On This Day 1971 – Faulkner takes office
On this day, 1971 – Brian Faulkner assumes office as the final ‘Prime Minister’ of Stormont and the failed Six County Statelet.
Reflecting on that period of history, Lasair Dhearg spokesperson Padraic Mac Coitir commented: “Since Ireland was partitioned in 1922, and two ‘governments’ established in the Six and Twenty-Six counties, there has been an ongoing struggle for a United Ireland. It has been an incredibly hard struggle, fought against the most right wing and reactionary elements of Unionism, but this hasn’t and will never stop many of us from organising and fighting to achieve a Socialist Republic.”
“This day in 1971 Brian Faulkner was appointed ‘prime minister’ of a sectarian statelet which was set up to protect the interests of a pro-colonial business class, ably supported by a police force and its allies in loyalist murder gangs. Faulkner oversaw the introduction of Internment in August of that year, and just like he had done during the 50s and early 60s as security minister, he and his allies in Stormont did all they could to make the lives of Nationalists and Republicans a misery. However, they were met by a formidable guerrilla movement – the IRA.”
“Faulkner’s tenure didn’t last long, in March 1972 the British government took direct control. Of course this was a sham because they have always been in control and even today, 50 years later, they are still in control. Stormont is now administered by the successors of Faulkner and also by Sinn Féin – a party that once upon a time called for the smashing of that very place they now find a comfortable life sitting in.”
