The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association was an organization which campaigned for civil rights for Northern Ireland's Catholic minority during the 1960s and early 1970s. The organization's demands for reform, and the subsequent backlash by the unionist majority, led to the Troubles, a conflict which has lasted for more than thirty years.

Origins

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The NICRA was founded on 29 January 1967 at a public meeting in the International Hotel, Belfast. The meeting was attended by all political parties in Northern Ireland, although the Ulster Unionist Party delegate Nelson Elder withdrew over a dispute about capital punishment.

The meeting elected a 13-member committee to draw up a constitution for the new organization. This committee contained representatives from the 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 as well as republicans. Notably, the Nationalist Party was not represented.

The new organization's demands included:

• the repeal of the Special Powers Acts of 1922, 1933, and 1943
• the disbandment of the B Specials paramilitary police force
• an end to the gerrymandering of local electoral districts, which ensured unionist control over local government even in towns with nationalist majorities
• an end to discrimination in the awarding of local authority housing
• an end to discrimination in government employment

In a conscious imitation of tactics used by the American Civil Rights Movement, the new organization held marches, pickets, sit-ins and protests to pressure the government of Northern Ireland to grant these demands. The first civil rights march in Northern Ireland was held on 24 August 1968 between Coalisland and Dungannon.

Derry March

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

When the civil rights marchers attempted to defy 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 an RTÉ cameraman 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 radicalized by these events and formed a more radical civil rights organization People's Democracy.

On 22 November 1968, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Terence O'Neill announced a series of minor reforms, including a promise to abolish the Special Powers Acts "when it was safe to do so" as well as some changes in the local government franchise and the allocation of local government housing. Following a televised appeal for calm by O'Neill on 9 December, the more moderate civil rights associations declared a month-long halt to marches.

Burntollet

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The People's Democracy group did not take part in this halt to marching. In imitation of Martin Luther King's Selma to Montgomery marches, about 40 PD members held a march between Belfast and Derry starting on 1 January 1969. The march was repeatedly attacked by loyalists (including off-duty members of the Ulster Special Constabulary) along its route. The most violent incident occurred at Burntollet bridge where the marchers were attacked by about 200 unionists armed with iron bars, bottles and stones while police did little to protect them.

As rioting and civil disorder continued in Northern Ireland's cities, the nationalist population increasingly looked to the moribund Irish Republican Army to protect their areas from loyalist attacks. The Marxist IRA leadership refused, which led to a split in the organisation, creating the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA.

Bloody Sunday

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The NICRA campaigned against internment following its introduction on 9 August 1971. At a NICRA anti-internment march in Derry on 30 January 1972, 14 unarmed demonstrators were shot dead by British troops, in what became known as Bloody Sunday. Following this event, the NICRA lost support as many nationalists lost faith in peaceful protest and turned to the Provisional IRA instead.

External links

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• Key Events - Civil Rights Campaign (1964-1972) — from the University of Ulster's CAIN project
• Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement — from the BBC History website

History of Northern Ireland | Social justice | Civil rights