young Militants--an obscure offshoot of larger paramilitary groups--claimed responsibility for the Strand bar blast. The carnage took Ulster past another grisly milestone: 1,206 dead, including 866 civilians, since 1968, when Catholics began demonstrating for equal rights. This month alone there have been 119 shootings and bombings, with 21 killed and 170 injured.

The sectarian violence--the worst in more than a year--has occurred despite a ten-week truce between the militant Provisional Irish Republican Army or Provos and the British army. It comes as an ill-timed blow to Merlyn Rees, Britain's Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, who is attempting to restart a political dialogue. On May 1, elections are scheduled for a 78-seat convention whose members are to work out a new government for Ulster's 1 million Protestants and 500,000 Catholics.

Questioned Policy. Although the bullets and bombs are rarely aimed at British troops these days (233 have been killed in Ulster but only one this year), British Army Commander Lieut. General Sir Frank King has openly questioned Rees' policy of releasing I.R.A. suspects detained without trial (230 out of 576 internees have been sprung). While this policy is the key to the truce, a British officer said last week: "We have always been cynical about it. The Proves will maintain the cease-fire to get as many of their men released as possible and then start again after the elections. By now they are all well rested, well fed and well trained."

The Provos' conduct in the campaign adds to that suspicion; they are urging a Catholic boycott. As a result, there is doubt that the new convention will work any better than the "power-sharing" coalition that broke down last June. One housewife in Belfast asked last week, "If this is a ceasefire, what's war?" Should the new convention collapse and the fragile truce break down completely, she may find out.

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