Thousands in Belfast Rally in Support of IRA

Thousands marched through Roman Catholic neighborhoods of West Belfast on Sunday in a heavy rain, shouting support for the violent campaign of the outlawed Irish Republican Army.

“I want to praise the real freedom fighters in this country. . . . I want to praise the men and women of the Irish Republican Army,” Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, the IRA’s political wing, told the throng.

The march of the republican forces--those who seek a united Ireland--was a much more overtly political march than a big Protestant parade in Londonderry on Saturday that commemorated the 300th anniversary of a defeat of the Catholic King James II.

Some marchers in Belfast carried placards with the names of those killed on their side in 20 years of “the troubles,” and fife and drum bands chanted “I.R.A.!”

Though much of the republican emphasis last week was on the anniversary of the British government’s policy of imprisoning terrorist suspects without trial, Sunday’s speeches focused on today’s 20th anniversary of the stationing of British troops in the province.

The army was sent into Londonderry on Aug. 14, 1969, following fierce battles between police and Roman Catholics.

“The British army came in 1969 not because we were being attacked but because, for the first time since the beginning of this state--this misbegotten tuppence ha’penny bastardized state--we were fighting back,” said Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, a fiery leader in the Catholic civil rights marches of the 1960s.

“The reasons they are still here 20 years after is because we are still fighting back,” she said.

‘Diseased Butterflies’

In a speech in which she compared the throngs of reporters and photographers to “some kind of diseased butterflies that seem to thrive on other peoples’ problems,” she said little had been gained in 20 years.

Security was strict along the parade route, and march organizers complained that the crowd was constrained too closely by armored police vehicles.

There were no incidents during or after the parade, said a spokesman for the Royal Ulster Constabulary, a British police force.

A dozen people were arrested early Sunday in Londonderry after 20 gasoline bombs were thrown at officers, the constabulary said. No one was injured.