During all the shooting, bombing and terrorism perpetrated by the Irish Republican Army, the Protestants of Northern Ireland have exhibited considerable restraint. Last week their cumulative anger seemed on the point of boiling overand at the worst possible moment. Just one day after the beginning of a complete I.R.A. cease-fire the most hopeful event in troubled Ulster in many a monthmilitant Protestants reaffirmed an ominous plan that, if carried through, would almost certainly send the I.R.A. to its guns again.
Impatient with William Whitelaw, Britain's Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, for...