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Date Posted: 19:20:39 09/03/02 Tue
Author: Part 2
Subject: Road to the Streets

Thus Stormont was essentially imposed, and maintained by force of arms, and repressive legislation. It was based on a specific geographical carve-up based on a sectarian head-count. From henceforth, Nationalists would reluctantly be part of a statelet in which the ratio was initially two to one in favour of partition.

The early omens were not favourable and the seeds of future discord were sown were sown in those formative years. The declaration that Stormont would be "A Protestant Parliament for a Protestant People" set the tone for future decades. The British ruling-elites remained unruffled by such
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blatant institutionalised bigotry. Such sums up the difficulties for reformers in each generation, and specifically those of us in the 1960s who attempted to end institutionalised injustices, within an anti-sectarian strategy.

After its establishment the Stormont Government turned its attention to the problem of how to guarantee the predominance of Loyalist interests under their new regime. Anti-partitionists had substantial majorities in two of the Six Counties, Fermanagh and Tyrone, and in Derry, the largest city outside Belfast. So a substantial section of the population was deemed to be 'disloyal' and the overriding objective of the Stormont regime was to contain and control the minority community. The methods would be varied, but viewed in aggregate these shared an obvious aim. Radical historians would argue that British rule in Belfast depended upon sectarianism, and point to examples such as Sir Robert Maxwell's explanation to the Westminster cabinet in 1924:

"The accusation against the government of Northern Ireland of religious discrimination is somewhat difficult to deal with. In one sense it is of course obvious that Northern Ireland is and must be a Protestant 'state', otherwise it would not have come into being and would certainly not continue to exist." (Cabinet minutes, 22nd. April, 1924).


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Derrymandering

The following analysis will primarily concentrate on Derry and the issue of electoral representation, which in practice amounted to major abuses of the western democratic process.

Stormont abolished proportional representation from the electoral scene as Britain had 'thoughtlessly' failed to insert democratic guarantees into the Government of Ireland Act (1920). Alteration to boundaries could ultimately be made with the stroke of a pen without reference to the Westminster parliament. London effectively washed its hands off local affairs by a convention which did not permit the affairs of these six counties to be discussed on the 'floor of the House'. Such could only be viewed as a two-edged sword, forged against the minority population, that would have the effect of giving the Orange/Unionist establishment a free hand, while at the same time acting as a means of diverting possible international criticism away from Whitehall.

In 1922 the third major exercise in ward-rigging of local government in Derry, since 1896, was approved by Stormont. Nationalist/Sinn Fein tenure of the local Corporation thus ended in 1923 as the Orange/Unionist elites effectively turned a majority into a minority and resumed control of the city. Anti-partitionists withdrew from the Corporation for a whole

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decade. During that boycott period the Unionists tightened their grip on the city and incorporated a number of devices into the Corporations's affairs that would prove most difficult to dismantle.

When it came to representation at Stormont itself, Derry originally had one seat, and this was occupied by a Nationalist, which mirrored the genuine will of the majority of the electorate. In order to neutralise the seat the electoral division was re-arranged. The city itself was cut in two. From henceforth Foyle would still return an anti-partitionist, but another seat was created which would return a Unionist. This scheme involved the boundary being stretched some eight miles into the countryside to create a new constituency, which ironically would be known as, 'City'. This re-drawing of the boundaries would include yet more head-counts so as to include pockets of Unionist voters, without reference to natural geographical features, in order to scrape together an Orange-Tory majority.

Another "Gerrymander", i.e. re-rigging of electoral wards, was proposed in 1936. Frank Curran, later to be editor of "The Derry Journal", was to write of this fourth gerrymander proposal: "The Unionist scheme called for a reduction in the wards from five to three, with four seats for the Unionist Waterside, eight seats for the Unionist North Ward, but also only eight seats for the Nationalist South

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Ward, which contained more voters than the other two wards together" -(p. 10: "Derry: Countdown to Disaster", - Gill & Macmillan, 1986).

This new ward system received the green light from an apparently rigged public inquiry. Effectively, the South Ward was reduced to the status of a ghetto. The first election in May 1938 produced the results intended by the gerrymanderers. The Unionist minority in the city returned 12 representatives and thus had the power to elect a unionist mayor, whereas, the Nationalist majority returned only eight representatives.

Anti-partitionists would have to wait until the early 1970s before even being able to elect a mayor who could truly claim to represent the majority of the citizenry. Such would only come, alas, after much social instability which forced London to belatedly implement a root and branch transformation of the formerly undemocratic electoral system.

Vicious Circle

The electoral history of the north in general, and Derry in particular, could not be divorced from the issues of homes and jobs when reformers in the mid-1960s, such as this writer, began to formulate a programme of demands and a strategy for protest. A student of sociology could have drawn the political system of unionist domination as a wheel, with the gerrymander

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as its hub and the spokes as being a number of social and economic issues. All were inter-related factors of local and central government that suggested strongly a well tried and agreed official stratagem.

This suspected stratagem involved:
a) consistent opposition to a crash house-building programme;
b) discernible policies that encouraged emigration from selected regions;
c) widespread discrimination in employment in the public and private sectors (which continues to this day);
d) manipulation of incoming industries (or Industrial Apartheid);
e) denial of boundary extension;
f) maintenance of a special sectarian police reserve; and
g) the existence of a partisan Special Powers Act.

Around the hub and the spokes our sociology student might well have drawn a rim and given his finished sketch an appropriate title. This might have accurately read: "The Vicious Circle of One-Party Rule in the North of Ireland". At least this is how some of us in the formative days of the struggle, for civil liberties, economic equality and social justice, endeavoured to explain our situation to academics, the media, and politicians abroad. The whole set up seemed to mystify some, yet many now questioned if Britain would permit

- 25 -
such a system to operate in the second half of the 20th century, unless, a) it served their real interests, and, b) had the necessary Whitehall approval, at the highest levels.

Several choose to disbelieve the claims of the Civil Rights Movement and reassured themselves that Britain was a model democracy that would not permit such abuses. At home we also sought to fully unravel the complexities of our social reality in the 1960s, so as to better explain our plight. Eventually, human rights' agencies and the international community would come to view our situation with horror and called on London for immediate remedies.

Identifying Targets

The six demands of the Civil Rights campaign had emerged after intense research over several years, much of which was carried out in Dungannon and Derry. As outlined previously, these centred on the need for one-man-one-vote in elections, an end to gerrymandered boundaries, the need for anti-
discrimination laws and remedial tribunals, as well as the demand for crash building programmes and the desire to obtain allocation of public housing on a points system, based on need. The other two demands related to obtaining the repeal of all repressive legislation, particularly the Special Powers Act, and the creation of an impartial and politically independent police service, which would necessitate the

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disbanding of the notorious B'Specials. The latter was a blatantly sectarian reserve insofar as recruits to the force were only accepted from the non-Catholic sections of the community.

Discrimination in employment was a central target for reform. Catholics in the mid-1960s were 2.6 times more likely to be unemployed, and for much longer periods, than any other section of the workforce. The full extend of emigration, however, was not adequately researched and its collateral connections, with religious discrimination in the public and private sectors was, thus, never fully appreciated by the founder of NICRA. According to figures released, in the summer of 1993, by Queen's University sociologist, M. Tomlinson, in the period 1920-68, 263,000 Catholic workers left the North for good.

This is a staggering statistic when one remembers that the entire population of these Six Counties numbered approximately one and a half million. Emigration from
other sections of the community, was deemed to be insignificant by other seasoned observers. It is noteworthy, in relation to the 1993 statistics, that these were made public, twenty-five years after Derry's first ever civil rights march, and almost eighteen years since Britain introduced its much-heralded fair employment legislation. Catholics are still around 2.5 times more likely to be

- 27 -
unemployed than other sections of the workforce.

The Royal Ulster Constabulary could well have been more appropriately named the Ulster Loyalist Constabulary. The RUC had a complement of just over 3,000, 10% of which were Catholics. Of the total of 50 officers in the force only six came from the minority community: of the 120 head constables only 16 were Catholics: of 400 sergeants, the number was 50. It must be stressed that by joining this force none could thereby be considered nationalists as its prime function was to maintain, by means fair or foul, the Six County partitionist statelet.

These figures are based on studies in 1967, and published in "N. Ireland - The Plain Truth", produced by the Campaign for Social Justice (1969), Many reformers viewed the R.U.C. as
the strong arm of Stormont, best illustrated by the powers available to all Ministers of Home affairs, who used the police force for overtly political and partisan objectives. While not included in NICRA's original reform programme, its leadership desired to see the creation of a balanced police service, that consciously catered for, all sections of the community, with a high degree of democratic accountability.





- 28 -
The Ulster Special Constabulary, known commonly as the B'Specials, could only be described as a sectarian part-time force, and it had a compliment of 11,300 strong. All members were Protestant, and mainly drawn from extreme loyalist elements. They were mainly recruited from members of the Orange Order. As recipients of unionist patronage they constituted a private unionist army. They had the right to retain firearms in their own homes, and before and after October 5th, 1968, several documented cases highlighted vicious attacks on civil rights marchers, and others deemed to be 'disloyal'. A particular hatred was directed against progressive Protestants who supported democratic and liberal causes.

Such vicious attacks, stretching back to their formation in the 1920s, were carried out by Specials in mufti. Therefore, understandably, the Civil rights Movement sought their total abolition.

Special Powers

In April 1963, J. Voster, at that time Minister of Justice in a racist police state, whilst introducing a new Coercion Bill in the South African parliament, could state that he "would be willing to exchange all the legislation of that sort for one clause of the Northern Ireland Special Powers Act". An inquiry carried out by the National Council

- 29 -
for Civil Liberties in Britain during 1936 commented that the Unionists had created "under the shadow of the British constitution a permanent machine of dictatorship". The NCCL compared the Six Counties with the fascist dictatorships then current in Europe.

One would have expected that during the years of World War II true 'Loyalists' would have been queuing up to take the King's shilling, to serve the English monarch and defend the British Empire, against European fascism. On the contrary, this period throws up some interesting facts.

In John Kelly's book, "Bonfires on the Hillside - An Eyewitness Account of Political Upheaval in N.Ireland" he remarked how the Unionist deputy Prime Minister, John Millar Andrews (69), "made the ritual demand for the imposition of conscription but with a hefty slice of the Loyalist workers in either reserved occupations in the shipyards, aircraft or engineering firms, or the 'B' Specials, alias the Home Guard,
there was not much objection except from the Nationalist population on whom the full brunt of conscription would inevitably fall". (p. 108, Fountain Publishing, 1995).

Later, on pps. 119-120, he writes: "there were unattributable reports that Churchill had muttered that conscription in N. Ireland would 'cause more trouble that it was worth'. He was right. One could visualise the likely

- 30 -
consequences with the 'B' Specials rounding up unwilling conscripts all over the North or pursuing them down to the Border. Needless to say the unwilling cannon-fodder would not have been confined to the Nationalist population. While volunteer forces in the North were a mere trickle compared to the First World War, surprisingly those who did come forward were considerably augmented by young men from the South including deserters from the Irish Army looking for 'action'. It was somewhat ironic to see contingents of these new recruits passing down Donegal Street en route for the docks to the jeers of shipyard workers crowded on homeward bound trams on an evening. Wisely the Orange Order cancelled the annual Twelfth of July march through the city for the duration of the war.

"It was said at the time that British Army officers quartered in the Grand Central Hotel might have had some caustic comments to make about this martial display of able-bodied loyalists marching behind a Union Jack along Royal Avenue with bands and big drums to celebrate an ancient battle when they might well be marching to a real war. There is a world of difference between flag waving in peace-time and flag waving in war-time. Local Orange grandmasters were stung into public denial when a mischievous paragraph appeared in the Irish Press suggesting that a parade of some hundred Junior Orange Lodges included a large number of hairy-legged youths of military age ! After that there were less marches of Junior Lodges".
- 31 -
When the fight against fascism was taking place elsewhere, the constant use of the Draconian Special Powers Act made a mockery of what was claimed to be British democracy, which millions were told they were fighting to protect and maintain. The Act had been continuously in operation since 1922, empowered the authorities to: (1) Arrest without warrant. (2) Imprison without charge or trial and deny recourse to a solicitor, Habeas Corpus, or a count of law. (3) Enter and search homes without warrant, and with force, at any hour of the day or night. (4) Declare a curfew and prohibit meetings, assemblies (including fairs and markets) and processions. (5) Permit punishment by flogging ('Cat-of-nine-tails). (6) Deny claim to a trial by jury. (7) Arrest persons that police desired to examine as witnesses, forcibly detain them and compel them to answer questions, under penalties, even if answers might incriminate them. Such a person was guilty of an offence if he/she refused to be sworn or answer a question. The usual police caution given on arrest elsewhere, was effectively redundant, under this clause. (8) Do any involving interference with the rights of private property. (9) Prevent access of relatives or legal advisers to a person imprisoned without charge or trial. (10) Prohibit the holding of an inquest after a prisoner's death. (11) Arrest a person who "by word of mouth" spreads false reports or makes false statements. (12) Prohibit the circulation of any newspaper, e.g. The United Irishman. (13) Prohibit the possession of any film, tape or Gramophone record. (14) Arrest

- 32 -
a person who does anything "calculated to be prejudicial to the preservation of peace or maintenance of order in Northern Ireland and not specifically provided for in the regulations". (15) The Act allowed the Minister of Home Affairs to create "new crimes" by Government decree, e.g., it became a crime, overnight, to name a club a "Republican Club" in 1966. (See Appendix 1 & 2)

Charters

Other Acts included the Flags and Emblems (Display) Act (N.Ireland), 1954 and the Public Order Act, 1951, which dealt specifically with processions and public meetings. Needless to add, both Acts were enforced in a partisan fashion, particularly against those who wished to organise St. Patrick Day parades, other cultural events, or anti-Stormont demonstrations.

The Civil Rights Movement found such legislation to be both restrictive and repressive, and contrary even to British law itself. Such internal laws were also at variance with several human rights' charters, including those endorsed by the United Nations. All these named Acts joined the growing list of targets for reform, as the early Civil Rights Movement began to adopt a much higher public profile.



- 33 -
The road to the streets had resulted in the highly successful Coalisland-Dungannon march on August 24. The Civil Rights cause was on the threshold of attracting worldwide attention as Derry activists prepared for the city's first-ever official march, scheduled for the afternoon of October 5, 1968.

Memories of Duke Street

Buoyed up by the fact that the Coalisland to Dungannon march on August 24th had been, in the main, peaceful, and deemed to be highly successful, the Derry Housing Action Committee formally requested the Civil Rights Association executive to consider holding its next demonstration in the city to highlight the need for democratic reforms, and specifically the plight of hundreds of local homeless families. The NICRA executive responded, a few weeks later,
indicating their approval with the proviso that any organising committee should be as broadly based as possible. The date for the next march was scheduled for Saturday, October 5th, at 3 PM, with the agreed assembly point being the Waterside railway station.

As preparations began and the local press reported the proposed march, key organisers. including this writer, were frequently 'taken in' by police to the upstairs back office of District Inspector Ross McGimpsey. It became crystal clear,

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almost delicately over coffee and Jaffa cakes, that the Minister of Home Affairs felt strongly that this march would be "highly ill-advised".

The Minister's excuse, if one was needed, came with an announcement by an alliance of the Liverpool Monday Club, the local Murray Club and the Apprentice Boys that they would march the same route. Such could not be viewed as a traditional parade as October was never part of their usual 'marching season'.

An order banning the civil rights march was duly delivered to the key organisers, which included Eamonn McCann, and this correspondent, only a few days before October 5th. The proposed counter-demonstration, as anticipated, never actually materialised, yet the green light had clearly been given by the Orange/Unionist establishment to sectarianise the civil rights cause. All the organisers were on the Left, and our appeal was directed at all sections of the working-class who were victims of the society in which we found ourselves. The Orange/Unionist reaction, although expected, was deeply regretted as Protestant friends would certainly stay away, fearing subsequent intimidation, or worst.

Derry's first civil rights march should be remembered as the march that nearly never happened. Within hours of the ban being imposed the NICRA executive were communicating their

- 35 -
concerns at the likely consequences and instructed the local organising committee to convene an emergency meeting at the City Hotel for the evening of October 4th. They too were taking everything right up to the line. At this meeting the proceedings were at times heated and lasted for around two hours. The press were of course excluded. About seventy were in attendance and bursts of applause occurred at intervals.

There were a few adjournments as NICRA leaders went into conclave. The respective Derry groups, asserting their independence, followed their example and held their counter-conclaves. The Derry organisers were of one mind and held firm. The NICRA executive broke ranks after it was made abundantly clear from the Derry delegates that we would march, with or without either NICRA's blessing or participation. All the spokesmen, like seasoned politicians, emerged from the angry meeting saying that although there had been 'minor
disagreements, in the final analysis, it was 'unanimously decided to proceed, from the railway station to the Diamond on the route scheduled".

In case of early morning arrests a few of the organisers did not sleep in their own beds on the night of October 4th. Early next morning the delighted Member for West Belfast, Gerry Fitt (later to be Lord Fitt) was on the phone confirming that three British MPs had answered the call from Derry. They were Mr. Russell Kerr, Member for Feltham, Middlesex, His wife

- 36 -
Anne, Member for Rochester, and Mr. John Ryan, Member for Uxbridge.

At the railway station the crowd of some 400 gradually gathered. This correspondent, surprisingly, was the only one who took the precaution of adorning a crash-helmet, kindly provided by an Englishman who taught woodwork at the local technical college. It had arrived the evening before, with him worriedly pointing out that the RUC "are not like our Bobbies back home". He joked about having painted an large eye on the back, suggesting that a certain well known agitator might need one.

Across the River Foyle at Brandywell some 10,000 fans had, regretfully, opted for the excitement of a football match, which we had not figured in our planning, when fixing the date for the march. Some 250 police were on duty in the immediate vicinity of the station. They became transparent. They had blocked off Distillery Brae with a rope, making it obvious that this first part of the route into Spencer Road, was being denied us. To re-enforce this point a barricade of police tenders were soon drawn up behind the rope. It was evident they wished the march to move off and flow along Duke Street, which in those days offered neither a lane or an alleyway as a potential exit point. Recalling to mind D.I. McGimpsey's sarcastic parting remarks, at our last meeting, McCann and this writer, had no doubt whatsoever, that we would

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be stopped, by sheer numbers and sectarian brute force.

Police Warning

The civic rights supporters, however, remained calm, while expressing concern, yet all were determined to participate regardless. The tension increased as the RUC made an eleventh-hour appeal. County Inspector William Meharg read the prohibition order to the crowd, adding, ominously, but no doubt for media purposes: "We want to give a warning especially to those who are not interested, for their own safety and the safety of women and children". No one moved or thought his apparent concern was worthy of thanks. His had been an ago-old message for those seeking change, which required no elaboration for those socially-committed people who had made a conscious decision to assemble at Duke Street
on that particular afternoon. There was nothing sectarian in the make-up of the marchers. They included people from various creeds, classes and political outlooks. The demands for full civil rights and increased equality was the unifying element for all participants.

We half-dozen organisers took a last minute decision to switch the route from Distillery Brae and Spencer Road to Duke Street, which was not originally intended. The police must have assumed that we would take "the Brae" for when our new route became obvious to them as we moved off, there was a

- 38 -
hasty change in police strategy also. The riot squads, mobilised for a peaceful march, jumped into tenders and drove off, yelling, "Block off the mouth of Duke Street", which they did at its junction with Craigavon Bridge. By the time the Civil Rights's banner reached those lined of heavily-armed police, the march had grown to around one thousand strong.

Long Tunnel

The 'Fifty Days Revolution', which would end with the Six Counties' biggest-ever programme of reform had begun. In as orderly a fashion as possible we had moved slowly, while keeping up our spirits, and strengthening our individual and collective resolve by singing "We Shall Overcome". We were frighteningly conscious that immediately behind us the police on foot and their large water cannon moved menacingly forward at the tail-end of the march. Essentially, Duke Street became like a long tunnel, with both ends blocked, and in between the marchers were trapped, and at the mercy, or otherwise, of a one-party police state. In more ways than one, for the common people, there was no going back !
Seconds after drawing up against the police lines there was brief scuffling, during which Gerry Fitt MP, suffered a head wound from a baton. He was instantly pulled under police barriers, whisked away, first, strangely, to Victoria Barracks, and after questioning, and verbal abuse, to hospital.

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Some of the other politicians were struck, but none as seriously as the first selected target. These police actions were so swift that the majority of the crowd were unaware of what was happening at the front lines. Such had lasted only a brief few seconds. NICRA leaders were now aware that neither Irish or British politicians could be any guarantee of protection. The lines of paramilitary police in front were, as he had indicated previously, commanded by 'Ross the Boss' -none other than D.I. McGimpsey himself.

On this historic occasion he carried his stout, particularly sharp-edged, black-thorn stick, not the one used for ceremonials. His attitude to peaceful protest was captured
that day for posterity as he used this walking instrument for other purposes, becoming so energetic that his peaked-cap was dislodged in the exercise. Unwittingly, he was now a prime representation of 'Ulster' policing for a previously unenlightened international viewing audience. His delivery, to an unappreciative attendance, during that début performance, on a world stage, served the civil rights' cause magnificently.

Civil rights leaders tried to restore calm before that main police assault. The historian, Fred Heatley and the Labour leader Erskine Holmes were seized by police and placed under armed guard in a tender. Attempts to break through police lines proved impossible. Marchers began to chant "Seig

- 40 -
Heil", and for a half an hour the situation remained static. Police took advantage of hurried attempts to organise a panel of speakers, and get a public meeting under way, by forming yet another barricade at the rear of the parade. The crowd became more tightly packed between the lines of black uniforms, tenders and water cannon. After the last speaker addressed the gathering all hell broke loose.

Brutal Clashes

Police clashed with marchers brutally and bloodily as people tried frantically to escape. There was, as the police had planned, no line of retreat, and so, symbolically, we could only but move forward.

The following reports and comments are taken from "The Derry Journal" of October 8, 1968. These reveal just some of the details of what happened at that historic march:

"As police attempted to drive the marcher back the injured were removed from the front of the conflict. Young men with blood streaming from head wounds were led away by onlookers and taken into nearby shops for attention before removal to hospital. Women caught up in the crowd screamed as they tried to get away and Mr. Mc Ateer later said that he saw a woman being struck in the mouth with a baton.


- 41 -
"The police water cannon was then brought into action and it drove through the crowd with both jets spraying at full pressure. It was followed into the crowd by a large number of steel-helmeted police with batons swinging. The police charged from both ends of the street as the marchers broke up in a bid to find a way through the barricades.

"The water cannon swept both sides of the street and at one stage on its way back elevated its line of fire to direct a jet through an open window on the first floor of a house where a television cameraman was filming. It then continued over Craigavon Bridge, with its jets hosing both footpaths. Hundreds of afternoon shoppers, many of them women and some
accompanied by young children were caught in the deluge as the water carrier travelled to the Derry side of the bridge and continued round the roundabout at the foot of Carlisle Road, more than a quarter of a mile from the scene of the trouble.

"Meanwhile the bitter clash continued at Duke Street, as a result of which about thirty people were treated in hospital for head wounds, before the marchers were finally dispersed".

Elsewhere, on page 8, one reads:

"None of the British MPs were hurt and after paying a visit to Altnagelvin Hospital, where they watched the injured being brought in, one of them, Mr. Kerr, said he was shocked

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by what he had seen. He said he would not care to comment further until he had made a full report to Mr. Callaghan.

"Mrs. Kerr said she dashed into a café when the violence started and while there she saw two young girls being brought in. They had been drenched and were in a very distressed condition, The police were grinning and appeared to be enjoying their work," she said.

Mass Movement

One could finally conclude that on October 5, 1968, by courtesy of the RUC and an inflexible short-sighted Minister of Home Affairs, the Civil Rights Association was transformed from being a mere pressure group into a mass movement for reform. This happened almost immediately. At the turn of a switch millions heard of a place called "Northern Ireland" and learned a lot from actually seeing its method of policing in their very living rooms. They may have forgotten the name of that street where it all happened, but not the name of that Irish city. Thereafter, when Derry cried out for reform, the whole world was listening. Even Westminster could no longer afford to conveniently ignore what had been happening in this one-party state, which it had established by imposing partition, forty-eight years previously.

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