1969 AD - 1
1969
In
the
Irish Republic
the political
Fianna Fail Party that was
now under the
leadership of
Jack Lynch
won the
General Elections
gaining
2
further seats,
giving
them an overall majority, and
Frank Aiken
the long serving member of the Fianna Fail Party
retired as their
Minister for External Affairs. The
Irish Labour Party
had put up
99
candidates
and received an increase in their vote also in the
Dublin
area, but lost
3
of their previous seats
in the rural areas.
Eamonn de Valera
was
to be elected the
President of Ireland
again by the majority of the
Irish
people until 1973.
The
political
Fine
Gael Party,
who were the Opposition in the
Irish Republic, elected
Dr.
Garret Fitz Gerald
as
their new leader.
January: In the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province still under the control of the British Government and the Official Unionist Ascendancy Government, the British Army had only 1 Brigade, 3 Battalions and 1 armoured car. The R.U.C. Central Headquarters at Knock issued a recommendation that they should disarm, but it was ignored, but later on they kept a low profile until they were to join in with the British Military on their patrols.
The
Peoples Democracy
Association
who were out also
for reform
in these 6 Counties in Ulster
was made up mostly of students from
Queen's University, and among their
young leaders were
Michael Farrell and
Bernadette Devlin.
They had decided to carry out another
Civil Rights demonstration march
from Belfast to
Derry over
4 days to keep the pressure on
Terence O Neill
the Official Unionist Prime Minister in the Stormont Parliament to live up
to his previous promises to bring about reform. They were hoping to force him to bring
forward the few civil rights
that had been previously nominated, as
soon as possible, as any reform in the 6 Counties
under the Official Unionists was always given grudgingly, without goodwill, and
due to this attitude always took longer then necessary, if at all.
They were also pushing
for the simple right of what should have also already existed under
British Common Law, (One Man One Vote), which was not included in his
proposed reforms.
Their
Civil Rights march was to be over
75
mile from Belfast
to
Derry, and
60
of the students turned up early in the morning outside of the
Belfast City Hall,
and at
9.a.m. they set off accompanied by the
R.U.C. police, who kept directing them onto
detours to which they objected strongly. Major Ronald Bunting and his Paisleyite
followers were to also be allowed to
walk ahead of them shouting out abuse until they
eventually considered that they had done enough in this regard and left the scene.
The numbers of the people who were involved in the Civil Rights march quickly grew to
100
and they
all soon arrived at Templepatrick,
where on
approaching the town of Antrim in Co. Antrim,
Major Ronald Bunting was already there waiting for them on the bridge with his Paisleyite
followers banging away on their Lambeg drum. The R.U.C. police then formed a
firm line in front of the
Civil Rights marchers, and the marchers had to ask the R.U.C. police to
let them through, but they declined to do so, and the Civil Rights marchers
were then loaded into R.U.C. police tenders and
taken to a hall on the other side of Antrim for the night. During the rally, the
Civil Rights marchers had been constantly confronted by
a large crowd,
but despite this they were to finally carry it out without
too much further trouble, as the
R.U.C. police this time kept out of it.
January 2nd: The Civil Rights march being carried out by the People's Democracy Association and their supporters to try and ensure that reforms were actually going to be brought in, was now continued on across Co. Antrim, after being re - routed by the R.U.C. police there, and were by now coming up against further confrontation. Major Ronald Bunting and his Paisleyite followers were increasing in numbers and were also carrying weapons, and were always there ahead of them first, with their ongoing verbal abuse, and the R.U.C. police always refused to shift them out of the way. James Chichester - Clark the Official Unionist Stormont Minister for Agriculture also appeared on the scene with his brother, Robyn Chichester - Clark, who was also an Official Unionist M.P., and they supported the R.U.C. police for re - routing the marchers and for not removing the menacing and abusive Paisleyites, and their was by now massive Press and T.V. coverage of the events that were now occurring before them. Local Irish Catholics along the way were also joining in with the Civil Rights marchers, and by night time they all came to a stop near Maghera at a hall there, where 1,000 of the Paisleyites attacked the village of Maghera itself, where they smashed windows, and damaged the shops and houses there. The Paisleyites also demanded that James Chichester - Clark stop the Civil Rights march and have it re - routed around the town, so he contacted Captain William Long the Official Unionist Stormont Minister for Home Affairs.
January 3rd: The R.U.C police now prevented the Civil Rights marchers from going through the town, and made them go instead through Glenshane Pass towards Dungiven, and by this time there were to be 500 marchers in the Civil Rights group when they arrived into Dungiven, were Michael Farrell addressed them, stating that all they were seeking were normal reforms for all the population in the 6 Counties that were still under the control of the Official Unionist Stormont Government. The Civil Rights marchers then set out for the town of Feeney, but after about a mile the R.U.C police tried to stop them from proceeding any further, but they pushed on through their line until they reached the town of Claudy. Captain William Long the Official Unionist Minister of Home Affairs now appeared on T.V. together with the 2 hard - line extremists, the Rev. Ian Paisley and Major Ronald Bunting, and later that night the Rev. Ian Paisley and Ronald Bunting spurred on the non - Catholics in Derry at the Guild hall to," Stop the Catholic onslaught on Derry," John Hume, Ivor Cooper and Eamonn Mac Cann tried to settle down the all of the people there who were also waiting to greet the marchers when they arrived into Derry, who by now were well aware that the Paisleyites had been blocking the Civil Rights marchers along the way. In a response to their intimidating actions they had since surrounded the Guild hall there, and those who had gathered together inside the hall who were in opposition to the Civil Rights march came out of the hall, and the R.U.C. police then tried to separate these 2 groups, and matters became quite tense in Derry City during the night.
Meanwhile the anti - Civil Rights group who were among the Paisleyites
met at the Killaloo Orange Hall outside of Claudy in
Co. Derry were they made preparations to
confront the Civil Rights marchers again the next day, getting together
truckloads of bottles and
stones, which they dumped along the side of the roadway where the Civil Rights marchers
would have to pass by.
Major Ronald Bunting the Paisleyite leader in the meantime had gathered together all of
his Paisleyite forces to carry out their intended plan to sabotage the Civil
Rights march.
January 4th:
The
R.U.C.
police stopped the Civil Rights marchers once again at Cumber Church,
and warned them that Major Ronald Bunting and his
Paisleyites were waiting
for them to appear, and 40 R.U.C. police then went ahead.
and there was
350
of the anti - Civil Rights Unionists
there
waiting for them to appear, who were wearing white arm
bands, and now under the outright control of
the Rev.
Ian Paisley who was their real leader, the
hard - line religious fanatic with his
U.V.F / Ulster Volunteer Force. They then
began to carry out their planned ambush as the
Civil Rights
marchers approached, who were being led by
Betty Sinclair heir non - Catholic
Chairman,
As they
reached the Burntollet Bridge
over the River Faughan,
situated
7 mile
out from
Derry,
the Paisleyites now under the direction of the Rev.
Ian Paisley pelted the Civil
Rights marchers with
stones, sticks and bottles, and
also began attacking
them physically with nail - studded clubs, iron bars
and crow bars. As the terrified Civil Rights marchers began to flee
from the violence that was now being carried out on them, they were also seized and kicked badly
by the anti - Civil Rights protagonists, and there was
soon blood everywhere, and and to add to their misery among their attackers also at this point were
also members of the R.U.C.
B Special
police.
The other R.U.C.
police who were also on duty at
the scene made no attempt to
stop the bloody onslaught on the Civil Rights marchers and the T.V.
crew who were present during the march were recording all of this turmoil and
brutality on film,
including the actions of those
R.U.C. police
who were also involved in the conflict among their attackers,
for all the World to see. None of those who had carried out these violent attacks on the Civil
Rights marchers were to be arrested, and instead
80 of the
Civil Rights marchers
were
arrested and taken into custody. Despite all of this the Civil Rights marchers who
were to survive the
attacks, although they were badly injured, still pushed on with the rest of their surviving group
in to Derry
where they
were attacked once again there also by another group of anti - Civil Rights opponents, but
still undaunted they continued on until they finally reached the City Hall were they were
given a hero's welcome by the Citizen's Action Group.
Further ethnic and sectarian attacks then
broke out again, as the Paisleyites kept up their attacks on the marchers around the City
Hall itself. On learning about this ongoing abuse the Irish Catholics from the Bogside area
then came out to assist those who were still under attack, and the R.U.C.
police then attacked them also, driving them back to the Bogside where they also broke into their homes
and their stores. That night there was further rioting in the
Catholic Bogside,
which was a strong Irish Nationalist
area, were
Irish Catholic houses were
burnt, and barricades were then erected
by the residents to protect the Catholic
Irish
community there. The
R.U.C. police
were then sent in to pull the barricades
down and they too went out of control completely, using mindless violence against the
Irish Catholic population there and their property
just because they knew they could do it with immunity. The stupidity of all of
this was that the violent scenes that had occurred were
to be seen all over Ireland and on the British T.V.
for all to see, with 163 people being also treated at the hospital.
The result of all of this further ethnic and sectarian mindless violence was
that the Civil Rights movement was now
stronger then ever, and the R.U.C.
police in the 6 Counties artificially partitioned
from the 9 in the Ulster
Province, because of the inexcusable actions
of those in authority there were totally on the
outer.
January 5th: Terence O Neill the
Official Unionist
Prime Minister of the Stormont
Government also came out publically and verbally attacked the Civil Rights marchers and
students as hooligans, and praised the R.U.C. police for doing a
good job, while also threatening to use the powers of the
R.U.C. B Special police
together with the R.U.C. police. Anyone who previously gave him the
benefit of the doubt
now knew that he was not a fair minded liberal as he had previously tried to
make out.
January 6th: Terence O Neill
the Official Unionist
Prime Minster of the Stormont Government in the 6 Counties
artificially partitioned from the 9 in the
Ulster Province
now called up a large force of B Special police to add to the
R.U.C.
January 9th: Terence O Neill went to London to see Harold Wilson the
Prime Minister of the British
Labour Government, as the whole thing was now getting too much for him in the 6 Counties, which were still under both of their
control in
the
Ulster Province. Meanwhile, the Rev. Ian Paisley, the
real instigator of many of the Troubles, and
his second in command, Major Ronald Bunting walked out of the court where they were being
tried over their part in the previous riots they had instigated in Armagh in
Co. Armagh, another of the 6
Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the
Ulster Province.
January 11th: At Newry
in Co. Down, which is another of
the 6 Counties partitioned from the
9 in the
Ulster Province, which was
an Irish Catholic area also near the artificial border, another
Civil Rights People's Democracy march occurred, and
the R.U.C. police there tried to divert it also, taking on the Civil Rights
leaders, Michael Farrell, Kevin
Boyle, and
John Hume who tried to settle it all down there, but
they still kept on.
January 15th: The
position of Terence O Neill the
Official Unionist Prime Minster of the Stormont
Government
in the 6 Counties in the
Ulster Province under his control, was
by now not too good with his previous
Official Unionist supporters, and he was
also in a weak position now as
the overall leader of the
Official
Unionist Party.
Harold Wilson the Labour Party Prime Minister
of the
British Imperial Government
put pressure on
him now to set up an inquiry into the
previous behaviour of the
R.U.C. police, which further upset the
Ascendancy
hard - liners.
January 23rd:
Brian Faulkner
the Official Unionist
hard - line Deputy Prime Minister who was also the
Minister for Commerce in the
Stormont Government in the 6 Counties in the
Ulster Province still under their control,
resigned, abandoning the sinking ship, to realign his own
position in the overall scheme of things,
stating that Terence O Neill was giving into
the radical minority.
January 25th:
William Morgan
the
Official
Unionist Minister for Health and Social
Services in the Stormont Government in the
6 Counties in the Ulster
Province still under their control, also resigned, along with another
Official Unionist M.P.
January 28th: Terence O Neill the Official Unionist Prime Minister of the Stormont Government in the 6 Counties in the Ulster Province still under their control, changed the Public Order Act making sit down demonstrations and occupying public buildings illegal and the Irish Nationalists then threatened to carry out a campaign of civil disobedience to offset the crackdown on any of their further Civil Liberties.
The Rev. Ian
Paisley, the radical ethnic and sectarian extremist, and his cohort Major Ronald Bunting were sentenced to three months imprisonment for their previous involvement in
the riots in Armagh in Co. Armagh, one of the
6 Counties partitioned from the
9 in the
Ulster Province, which only gave them further
prestige among their followers.
Terence O Neill the Official Unionist Prime Minister of the Stormont Government in the 6 Counties still under his control in the Ulster Province, was jeered at a Newtownards Town Hall meeting in Co. Down in the south - east of the Ulster Province, another of the 6 Counties partitioned from the 9 in the north of Ireland.
January 30th:
13 Ascendancy
Official Unionist M.P.s on the backbench, together
with
Joseph Burns a junior
Official
Unionist Minister in the Stormont Government
also resigned from the Stormont Government in the 6
Counties still under their control in the Ulster Province, seeking a change in leadership, while those
remaining
claimed solidarity with
Terence O Neill's
Cabinet, and this meant that the
Official Unionists were now also officially split