Jack Lynch addresses the nation on the eve of the 12 July Parades.

In this island there is no solution to be found to our disagreements by shooting each other. There is no real invader here. We are all Irish in all our different kinds of ways.

In a special broadcast, the Irish Taoiseach appeals to those both north and south of the border. The annual unionist 12 July parades were due to take place the next day and Northern Ireland was volatile. Recent riots in the nationalist part of Belfast had seen four people killed by the British Army. Jack Lynch himself had sacked his ministers Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney for alleged conspiracy to import arms for the IRA.

If a few of you are so misled as to go on brandishing a domination over your nearest neighbours, no words of mine can stop you. But the world will not respect you.

A broadcast by the Taoiseach Jack Lynch on 11 July 1970.