Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association
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"The Civil Rights Mural - The Beginning".1

The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (Irish: Cumann Chearta Sibhialta Thuaisceart Éireann) was an organisation which campaigned for civil rights in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s and early 1970s. It dissolved shortly after its tenth anniversary.2

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Origins

The NICRA was founded at a meeting in Belfast's International Hotel on 29 January 1967.3 A thirteen-member elected committee drew up a constitution for the new organisation.3 This committee contained representatives from the Republican Clubs, Northern Ireland Labour Party, the Ulster Liberal Party, the Committee for Social Justice, the Communist Party of Ireland, and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Notably, the Nationalist Party was not represented.3

Initially, NICRA concerned itself with issues affecting Northern Ireland's itinerant or "gypsy" communities and their trouble with obtaining legal caravan sites. Even to this day, some of the NICRA founders such as Tom French (politician) still concern thmselves with the issue of travellers, articularly in the Craigavon area. Since Northern Ireland's creation as a state, the Roman Catholic community had perceived that it had suffered from discrimination under the Protestant-dominated Unionist government.456 Although Protestants and unionists had been involved in NICRA, after some time many became suspicious as to its motivations, considering it to have the political manifesto of a united Ireland at its core. The Cameron Commission stated of the organisation:

certain at least of those who were prominent in the Association had objects far beyond the 'reformist' character of the majority of the Civil Rights Association demands, and undoubtedly regarded the Association as a stalking-horse for achievement of other and more radical and in some cases revolutionary objects, in particular the abolition of the border, unification of Ireland outside the United Kingdom and the setting up of an all-Ireland Workers' Socialist Republic.

The Scarman Report noted that "several of its prominent members were Republicans and there were various links with IRA personalities". NICRA had five initial demands from its outset, which were:7

  • universal franchise for local government elections in place of rate-payer based system and the ending of the company vote
  • redrawing of electoral boundaries
  • laws to provide for the elimination of discrimination in local government employment
  • a compulsory points system for public housing
  • repeal of the Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Acts of 1922, 1933 and 1943 and the disbandment of the Ulster Special Constabulary

At some point, the demands included or were modified to:8910

  • one man, one vote
  • an end to state gerrymandering of council boundaries, which effectively limited Catholic influence even when in places where Catholics were the majority
  • the elimination of discrimination in government
  • an end to discrimination in housing.
  • the disbandment of the B Specials, a mostly Protestant police reserve, which was perceived by nationalists as sectarian.11

The thirteen man steering committee later elected the following officers:

Other members of the committee were:

A five point outline of broad objectives was issued to the press after the inaugural meeting. These were:12

  • To defend the basic freedoms of all citizens
  • To protect the rights of the individual
  • To highlight all possible abuses of power
  • To demand guarantees for freedom of speech, assembly and association
  • To inform the public of their lawful rights.

NICRA held its next meeting to ratify the constitution on 9 April 1967. It was on this date that NICRA officially came into existence. There were some changes in the executive council with Ken Banks [DATA], Kevin Agnew [Republican] and Terence A. O'Brien [Derry, no affiliation] replacing Andrews, McMillen and McGettigan.3

In a conscious imitation of tactics used by the American Civil Rights Movement,13 and modelled somewhat on the National Council for Civil Liberties, the new organisation held marches, pickets, sit-ins and protests to pressure the Government of Northern Ireland to grant these demands. Some people were suspicious of the motives of NICRA. Many claimed it was a cover for Irish republicanism, or perhaps the IRA. According to Scotland Yard, the Association was not itself linked to paramilitary groups. However "members [of the IRA] are encouraged to join and take an active role as individuals," and a member of the IRA council was on the Executive of the Civil Rights Association.14 The first civil rights march in Northern Ireland was held on 24 August 1968 between Coalisland and Dungannon.15

Derry march

In September 1968, NICRA and the Derry Housing Action Committee organised a march to be held in Derry on 5 October 1968. On 1 October, the Protestant fraternal organisation, the Apprentice Boys of Derry, announced their intention to march the same route on the same day and time.16 William Craig, the Northern Ireland Home Affairs Minister, banned the civil rights march from the city centre.16

When the demonstrators defied the ban, they were baton-charged by the Royal Ulster Constabulary who injured many marchers, including West Belfast MP Gerry Fitt. Television pictures of the march taken by RTÉ cameraman, Gay O'Brien, shocked viewers across the world. Two days of rioting in nationalist areas of Derry followed. Students such as Bernadette Devlin at Queen's University, Belfast were radicalised by these events and formed a more radical civil rights organisation People's Democracy.17

On 22 November 1968, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Terence O'Neill announced a series of reforms:18

  • a new system for the allocation of housing
  • the establishment of an ombudsman to investigate complaints
  • a Development Commission to replace the Londonderry Corporation
  • the abolition of the Special Powers Acts when it was considered safe to do so
  • an end to the company vote

O'Neill made his 'Ulster at the crossroads' speech on television on 9 December, appealing for calm. As a result of the announced reforms, the more moderate civil rights associations declared halt to marches until 11 January 1969. The People's Democracy arranged a march within the month-long suspension however. This decision was renounced by Nationalists and Civil Rights leaders.19

Burntollet

The People's Democracy rejected the government's ban on Civil Rights marches. In imitation of Martin Luther King's Selma to Montgomery marches, about forty members held a march between Belfast and Derry starting on 1 January 1969. The march was repeatedly attacked by Protestant loyalists (including off-duty members of the Ulster Special Constabulary)20 along its route. The most violent incident occurred at Burntollet bridge where the marchers were attacked by about two hundred loyalists armed with iron bars, bottles and stones21. Onlookers claimed the police stood by and allowed the march to be attacked.

Northern Ireland slowly slid into disorder, as demands for Catholic equality continued to go unanswered. Some claim at this point that NICRA was responsible for rallying support of the Catholic Bogsiders during the Battle of the Bogside, which was a result of RUC attack. Some Catholics increasingly looked to the Irish Republican Army to protect their areas from attacks.2223 The Marxist-influenced IRA leadership attempted to defend some areas but had few arms and little capacity to fight back against rioters who were often also members of the RUC and B Specials.2425 The Provisional Irish Republican Army soon emerged, a breakaway from the Official IRA, to defend the Catholic community.2627

Bloody Sunday

Bloodstained civil rights banner after the Bloody Sunday shootings of 1972, depicted in a mural in the Bogside in Derry.
Main article: Bloody Sunday (1972)

The NICRA campaigned against internment following its introduction on 9 August 1971. The British government was interning thousands of men and women without trial. The vast majority were Roman Catholic Nationalists, many were civil rights activists and innocent. At a NICRA anti-internment march in Derry on 30 January 1972, thirteen unarmed demonstrators were shot dead by British troops, in what became known as Bloody Sunday. The army claimed it had come under fire, however no guns were uncovered. Most of the victims were shot in the back, indicating they were running away. The government report by Lord Widgery was dismissed by Catholic Nationalists as a whitewash - he defended the troops' actions.

References

  1. ^ The wall murals http://www.cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
  2. ^ "Madge Davidson", Communist Party of Ireland
  3. ^ a b c d We Shall Overcome ... The History of the Struggle for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland 1968 - 1978 by NICRA (1978)
  4. ^ Tonge, Jonathan [2006]. Northern Ireland. Polity, pp. 20-21. ISBN 978-0745631417. 
  5. ^ Minahan, James B. [2000]. One Europe, Many Nations: A Historical Dictionary of European National Groups. Greenwood Press, p. 335. ISBN 978-0313309847. 
  6. ^ Lydon, James [1998]. The Making of Ireland: A History. Routledge, pp. 393-394. ISBN 978-0415013475. 
  7. ^ Bew, Paul; Gordon Gillespie [1993]. "1967", Northern Ireland : A Chronology of the Troubles, 1968-1993. Dublin: Gill & MacMillan, pp. 1. ISBN 0-7171-2081-3. 
  8. ^ [1] Background to Bloody Sunday
  9. ^ Tonge, Jonathan [2002]. Northern Ireland: Conflict and Change. Longman, pp. 37-38. ISBN 978-0582424005. 
  10. ^ Various [2006]. Politics UK. Longman, p. 770. ISBN 978-1405824118. 
  11. ^ Ellison, Graham & Smyth, Jim (2000). The Crowned Harp: policing Northern Ireland. Pluto Press, p. 30. ISBN 0745313930. 
  12. ^ B. Purdie, Politics in the streets: the origins of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland, (Belfast, 1990), p. 133.
  13. ^ Weiss, Ruth. Peace in Their Time: War and Peace in Ireland and Southern Africa, pp. 34. 
  14. ^ Quotations relating to the NICRA, including a quote from a "confidential Scotland Yard" memo relating to the involvement of IRA members in the NICRA.
  15. ^ P. Bew and G. Gillespie, Northern Ireland: A chronology of the troubles, 1968-1993, (Dublin, 1993), p. 3.
  16. ^ a b Martin Melaugh. "The Derry March - Chronology of Events Surrounding the March". CAIN. Retrieved on 2008-02-16.
  17. ^ 1968: Londonderry march ends in violence — BBC On This Day article
  18. ^ Bew, Paul; Gordon Gillespie [1993]. "1968", Northern Ireland : A Chronology of the Troubles, 1968-1993. Dublin: Gill & MacMillan, pp. 7. ISBN 0-7171-2081-3. 
  19. ^ Bew, Paul; Gordon Gillespie [1993]. "1968", Northern Ireland : A Chronology of the Troubles, 1968-1993. Dublin: Gill & MacMillan, pp. 10. ISBN 0-7171-2081-3. 
  20. ^ Bew and Gillespie, Northern Ireland, p. 11.
  21. ^ Bew and Gillespie, ibid
  22. ^ Haigh, Christopher (1990). The Cambridge Historical Encyclopedia of Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge University Press, p. 311. ISBN 1560009012. 
  23. ^ Moloney, Ed (2002). A Secret History of the IRA. Penguin Books, p. 80. ISBN 0-141-01041-X. 
  24. ^ Bowyer Bell, J. (1997). The Secret Army: The IRA. Transaction Publishers, pp. 366. ISBN 1560009012. 
  25. ^ English, Richard (2003). Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA. Pan Books, p. 103. ISBN 0-330-49388-4. 
  26. ^ Coogan, Tim (2000). The IRA. Harper Collins, pp. 365-366. ISBN 9780006531555. 
  27. ^ Taylor, Peter (1997). Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin. Bloomsbury Publishing, p. 70. ISBN 0-7475-3818-2. 

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