1969 AD - 2 (February - March)

                                                                                            "People's Democracy Association /  N.I.C.R.A. / Civil Rights Association Success."

1969 AD February:  In  the 6 Counties "artificially partitioned" from the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province by the British Imperial Coalition Government and still under the control of the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist Stormont Government the "Official" Unionist M.P.s who were "opposed" to the leadership of Terence O Neill their Prime Minister held a meeting at Portadown, which was reported in the press, and the "Official" rift was now out in the open for all to see, as there was a"third" of the members from the "Official" Unionist Party now up against him there.

February 2nd: The Rev. Ian Paisley, the hard - line ethnic and sectarian extremist, and his U.V.F / Volunteer Force led 6,000 of his supporters through Belfast in Co. Antrim calling for Terence O Neill to be "removed" as the "Official " Unionist leader in the 6 Counties "artificially partitioned" from the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province by the British imperial Coalition Government, and still under "his" control.

February 3rd: Terence O Neill the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist Prime Minister of the Stormont Government in these 6 Counties in the Ulster Province held a Cabinet meeting where they all agreed to "pay" half the cost of all the overall injury claims by the population there and "all" of the property damage.

February 4th: The Ascendancy Stormont Parliament was "dissolved" in the 6 Counties "artificially " from the Counties 9 in the Ulster Province, and Terence O Neill their Prime Minister was forced to call an "election" for the 24th February to try and increase his "mandate" in the Stormont Parliament to sort out his "allegiances" in the "Official" Unionist Party, and also to test the overall Unionists call for a "change" of leadership and 13 individual "political" Parties were to nominate for the 52 seats with 942,000 registered voters, and the same "Official" Unionists who were "Pro" - Terence O Neill and "Anti" - Terence O Neill also stood for their same positions backed by the "Official" Unionist Party, while both the Pro and Anti - Terence O Neills now stood as "Official" and "Unofficial" Unionists against each "other." The Rev. Ian Paisley, the ethnic and religious extremist, "nominated" himself for 5 seats under the Ascendancy Unionist Party, including going up against Terence O Neill in Bannside in Co. Antrim, while his second - lieutenant, Major Ronald Bunting opposed Roy Bradford the "Official" Unionist Minister of Commerce and the "Peoples Democracy Association" seeking "reform" stood for 8 seats with Michael Farrell also against Terence O Neill in Bannside, while Eamonn mac Cann and Eddie Mac Ateer stood for Foyle and Derry, Bernadette Devlin took on James Chichester - Clark in South Derry, with the non - Catholic "Civil Rights" leader Ivan Cooper standing as an Independent for Mid - Derry against an Irish Nationalist, while the "reform" seeking democratic John Hume stood as an Independent also for Foyle and Derry against an Irish Nationalist.

      The Rev. Ian Paisley, the radical ethnic and sectarian extremist, was out campaigning with a "fife and drum band," and also with a group known as the Shankhill Road Young Conquerors, while in Co. Fermanagh John Brooke, the son of Lord Brookeborough, was also standing as an Anti - Terence O Neill candidate, and Lord Brookeborough who still held his great confiscated Estates in the Ulster Province also personally came out "against" Terence O Neill.  

February 5th: The Derry Development Commission for Local Government was approved.          

February: The Annual General Meeting of the "Civil Rights Association" in the 6 Counties "artificially partitioned" from the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province, was held and Betty Sinclair was replaced as their Chairman, and the "People's Democracy Association's" candidates, Frank Gogarty, Michael Farrell and Kevin Boyle were "successful," and it was now a more "militant" based organization, but much "less" organized, while the moderate "Derry Citizen's Action Committee" had been "quite" for a while, keeping their heads down, with less organized activity, but demonstrations and sit ins for "reform" were spasmodically occurring anyway, with no real "overall leader" in all of the "Civil Rights'" groups to "negotiate" with.

February 24th: The General Election was held for the Stormont Parliament in these 6 Counties "artificially partitioned" from the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province, which bought "no conclusive result" or firm control either for Terence O Neill, although he won 2 to 1 the "overall" Unionist vote and 11 Anti - Terence O Neill candidates were back in, with only William Morgan and William Hinds losing their seats, and there was 3 Independent Unionists who were Pro - Terence O Neill who were also elected, with the "Official" Unionist Party gaining only 1 seat overall. The "Civil Rights Association" had stood 8 Candidates, not only against the Ascendancy Unionists, but also against the Irish Nationalists, which only went to "split" the vote in their seats and the Irish Nationalists were now a "spent force," as they lost 3 of their 9 seats to candidates involved in the "Civil Rights," connected with N.I.C.R.A. / Civil Rights Association, including John Hume, and Ivar Cooper also was now  in, while Eddie mac Ateer after 22 years in the Stormont Parliament "lost" his seat. For the first time the people in the 6 Counties "artificially partitioned" from the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province had been given the opportunity of "other choices" after 40 years, as they now had a "third" choice in some of their seats. One of the candidates was Bernadette Devlin the Queen's University student, who stood for the solid Orange Order area of South Derry, were she polled 6,000 votes against Major James Dawson while Chichester - Clark who won the seat with 9,000 votes. (Later on he was to become the new"leader" of the Ascendancy "Official" Unionists). Michael Farrell a lecturer at Queen's University received 2,000 votes, while standing for the seat of Bannside against Terence O Neill who received 7,745 votes, who was also opposed by the Rev. Ian Paisley, the religious extremist, with 6,331 votes. Although the Paisleyites received a large number of votes, Major Ronald Bunting did not unseat Roy Bradford the "Official" Unionist and Terence O Neill "retained" his seat and the "Official" Unionist "leadership," but nothing had really changed, as the Ascendancy Unionists had won their usual seats and were still against any chance of bringing in "reform" in these 6 Counties in Ulster.

       The only "reforms" that were to occur from all of the previous turmoil, was that a Derry Development Commission was now to be set up for "housing" to be allocated on a fairer points system, with new methods also introduced to "investigate" citizen's complaints, and the "abolition" of the 6 Business votes for "individuals" based on how much "property" they owned in these 6 Counties in Ulster Province.

February 28th: 10 Ascendancy Unionist M.P.s "walked" out of the Stormont Parliament in the 6 Counties "artificially partitioned" from the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province after a vote of "confidence" was made in Terence O Neill as the leader of the "Official" Unionist Party, and of the 24 who remained in the Parliament, they backed him 23 to 1 against.

     During the elections for the committee of N.I.C.R.A. / Civil Rights Association, the Queen's University based "People's Democracy Association" candidates were to be very "successful" along with other liberal thinkers, which now gave them complete control over the "Civil Rights Association" to try and bring about "reform" in these 6 Counties in the Ulster Province.

March 12th: Terence O Neill the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist Prime Minister in the Stormont Government in these 6 Counties in the Ulster Province reshuffled his "Official" Unionist Cabinet, and "further reforms" were also bought in with "universal suffrage" for the ratepayers in the Local Government elections, but still there was only to be a "review" of the Special Powers Act there.

March 30th: Terence O Neill as the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist Prime Minister in the Stormont Government in these 6 Counties in the Ulster Province now won a "vote of confidence" by 338 to 263 at their "Official" Unionist Party meeting. 

   Explosions occurred and the electricity supply at Castlereagh near Belfast in Co. Antrim, another of the 6 Counties "artificially partitioned" from the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province was "blown up," and the "Anti - Treaty IRA" were naturally "blamed" for it, but in reality it was later found out to be the work of the Unionist Loyalists who were attempting to "bring down" Terence O Neill the "Official "Unionist Prime Minister and leader.

March: The "Anti - Treaty IRA" let it be known that they now saw no need to "amalgamate" with the "political" Sinn Fein Party, who bought out their own newspaper, An Phoblacht / The Republic.

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