1969 - 4 (June - July)
June:
The
Irish
Labour Party in the
Irish Republic
General Elections
declared that they stood for a
Worker's Republic and
Socialism and they were subsequently badly defeated in the
polls.
Charles Haughey who was a Minister in the Irish Fianna Fail Government in the Irish Republic was to be later charged with conspiracy over what became known as the, Arms Crisis, for his intention to import arms into Ireland for use by the besieged Catholic Irish in the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province that were still under the control of the British Imperial Government and the Ascendancy Official Unionist Stormont Government.
June: In the 6 Counties artificially partitioned previously from the 9 in the Ulster Province by the British Imperial Government in 1922, and now under the control of Harold Wilson the British Labor Prime Minister, a major normal democratic reform was finally bought in to allow the inalienable right of 1 man, 1 vote, after 47 years of rule there by the Ascendancy Official Unionists in the Stormont Government. The Official Unionists under the many previous British Conservative Governments since 1922 had been allowed to treat the indigenous Irish Catholic population there however they liked to suite their own particular Ascendancy agendas, which had created great misery, property damage and many, many deaths of innocent people. James Chichester - Clark the recently elected Prime Minister there now toured the Irish Catholic Bogside area without incident, and although a few scattered Civil Rights marches were still carried out after June, and many were planned for later on, they were now all cancelled due to this simple normal reform finally being brought in. The Opposition Parties in the Official Unionist controlled Stormont Parliament now also began verbally attacking James Chichester - Clark for not getting on with further reforms, while on the other hand, the hard line extremist, the Rev. Ian Paisley, continued to hold rallies against bringing in any further reforms in the 6 Counties in Ulster for the Irish Catholic population there.
June 24th: An Administration Commission
was appointed in the 6 Counties artificially
partitioned from the 9 in the
Ulster Province.
July 2nd:
A White Paper was now issued in regard to the
6 Counties artificially partitioned from the
9 in the Ulster Province, that to stop an
further gerrymandering there by the Official Unionist Government, from 1971 on the Local authorities were to
be gone
and replaced by 17 new area councils,
with electoral boundaries to be re - drawn by an
Independent body. William
Craig the hard - line Official Unionist leader and his
current Ascendancy allies came out against any of these improved
provisions.
The
Fermanagh Official Unionist Party now came out and expelled the Duke of W/M and
4 other
Unionists from their party for supporting the pro - O Neill
candidates in
the previous February
election.
July 7th: In the 6 Counties partitioned from the
9 in the Ulster Province,
Civil Rights
Assemblies
were held in Armagh and Lurgan in Co. Armagh and
also at Dungannon
in Co. Tyrone and Downpatrick in
Co. Down, which were
3 of the
6 Counties in the Ulster
Province still under the control of the Official
Unionist Stormont Government.
July 10th: James Chichester - Clark, the recently elected Official Unionist Stormont Prime Minister in the 6 partitioned Counties in the Ulster Province, met with the hard line extremist, Rev. Ian Paisley, over the Civil Rights people being allowed to hold Assemblies in the 3 Ulster Counties. The previous Official Unionist Prime Minister, Terence O Neill would never meet with him.
The
Derry Citizen's Defence Committee
was formed in the
Irish Catholic
Bogside area in Co. Derry,
one of the 6 Counties
previously partitioned from the Ulster Province,
to protect the Irish Catholic population
there should any further violence occur
there, with
20 members
under
Patrick Doherty,
Sean Keenan and
Eamonn Mac Cann,
and they also erected barricades
for defence.
July 12th:
The
Orange Order was
once again allowed, to carry out their provocative march to continue celebrating William of
Orange's victory over the Catholic English King, James 11 nearly
300 years
before, which
again created riots in Derry and Dungiven
in
Co. Derry,
and Lurgan
in Co. Armagh
and as a consequence the Dungiven Orange Hall was burnt, and
two people were wounded in Derry
by the R.U.C. police. Also in
Derry during the
Saturday night and
Sunday morning rioting
occurred there
between the Irish Catholics,
the non -
Catholics
and the
RUC police, and the first serious looting
occurred.
Eamonn Mac Cann
came out and stated
that it was now no longer over
Civil
Rights, but a total sectarian war, as it seemed the Loyalist Unionists were now panicking, allowing their
long time
siege mentality to control their actions, pushed on continually by people
with other agendas, to over
ride their overall good sense, and the first sniping now also took place.
Brendan Corish
the
Irish Labour Party leader
urged
Jack Lynch the
Prime
Minister of the
Irish Republic
to arrange a meeting with
Harold Wilson the
British Labour Prime Minister, over the continuing violence that was still occurring in the
6
Counties artificially partitioned from the
9 in the
Ulster
Province,
which were still under the virtual control of the Official Unionist Stormont Government.
Jack Lynch also sent
a delegation up to
Ulster
to discuss the situation with the
Republicans there, who were
dismayed with the direction
Cathal Goulding
the leader of the IRA
who was taking the IRA into Socialism,
and a
split was now
apparent in the IRA
there. Cathal Goulding informed him that they were still prepared to defend the
Irish Catholic population there, but they had no
weapons to do so. Those
who were already attempting to defend the
Irish
Catholics there had previously erected
barricades to keep the R.U.C. police out of the Bogside
area,
and the Derry Action
Committee came out condemning the looting and the hooligans, but it
all was to become much worse over the next
fortnight. All Civil Rights marches were
now
banned by the Official Unionist Government in the 6
Counties in Ulster,
and there were further sectarian riots in Belfast
in Co. Antrim there,
with petrol bombings also occurring in Derry in Co. Derry
there, and because of this 150 British
Imperial Government Military
troops were now moved to the Navel
base in
Derry itself.
July:
All of this continuing sectarian turmoil in the 6
Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the
Ulster Province, was to come to a head when
William Mac Kee,
although badly wounded, singly defended
St. Matthew's Catholic Church
in
Belfast in
Co. Antrim in the Irish
Catholic
Bogside, which was an Irish Nationalist
area, from being burnt down by the
Unionist
Loyalist extremists. Riots
also began in
Derry in Co. Derry
there, which
lasted a week and spread to
Armagh in Co. Armagh
and Belfast
in Co. Antrim. The
Derry Defence Committee
with
their barricades were ready to try and protect the Irish
Catholic population there as more
British Imperial Government troops were brought in instead of the
R.U.C.
July 14th:
The first death occurred by
violence in the
6 Counties
artificially partitioned from the
9 in the
Ulster Province,
between the
Civil
Rights marchers and the
R.U.C. police, with further
similar clashes
to occur later on in the month.
July 18th:
A petrol bomb was thrown at
the house of William Craig,
the hard - line Ascendancy
Official
Unionist
leader, near Belfast in Co. Antrim. one of the
6 Counties artificially partitioned from the
9 in the Ulster Province.
July 21st: In
the 6 Counties artificially
partitioned from the 9 in the
Ulster Province,
20,000 Irish Catholics
attended the funeral of a man who had died of a coronary in Derry, following on
from an incident during
the riots there, and the Official Unionist Stormont Government had their B Specials put on standby
there in Derry in Co. Derry,
which
further upset the Irish Catholics
there, and the Labour M.P.'s in the Westminster Parliament in England.
July 30th: In
the 6 Counties artificially
partitioned from the 9 in the
Ulster Province, the Civil Rights
members were removed from
Dungannon Council offices by the
R.U.C. police, while
the
hard - line extremist, the Rev. Ian Paisley
looked on.