1969 AD - 7 (September - December)

    In  the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province by the British Imperial Government and under the control of the Ascendancy Official Unionist Stormont Government on;

September: The British Labour Government's  Scarman - Cameron Report put the blame solely for the riots on the Ascendancy Official Unionist Stormont Government themselves due to the legitimacy of the Catholic Irish grievances, which they found especially so in relation to housing, and the severe treatment meted out to the Catholic Irish by the Ascendancy Stormont Government's R.U.C. police and their B Special police Reserve Forces.

   The Official Unionist Government established  a Public Protection Authority composed of the British Military and R.U.C. Police to investigate complaints and had 600 calls in the first week from those who had been intimidated by threatening notes. 

September 7th: Catholic and non - Catholic groups were opposed with the British Imperial Army in between and British commander ordered gas to be fired on the non - Catholics who were screaming out and this made the Catholics feel safe at last  while the non - Catholics were angry.

September 9th: A non - Catholic was shot dead in a mixed non - Catholic / Catholic street in Belfast in Co. Antrim during a conflict there and in the night Chichester - Clark went on the T.V. insisting the barricades in the Bogside and Belfast must be removed or else and the next day Freeland decided to separate by division.

September 10th: The British Imperial Army forces erected an iron post and barbed wire fence between the Falls Road / Catholic area and the Shankhill non - Catholic area.

      With some of the reforms now in place and a light at the end of the tunnel very few incidents were to occur throughout this month and things were to settle down once again with the British Government Military forces increased from 2,400 to 6,000 actually taking up a protective role in the community in the 6 Counties partitioned from the 9 in Ulster Province. instead of an offensive role.  Meanwhile, the members of the IRA in the 6 Counties who were also now willing to act in a defence capacity there, and members of the political Fianna Fail Party, met in Donegal in Co. Donegal in the west of the Ulster Province, which although it was the most northern County, was still one of the 3 in the Ulster Province that was still in the Republic of Ireland. The Fianna Fail Party members told them they were willing to support them with money if they set up their own organization separate to the Official IRA, who were now following their own Socialist policies under their leader, Cathal Goulding, and that they also did not participate in any political activities in the Irish Republic.

September 12th: A key document in relation to the Civil Rights struggle in the 6 Counties in Ulster was published by Lord Cameron on the causes of the Civil Rights up to April, just as the Civil Rights agenda seemed to be forgotten, that clarified every criticism of the non - Catholic acts there and those of the Unionist Party. It proved all of the Catholic Irish grievances, the oral status of the Special Powers Act, the Electoral boundaries, and damned the Rev. Ian Paisley, Major Ronald Bunting and William Craig, and also found that many of the accusations against the R.U.C. were proven, and also vindicated John Hume and the Civil Rights movement, and the grievances against all of the Unionist Governments since the 6 Counties in Ulster were artificially partitioned. Only the Special Powers Act and B. Specials remained with most of the reforms now moving forward.

September 15th: The British Imperial Army forces moved in the Falls Road area in Co. Antrim to dismantle the barricades as the men there were returning from work who were angry about it and the British troops withdrew and the Belfast Citizens' Defence Committee agreed to dismantle the barricades and they removed them over the next few days,

September 24th: the non - Catholic and Catholics came into conflict briefly in Derry in Co. Derry, and 1 non - Catholic died before the British Military could stop it. There was trouble every night and weekend in Belfast  with 67,000 guns licensed in the 6 Counties in Ulster with white lines painted on the streets to replace the barricades where no British Army force could go with 7,500 British Armed forces in the 6 Counties and 3,000 of these in Belfast in Co. Antrim alone. The Rev. Ian Paisley was now playing on the non - Catholic grievances, as by now they were feeling that they were losing out to the Catholic Irish there, and he opened a new church on Ravenhill Road, and the non - Catholics and the British Army forces came into conflict again where they used gas.

September 26th: Dr. Robert Simpson was appointed the first Unionist Minister of Community Relations in the 6 Counties in Ulster and he resigned from the Orange Order as there was no goodwill in trying to bring about Government reform. A ban was imposed on all processions and meetings.

September 28th: Sunday - A non - Catholic group threw rocks and a petrol bomb at the British Imperial Army on the other side of the Peace Line at the same time then climbed over the fence line into the Catholic area and set alight to 5 Catholic houses while attacking the British Military at the same time who then fired off gas and drove  them back across the Peace line, but they had left great damages behind. The British Imperial Armies' creditability was not too good there now and the attacks continued.

September 30th: The Rev. Ian Paisley led 6,000 to demonstrate outside the Stormont Parliament in the 6 Counties in Ulster  where the Cameron Report was being debated, and there were ugly scenes in the lobbies, and a lot of screaming outside, while the R.U.C. looked on and loud cheers for William Craig as he approached the parliament.

October 2nd: Callaghan returned to the 6 Counties in Ulster and stated that there was no going back, in the interest that Westminster had now shown in the affairs in the 6 Counties. Some of  the British Army forces were to be arranged into riot squads to close in on the the groups who were attacking any others, and they also constructed 10' high iron fences to keep the non - Catholics and the Catholics from seeing each other. 

October 4th: James Kelly from the Ulster Province met with Cathal Goulding the Chief - of - Staff of the Official IRA to arrange the importation of arms into Ireland for use by the population in the 6 Counties in Ulster still under the control of the British Imperial Government and the Official Unionist Government, to enable them to defend themselves in the future should any further ethnic and sectarian attacks occur there. Meanwhile, Cathal Goulding and the political Official Sinn Fein Party were still concentrating on getting all of the working classes in Ireland to come together in a common goal of mutual interest to bring about an advancement in their overall station in life.

October 10th: The Hunt Committee, also set up by the British Labour Government to investigate the cause of the, Troubles, recommended firearm use by the R.U.C. to cease for routine duties, armoured cars and machine guns to be no longer used by the R.U.C, the abolition of the Ascendancy Official Unionist Government's B Special forces, the disarming and the reorganization of their R.U.C. police to include Irish Catholics and that they to be under civilian control. They were also for a new reserve force to be in 2 parts , with one unarmed as a Police Reserve and another force up to 4,000 under a British Military commander to be used only for emergency duty determined by Westminster to be known as the Defence Regiment / U.D.R.. which would be under British Government Army control only and these findings really upset the hard - line Ascendancy Unionists who could now see their long running dominance over the lives of the Irish Catholic population in the 6 Counties in Ulster coming to an end. Electoral reform was now also introduced for Local Government voting there, whereby the previous law of multiple votes to property owners was changed, and also 18 year olds were given the vote. The Chief Officer of the R.U.C. to be responsible for the wrongful acts of the R.U.C. An independent Public Prosecutor instead of the R.U.C., and the R.U.C. uniform to be also changed. Anthony Peacocke / Inspector General retired became the new Inspectyo9r General from London, Sir Arthur Young commander of the City of London also put in who was not from Ulster.

Chichester - Clark introduced the Hunt Report to the press.

      Harold Wilson the British Labour Government Prime Minister in England issued a declaration, "That Irish Catholics were to become equal under British Law, the Local Government was to be democratised and Housing reallocated, as every citizen was entitled to the same equality of treatment and freedom from discrimination as obtains in the rest of the United Kingdom irrespective of their political views or religion."  What a terrible shame that the British Imperial Government had not seen fit to carry out their overall responsibility from the start of this political divisionary enterprise, to ensure that these normal Civil Rights under the British Imperial Empire were available to all under their control, and all of the loss of life, destruction and bitterness created along the way would have been avoided.     

      The democratic actions of the Civil Rights and the People's Democracy groups had achieved more relief in the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province under the control of the Ascendancy Official Unionist Stormont Government and the British Imperial Governments in 1 year than the whole of the previous 50 years of their oppressive Ascendancy religious and ethnic rule. Once again the previous British Governments had shown the Irish that if they wanted any reform at all there was only one way to achieve it. At the Civil Rights Association elections, Frank Gogarty was to replace Betty Sinclair who was basically a pacifist, and Michael Farrell together with Kevin Boyle were also elected to the Committee to keep the Civil Rights momentum ongoing in the 6 Counties in Ulster to secure further normal reforms.

      John Hume, a businessman from Derry in Co. Derry who was educated at Queen's University, was now the Civil Rights M.P. for Foyle in the Stormont Parliament in Belfast in Co. Antrim, and he was to play a major peaceful and democratic role in trying to bring about further reforms and peace 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 Official Unionist Stormont Government.

October 11th: The hard - line Ascendancy Unionists came out with mass demonstrations all over parts of Belfast in Co. Antrim against the reform recommendations and their findings, and that night at 10. p.m. a large non - Catholic  crowd in the Shankhill region moved on down towards the City centre towards the new Catholic Unity flats in the centre of the non - Catholic Ghetto and refused to disperse under the direction of the R.U.C. police who blocked the road. They pushed 2 cars into the R.U.C. line and conflict arose between them and shots were fired  and 2 of the R.U.C. were hit with one dying, and the other wounded and the R.U.C. retreated . The British Military nearby brought in 2 battalions of the British Military forces riot squads to support the RUC police, who used gas on the crowd of 2,000 who were by that time trying to get into the Irish Catholic Unity Flats area.  3 of the R.U.C police, were also wounded and the first R.U.C. policeman to die had been Victor Arbuckle who had been shot dead by someone among the non - Catholic demonstrators. The British Imperial Military and the R.U.C. police returned the fire also killing one of the civilians, and they seized prisoners and took them away, The Army riot squads pulled back while the Army continued on up the Shankhill Road with their armoured cars ahead as the Military threw gas into the group while firing at the snipers on the rooftops, and the mob was completely surrounded although they continued throwing petrol bombs and stones. By Midnight 22 of the British Army were wounded until most of the Shankhill Road was taken with the R.U.C. in the rear holding the captured streets, but by 4 a.m. it was to quieten down, with the R..U.C. picking up any strays backed up by the British Military. It was now a definite fact that the Unionist Loyalists had attacked their own soldiers from the British Imperial Crown.  From now on after this particular conflict, for the rest of this year, it was all to be fairly peaceful.  Sunday Night: the British Army held the Shankhill Road up to Northumberland Avenue, 300 yards from the end of the Ghetto, while petrol bombs and snipers began to rain down on them again, to which they responded with tear gas. which made them keep their distance. The next day a British Parachute Regiment was flown into the 6 Counties in Ulster from England who took over the whole of the Shankhill Road, and this meant that there was now an 8,000 British Military force in the 6 Counties. Monday: 80 persons were charged because of this particular riot, while 2 had been killed by the British Military.

October 17th: Peter Berry the secretary in the Republic of Ireland's Department of Justice informed Jack Lynch, the Irish Prime Minister, of his suspicions in regard to attempts being made to import arms into Ireland for defensive use by the Catholic Irish in the north in the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province. Charles Haughey the Minister of Finance in the Republic of Ireland along with a Belgian arms exporter and John Kelly, from the Ulster Province, were to be charged with gun running, but eventually they were to be acquitted. Jack Lynch was moved to comment at this time that the problems in the 6 Counties in Ulster would never be settled until the whole of Ireland was re - united under a democratic Irish Government.

October 22nd: The non - Catholic demonstrations continued on and some were killed while they were attempting to blow up the Ballyshannon Power Station across the artificial border in the Irish Republic.

October 28th: In the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province the Ministry of Community Relations was established and an Equality of Employment and Declaration was issued by the Official Unionist Stormont Government, and in theory the same opportunities must now also be given to the Catholic Irish there in relation to the Government's Public Bodies and the Government's Local Authorities.

November 5th: The Gasworks on the edge of Belfast in Co. Antrim exploded  and several non - Catholics were charged with the bombing in the previous Spring that had been blamed on the I.R.A. Unarmed R.U.C. now accompanied the British Military into the Bogside  and Falls areas. The Ulster Defence regiment now to be 6,000 and B Specials with English officers rejected and it was becoming the same as before under a new name.

November: James O Toole / Seamus O Tuathail the editor of the United Irishman, which was a Republican paper wrote an article about certain members of the Fianna Fail Government in the Irish Republic (26 Counties) who he believed were trying to subvert the peaceful Civil Rights movement 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 Official Unionist Stormont Government, and this included Kevin Boland, Neil Blaney and Charles Haughey.

November 25th: A Complaints Commission was now appointed in the 6 Counties in the Ulster Province still under the control of the British Imperial Government and the Official Unionist Government there. Sir Edmund Compton and Englishman had been put in a a temporary Ombudsman and he was to be replace on the 27th by John Benn as a permanent Ombudsman who a civil servant from the British Ministry of Education. In December a Commission was set up to investigate complaints against the local autorities and legislation for 1 man 1 vote passed to be introduced for the next local election in 1970.

December 28th: The Official IRA under their leader, Cathal Goulding, who were now pushing Socialist policies stated that they would now officially recognize the 3 individual Parliaments in Ireland, Westminster and Stormont.   

     Samuel Beckett won the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature for the Republic of Ireland.

     In the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, that were still under the control of the British Imperial Government in England and the Official Unionist Stormont Government, the first bomb was now set off by the Unionist Loyalists, and as a result the first to meet with a violent death were members of the Catholic Irish population there. This should have been enough for anyone in authority by now to act decisively, but ahead over 300 British Soldiers and 200 R.U.C. Police and B Special Reserve forces were to also meet with violent deaths up to 1979. Also 2,500 of the Irish population there in the 6 Counties in Ulster were also to meet with violent deaths up until 1985, rising to 2690 up until 1988, as the Troubles were now allowed to be continued on by the real authority in the 6 Counties, the British Imperial Government, for in reality nothing was to really change much.   

     At the elections for Dungannon in Co. Tyrone, another of the 6 Counties separated from the 9 in the Ulster Province by the British Imperial Government, where there was a 53 % Catholic population as usual the Official Unionists still gained 14 of the seats, while the Irish Nationalists could only achieve 7.  Universal Sufferage was now promised along  with a review there of the Special Powers Act in the 6 Counties in the Ulster. The Business vote of up to 6 votes was abolished for the Stormont Parliament elections, and Universal Adult Sufferage for Local Government was to be finally brought in. Things should have been getting better for all concerned there by now, but they were only going to get worse.

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