The year 1972 had witnessed 494 violent deaths in Northern Ireland, the bloodiest year in more than a quarter of a century of Troubles. Early in 1973 there was a spate of gruesome sectarian murders and violent loyalist clashes with the security forces and, meanwhile, the Provisionals continued to conduct their campaign with ruthless effectiveness.
Mr William Whitelaw, Northernn Secretary since the suspension of Stormont in the spring of 1972, was anxious to bring an early end to direct rule. While he worked on his plan to create an elected assembly he was advised by an ad hoc group of appointees known as the Northern Ireland Advisory Commission. For the very first time in Northern Ireland's history Catholics were getting the opportunity to shape policy.
Mr Whitelaw got advice and criticism far removed from anything heard previously in Stormont Cabinet discussions. On February 13th the accusation was made that there was "collusion between management and Protestant extremist groups . . . and one member suggested such collusion had taken place within the RUC, the BBC and the Belfast electricity and transport departments".
Members cited examples "of UDA contingents intimidating public transport crews and of Catholics being forced to contribute to LAW funds in order to preserve their jobs".
At a meeting of the commission the previous day, Mr Whitelaw was advised to proscribe the UDA and detain its leading members. Other members agreed with Mr Whitelaw when he responded that "there were other loyalist organisations such as the Red Hand of Ulster Commandos and the Vanguard Service Volunteers. If the UDA was proscribed its membership could transfer to these or other organisations".
Mr Whitelaw also referred to "the de facto letting of houses by the UDA and the IRA". Could the small number of Catholics in the Ulster Defence Regiment be increased? Mr Whitelaw noted "every effort was being made to achieve this but a doubt was expressed about the utility of the exercise".
The commission wielded sufficient clout to force senior public servants to explain themselves. On the meeting of June 25th, James O'Hara, a commission member, "considered that the substantial arms finds in Protestant areas might have been expected to lead to a greater breakthrough into the inner circles of terrorist organisations. Some Protestant outrages were never publicised . . . He doubted whether UDA suspects were questioned in the same way as IRA suspects".
The commission was concerned enough by these remarks to seek an explanation from the RUC. On July 5th the famously unreconstructed Assistant Chief Constable, Bill Meharg, fired off a testy response:
"I find it difficult to understand why I should have to answer Mr O'Hara's allegation of partiality. During the present campaign of violence by subversives, the Royal Ulster Constabulary has been subjected to a smear campaign. There has been widespread malicious propaganda to discredit lawful authority."
To show that the RUC did attempt to apprehend loyalist terrorists he wrote: "Police made amenable four members of he Protestant UVF, for the murder of Peter Ward in Malvern Street". That, however, was back in 1966. Clearly senior police officers were unused to having to pen justifications of their actions to both British ministers and Catholic spokesmen. Meharg added:
"It should not be necessary for me at a time when police are fully committed in the investigations of serious crimes to reiterate the findings of the Scarman Tribunal on the partiality of the RUC."
The government was pledged to phase out internment but considerable numbers of detainees remained in addition to prisoners designated by the Northern Secretary (from June 1972) as having "special category status". Members of the advisory commission were much concerned with conditions prevailing in the Maze in particular. Mr Whitelaw permitted members of the commission and political representatives to visit the Maze in February.
Mr Tom Conaty, chairman of the Central Citizens' Defence Committee and a member of the commission, complained on February 5th that an official accompanying him in the prison had shown "an inhuman cold detachment", being prepared to "cover up, deceive and be downright insulting rather than answer honestly a straightforward question".
Ms Sheelagh Murnaghan, a member of the commission who had represented Queen's University as a Liberal MP, in her report on her Maze visit expressed concern that "the present parole arrangements are now so strict as to amount to inhumanity".
Ms Murnaghan did not support "Mr Conaty's remark that the food was inedible". There was general agreement, however, that there were "undoubtedly mice and rats. The large number of food parcels to which detainees and special category prisoners are entitled increases the risks of vermin being attracted into the prison". Criticisms that the Nissen "huts do not provide the standards of comfort, amenity and finish demanded of permanent buildings are reasonably justified". There were also problems with "porous cables".
The discovery of a tunnel led to a prohibition on food parcels: this reduced the rodent problem only for a time because Mr Whitelaw rescinded this punishment in May. Members were rather concerned when Mr Whitelaw also allowed "handicraft articles bearing Irish words" to be sent out of the Maze.
Some were concerned that the prison was named "Long Kesh" by the prisoners, it "not being the proper title of the prison". Mr Whitelaw reassured them: "inscriptions supporting violence or illegal activities could not be permitted on handicraft articles - such inscriptions also had to be legible to the staff".
After 46 meetings the advisory commission was wound up in July. By then, 26 district councils and a Northern Ireland Assembly had been elected. The road was being cleared for the momentous decision on power-sharing in November and the historic Sunningdale Agreement in December.
Jonathan Bardon is author of A History of Ulster and is a lecturer in the School of History, Queen's University Belfast