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Following the recent riots in the UK and the suggestion by some that the army should have been used. Effectivily if law and order totally breaks down then the civil authority either declares martial law or loses control and something else moves into the vacuum in the case of Germany Hitlers storm troopers took control of the street.
In August 1969 Harold Wilson's cabinet decided to send in the Army following disturbances in Belfast and Londonderry. What would have happened if they hadn't?
A few points should be born in mind. Firstly they were initially welcomed in the Catholic areas where the RUC was percieved as a sectarian police force and it was over 12 months before they began to be regarded as an army of occupation. Winston's Churchill's despatch of troops to Tonypandy was similarly welcomed initially as the Chief Constable of Glamorgan was regarded as being on the side of the coal owners but their continued presence effectively broke the strike
Secondly any official attempt to send in troops from Eire would have almost certainly been opposed and would not have reached the trouble spots in time to have stopped any pogroms.
Thirdly the term IRA referring to the Official IRA had been derisively termed "I ran away" at the time.
Also could there have been a way in which the army could have been withdrawn possibly initially to the barracks after order was restored preventing any pogroms without becoming regarded as an army of occupation?