Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association

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"The Civil Rights Mural - The Beginning".^[1]

The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (Irish: Cumann Chearta Sibhialta Thuaisceart Éireann) was an organisation which campaigned for civil rights of the Roman Catholic minority in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s and early 1970s. It dissolved shortly after its tenth anniversary.^[2]

[edit] Origins

The NICRA was founded at a meeting in Belfast's International Hotel on 29 January 1967.^[3] A thirteen-member elected committee drew up a constitution for the new organisation.^[3] This committee contained representatives from the Republican Clubs, Northern Ireland Labour Party, the Ulster Liberal Party, the Committee for Social Justice, the Communist Party of Ireland, and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Notably, the Nationalist Party was not represented.^[3]

Since Northern Ireland's creation as a state, the Roman Catholic community had suffered from widespread discrimination under the Protestant Unionist dominated government.^[4][5][6] NICRA had a number of demands, these included:^{[7][8][9][10]}

• one man, one vote
• an end to state gerrymandering of council boundaries, which effectively limited Catholic influence even when in places where Catholics were the majority
• the elimination of discrimination in government
• an end to discrimination in housing.
• the disbandment of the B Specials, an entirely Protestant police reserve, which was perceived by nationalists as sectarian.^[11]

The thirteen man steering committee later elected the following officers:

• Chairman: Noel Harris (DATA)
• Vice Chairman: Conn McCluskey (CSJ)
• Secretary: Derek O'Brien Peters, Communist Party of Northern Ireland
• Treasurer: Fred Heatley, Wolfe Tone Society
• P.R.O.: Jack Bennett, Wolfe Tone Society

Other members of the committee were:

• Betty Sinclair, Belfast Trades Council
• Billy McMillen, Republican Clubs
• John Quinn, Ulster Liberal Party
• Michael Dolley, National Democratic Party
• Joe Sherry, Republican Labour Party
• Jim Andrews, Ardoyne Tenants Association
• Paddy Devlin, Northern Ireland Labour Party
• Tony McGettigan, (no affiliation)

A five point outline of broad objectives was issued to the press after the inaugural meeting. These were:^[12]

• To defend the basic freedoms of all citizens
• To protect the rights of the individual
• To highlight all possible abuses of power
• To demand guarantees for freedom of speech, assembly and association
• To inform the public of their lawful rights.

NICRA held its next meeting to ratify the constitution on 9 April 1967. It was on this date that NICRA officially came into existence. There were some changes in the executive council with Ken Banks [DATA], Kevin Agnew [Republican] and Terence A. O'Brien [Derry, no affiliation] replacing Andrews, McMillen and McGettigan.^[3]

In a conscious imitation of tactics used by the American Civil Rights Movement,^[13] the new organisation held marches, pickets, sit-ins and protests to pressure the Government of Northern Ireland to grant these demands. Some people were suspicious of the motives of NICRA. Many claimed it was a cover for Irish republicanism, or perhaps the IRA. According to Scotland Yard, the Association was not itself linked to paramilitary groups. However "members [of the IRA] are encouraged to join and take an active role as individuals," and a member of the IRA council was on the Executive of the Civil Rights Association.^[14] The first civil rights march in Northern Ireland was held on 24 August 1968 between Coalisland and Dungannon.^[15]

[edit] Derry march

In September 1968, NICRA and the Derry Housing Action Committee organised a march to be held in Derry on 5 October 1968. On 1 October, the Protestant fraternal organisation, the Apprentice Boys of Derry, announced their intention to march the same route on the same day and time.^[16] William Craig, the Northern Ireland Home Affairs Minister, banned the civil rights march from the city centre.^[16]

When the demonstrators defied the ban, they were baton-charged by the Royal Ulster Constabulary who injured many marchers, including West Belfast MP Gerry Fitt. Television pictures of the march taken by RTÉ cameraman, Gay O'Brien, shocked viewers across the world. Two days of rioting in nationalist areas of Derry followed. Students such as Bernadette Devlin at Queen's University, Belfast were radicalised by these events and formed a more radical civil rights organisation People's Democracy.^[17]

On 22 November 1968, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Terence O'Neill announced a series of reforms:^[18]

• a new system for the allocation of housing
• the establishment of an ombudsman to investigate complaints
• a Development Commission to replace the Londonderry Corporation
• the abolition of the Special Powers Acts when it was considered safe to do so
• an end to the company vote

O'Neill made his 'Ulster at the crossroads' speech on television on 9 December, appealing for calm. As a result of the announced reforms, the more moderate civil rights associations declared halt to marches until 11 January 1969. The People's Democracy arranged a march within the month-long suspension however. This decision was renounced by Nationalists and Civil Rights leaders.^[19]

[edit] Burntollet

The People's Democracy rejected the government's commands. In imitation of Martin Luther King's Selma to Montgomery marches, about forty members held a march between Belfast and Derry starting on 1 January 1969. The march was repeatedly attacked by Protestant loyalist extremists (including off-duty members of the Ulster Special Constabulary)^[20] along its route. The most violent incident occurred at Burntollet bridge where the marchers were attacked by about two hundred loyalists armed with iron bars, bottles and stones^[21] while police did little to protect them.

Rioting and civil disorder continued in Northern Ireland's towns and cities, culminating in the Battle of the Bogside in Derry and the Northern Ireland riots of August 1969. Some claim at this point that NICRA was responsible for rallying support of the Catholic Bogsiders during the Battle of the Bogside. Pleas for equal rights were going unanswered, and the Catholic nationalist community was suffering under Protestant mobs and the RUC. Some increasingly looked to the Irish Republican Army to protect their areas from loyalist attacks.^[22][23] The Marxist-influenced IRA leadership attempted to defend some areas but had few arms and little capacity to fight back against rioters who were often also members of the RUC and B Specials.^[24][25] The Provisional Irish Republican Army soon emerged, a breakaway from the Official IRA, in an attempt to act as defenders of the Catholic community.^[26][27]

[edit] Bloody Sunday

Bloodstained civil rights banner after the Bloody Sunday shootings of 1972, depicted in a mural in the Bogside in Derry.

Main article: Bloody Sunday (1972)

The NICRA campaigned against internment following its introduction on 9 August 1971. The British government was interning thousands of men and women without trial. The vast majority were Roman Catholic Nationalists, many were civil rights activists and innocent. At a NICRA anti-internment march in Derry on 30 January 1972, thirteen unarmed demonstrators were shot dead by British troops, in what became known as Bloody Sunday. The army claimed it had come under fire, however no guns were uncovered. Most of the victims were shot in the back, indicating they were running away. The government report by Lord Widgery was dismissed by Catholic Nationalists as a whitewash - he defended the troops' actions.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Key Events - Civil Rights Campaign (1964-1972) — from the University of Ulster's CAIN project
• Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement — from the BBC History website
• WE SHALL OVERCOME....The History of the Struggle for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland 1968-1978 — from the University of Ulster's CAIN project