1969 AD - 2 (February - March)

       In  the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province by the British Imperial Government and still under the control of the Official Unionist Stormont Government in February: The Official Unionist M.P.s who were opposed to the leadership of Terence O Neill 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 previously partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province by the British imperial Government and still under his control.

February 3rd: Terence O Neill the Official Unionist Prime Minister of the Stormont Government in the 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 partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, and Terence O Neill their Prime Minister was forced to call an election for the 24th 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. 13 individual Parties were to nominate for the 52 seats with 942,000 registered voters, and the same Official Unionists who were pro - O Neill and anti - O Neill also stood for their same positions backed by the Official Unionist Party, while both the pro and anti - 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. The Peoples Democracy Association stood for 8 seats with Michael Farrell also against Terence O Neill in Bannside, Eamonn mac Cann and Eddie Mac Ateer stood for Foyle and Derry, Bernadette Devlin took on  James Chichester - Clark in South Derry, Ivan Cooper stood as an Independent for Mid - Derry against an  Irish Nationalist, while John Hume stood as an Independent for Foyle and Derry against an Irish Nationalist also.

      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 standing as an anti - O Neill candidate also, and Lord Brookeborough who still held his great 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 partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, was held and Betty Sinclair was deposed 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. Meanwhile, the moderate Derry Citizen's Action Committee had been quite for a while, keeping their head down, with less organized activity, but demonstrations and sit ins were spasmodically occurring anyway, with no real overall leader in all the Civil Rights' groups to negotiate with.

February 24th: The General Election was held for the Stormont Parliament in the 6 Counties partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, which bought no conclusive result or firm control either for Terence O Neill, although he won 2 to 1 the Unionist vote. 11 anti - O Neill candidates were back in, with only William Morgan and William Hinds losing their seats. 3 Independent Unionists who were pro - O Neill 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. 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 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 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. 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 sought of reform in the 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 the 6 Counties in Ulster Province.

February 28th: 10 Ascendancy Unionist M.P.s walked out of the Stormont Parliament in the 6 Counties partitioned from the 9 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 radicals, which now gave them complete control over the Civil Rights Association to try and bring about reform in the 6 Counties in the Ulster Province.

March 12th: Terence O Neill the Official Unionist Prime Minister in the Stormont Government in the 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 only a review of the Special Powers Act there.

March 30th: Terence O Neill as the Official Unionist Prime Minister in the Stormont Government in the 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 separated from the 9 in the Ulster Province was blown up, and the IRA were naturally blamed for it, but in reality it was later found out to be the work of the Unionist Loyalists who were trying to bring down Terence O Neill the Official Unionist leader.

March: The 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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