April 26 1974
The Minister of Commerce, Mr John Hume, last night reiterated his appeal to Irish-Americans not to subscribe to IRA funds.
Addressing an audience of Congressional leaders, Senators and Congressmen in Washington, Mr Hume said: “Would they themselves shoot a gun or throw a bomb – for that is what their dollar will do.”
He said the power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive was isolating the men of violence. “We threaten their existence,” he went on, “more even than any military action which might be taken. The restoration of normal political processes cut the ground from under the men of violence – and they know it. For this reason we can expect in the short term not a cessation but an increase in violence.”
The Minister said: “It is a time for cool nerves and steady heads – and I hope and pray for an adequate supply of both. If we fail, politics fail, and a weak and defenceless people is delivered to the horrors of civil strife.”
He said the only thing that justified the sufferings of the last four years was that they could take the opportunity to build a new and better society in which their children could live together in peace.
“For this,” Mr Hume said, “we need time; we need patience; patience to understand the complexities of a problem which we find hard to explain to ourselves, we need it for our own suffering and sorely tried people; we need it too from the spectators – even at this distance – and from those directly involved.”
Plea from John Hume on a trade mission to the US for Irish-Americans not to contribute to bodies like Noraid who funded the IRA, and to support peace efforts instead.
Threats to World Cup games
Arab terrorists have threatened attacks on the World Soccer Cup scheduled to open on June 13 in West Germany, the Bavarian Interior Ministry said in Munich yesterday.
Herr Erich Kiesl, State Secretary in the Ministry, said there were “concrete indications” of terrorist preparations for an assault on the month-long matches in some German cities, but declined to provide details.