The response of the British Left to the Irish crisis, which has now lasted for nearly a full decade, has not been impressive. There has, for example, never been a full-scale debate on the subject by a Labour Party Conference, and the Labour Party, then in opposition, failed to oppose, let alone campaign against, the introduction of internment without trial or charge in Northern Ireland in August 1971. It may be said that the Labour Party as an institution hardly deserves to be considered a part of any 'Left': nevertheless, its record on Ireland is significant. Enough local Labour Parties felt strongly enough about the American war in Vietnam, and the Labour Government's support for the American war, to ensure that the issue of Vietnam was extensively and hotly debated at party conference. The efforts of a minority of Left-wing MPs and activists have never succeeded in generating a similar response to the war in Ireland, although, unlike Vietnam, that war has been the direct responsibility of successive British governments. It has proved consistently difficult to campaign effectively on the Irish issue. Even the shooting of 13 demonstrators in Derry on January 30, 1972, failed to shock any substantial section of British opinion into an awareness of the true nature of the British Army's role in the conflict. I remember that the protest demonstration over Bloody Sunday in Sheffield was met with silent hostility by the people of this working-class city
