Will the Pope slam 'H' Blocks?

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Prisoners Aid Committee demonstration backs 'H' Block struggle As the hue and cry and crocodile tears surrounding the IRA execution of Lord Mountbatten and the successful ambush at Warrenpoint, die away, it is clear that increasing sections of bourgeois opinion are seeking to distance themselves from the brutal repression of British imperialism in the six counties.

Britain's former ambassador to the USACallaghan's son-in-law Peter Jay-last week outraged orthodox imperialist spokesmen by talking of the necessity to look towards a united Ireland as the only long term solution to the war. • Jay himself, along with his father-in-law and other leading bourgeois politicians it is worth noting, is still known to be on an IRA 'target' list.

Reluctance

Perhaps his vague plans for a way out of the war might be linked to a strong reluctance to visit his holiday home in the Irish republic until he feels his PHOTO: Laurence Sparham, IFL : life is no longer in danger.

But Irish premier Jack Lynch, too, in a'weekend speech has attempted to distance himself once again from the "boot and bullet' tactics of British imperialism in the North, calling vaguely tor a 'political initiative' from the Tory Frenzied hostility Such talk has been met with frenzied hostility from Observer editor and former Irish government minister Conor Cruise O'Brien, whose venomous hatred for the republican struggle has now taken him on a tour of the USA in a bid to persuade Irish Americans to stop their financial aid to the IRA.

O'Brien points out (correctly!) that every politician who talks of a united Ireland strengthens the hand and determination of the IRA in their armed war against the British.

But of course growing sections of the British and international bourgeoisie are beginning to question whether the IRA can ever be defeated.

The republicans evidently expanding mass support and growing self-confidence