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Prime Minister Terence ��’N�𾱱���’s policies might have been introduced for the right reasons, but by the late 1960s they had created divisions amongst unionists who feared that too much was being given away to nationalists.

At the same time, the hopes raised within nationalism by the changes ��’N�𾱱��� promised were never going to be achieved.

As a result, nationalist frustration grew.

The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) was formed in early 1967, taking much of its inspiration from the ongoing US civil rights campaign.

At the same time, there were other sources of encouragement in the period following NICRA’s establishment, notably the student demonstrations that took place in France during 1968.

What particularly appealed to NICRA’s leaders was the American groups' use of non-violent methods ofcivil disobedience as part of its campaign to achieve equality for black people.

Most importantly, by 1967, a series of marches and protests had led the US Congress to pass laws outlawing public discrimination and guaranteeing voting rights.

These successes were widely reported in Europe.

NICRA received support from different sections of the Northern Ireland public.

These included:

• A new generation of Catholics who had been able to attend secondary school free of charge as a result of the introduction of the eleven-plus (11+) examination in 1947.
• Those nationalists who believed that the local Nationalist Party (led by Eddie McAteer) had lost touch with the needs of its people.
• Moderate unionists who believed that Northern Ireland’s Catholics were being unfairly treated. These unionists also believed that if NICRA’s aims were achieved, there would be no reason for Catholics to want to be part of a united Ireland.
• Other groups and individuals including academics and trades unionists.

Opposition to NICRA came from a large section of the unionist population.

They feared that:

• NICRA was nothing more than the IRA under a different name.
• NICRA was not interested in equality for everyone in Northern Ireland. Instead it was only looking out for the needs of Catholics. They were also afraid that NICRA’s campaign could weaken Protestant control of Northern Ireland, thus leading to a united Ireland.

On 24th August 1968, NICRA’s held its first march:

• The march began in Coalisland and ended in Dungannon.
• It was organised to protest at Dungannon Council's decision to allocate one of its council houses in the village of Caledon to a 19-year-old Protestant woman rather than a large Catholic family.

The Coalisland-Dungannon march passed off peacefully; however things were not quite so peaceful at NICRA’s second march, held in Derry/Londonderry on 5th October 1968.

Again, the march was organised to draw attention to what NICRA saw as discrimination - in this case Londonderry Corporation’s housing policy.

Some of Derry’s Protestant population were very unhappy with NICRA’s plans and so the city’s Apprentice Boys announced plans to hold their own demonstration at the same time.

Fearing an outbreak of violence the Stormont Government banned both marches - however NICRA let it be known that it would ignore this ban.

NICRA’s march started on Duke Street in Derry’s Waterside area.

As it moved towards the Craigavon Bridge - accompanied by four Westminster MPs and an RTE camera crew - the protestors were faced by lines of police officers.

Some of the police were heavy-handed in their efforts to stop the march - their tactics were captured by the RTE television crew and the resulting images were widely seen at home and abroad.

Further NICRA marches made the situation even worse.

Quite often violence resulted and there were several reasons for this:

1. NICRA continued with marches even after they had been banned.
2. Some marches went through Protestant areas and this was seen as provocative.
3. Counter-demonstrations organised by unionists sometimes came into contact with NICRA’s marches.

As a result of this unrest, Terence ��’N�𾱱���, Brian Faulkner and William Craig were summoned to Westminster on 4 November to meet the British Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson.

The outcome was the announcement on 22nd November 1968 of a Five Point Reform Programme.

• A points system to ensure fairer allocation of council houses.
• Londonderry Corporation was to be replaced by a Development Commission.
• The removal of some parts of the 1922 Special Powers Act.
• The removal of additional votes for owners of businesses (along with other reforms to the operation of local government).
• The establishment of an ombudsman to examine complaints.
• It was stated that all of these reforms would be put in place by late 1971.

Despite the announcement of the Reform Programme, protests and counter-protests continued.

��’N�𾱱���, therefore, went on television in an attempt to bring home to people the dangerous situation that Northern Ireland now found itself facing.

In what became known as the ‘Ulster at the Crossroads’ speech, the Prime Minister made a particular appeal to NICRA’s leaders to help avoid 'chaos'.

In the short term, ��’N�𾱱���’s television broadcast seemed to work as NICRA marches were called off.

At the same time, however, the Prime Minister found himself facing opposition from inside and outside his own Party:

• William Craig, the Minister for ����tv Affairs, criticised ��’N�𾱱���’s television appearance and accused his leader of doing what the London government told him to do. ��’N�𾱱��� responded by sacking Craig, but this did not deter opposition.
• Many unionists opposed the Five Point Reform Programme. They believed that ��’N�𾱱��� had only made the concessions due to the threat of violence and felt that the reforms would weaken unionist control of Northern Ireland.

NICRA might have agreed to stop marching in response to ��’N�𾱱���’s television appeal; however others were not so willing to stop protesting against what they saw as injustice.

One such group was the recently-formed People’s Democracy, established by university students (among others) in the aftermath of the police attack on the NICRA march in Derry/Londonderry on 5th October 1968.

Its leading figures were Michael Farrell and Bernadette Devlin (who was elected Westminster MP for Mid Ulster in April 1969).

Its aims were:

• One man, one vote (OMOV).
• Fair boundaries
• Houses on need
• Jobs on merit
• Free speech
• Repeal of the Special Powers Act

Unhappy with what it saw as the limited nature of the Five-Point Reform Programme, People’s Democracy decided to hold a march between Belfast and Derry/Londonderry.

This was a direct echo of the US Civil Rights Movement’s 1965 marches from Selma to Montgomery.

The march was condemned by NICRA and nationalist leaders, fearing its impact on an already tense situation.

These condemnations were ignored and the march began on 1st January 1969.

As the organisers had planned to go through a number of Protestant areas, the police enforced a number of changes to the route, to avoid confrontations.

Despite this, the protestors faced a number of attacks; the worst of these took place at Burntollet Bridge, on the outskirts of Derry, on 4th January 1969.

Eyewitness evidence suggests that the police stood by and allowed the attack to continue.

Tensions increased as reports of the ambush emerged; these tensions increased further when later on the same day some police ran riot through nationalist areas of Derry.

In response to events in Derry/Londonderry, NICRA began to march again.

Following yet more violence at a NICRA march in Newry, ��’N�𾱱��� announced that he was setting up a commission led by Lord Cameron which would investigate the ‘violence and civil disturbance in Northern Ireland on and since 5th October 1968'.

However, ��’N�𾱱���’s actions revealed the depths of division within his own government.

In response to this announcement:

• Brian Faulkner (Minister for Commerce) and William Morgan (Minister for Health) resigned from the Cabinet. Faulkner argued that ��’N�𾱱��� was too weak to control the situation.
• It soon became clear that Faulkner’s views were gaining support within the Unionist Party. In late January 1969, 12 MPs met and demanded that ��’N�𾱱��� resign both as party leader and Prime Minister.

��’N�𾱱��� responded by calling a General Election.

His aim was to show that the people of Northern Ireland supported his policies.

What ��’N�𾱱��� called the ‘Crossroads Election’ took place on 24th February 1969.

Despite the Prime Minister’s best efforts, the results were not what he hoped for:

• The Ulster Unionist Party found its levels of support reduced as its share of the vote decreased by over ten per cent.
• Not all of the MPs elected for the Unionist Party supported ��’N�𾱱���’s policies.
• ��’N�𾱱��� did not get the votes from Catholic voters that he had hoped to get.
• ��’N�𾱱��� nearly lost his own seat to Ian Paisley.
• In spite of the poor election results, ��’N�𾱱��� remained on as Northern Ireland’s Prime Minister.

However, unable to end worsening violence and unable to heal the divisions within his own Party, O'Neill resigned on 28th April 1969.

The final nail in his coffin was a series of bombings, which at the time appeared to be the work of the IRA but which were actually carried out by loyalists in an attempt to force ��’N�𾱱��� to go.

Following ��’N�𾱱���’s resignation, the Ulster Unionist Party held its first ever election for its new leader.

The winner was Major James Chichester Clark, who defeated Brian Faulkner by just one vote; the winning vote was cast by Terence ��’N�𾱱��� – Chichester-Clark’s cousin.

Just a week before, Chichester Clark had resigned from ��’N�𾱱���’s cabinet over the Prime Minister’s announcement that the next local government elections would use one-man-one-vote.

At the time of his resignation, he'd claimed that the time was not right for this reform.

However, following his election the new Prime Minister stated that he would continue with the reforms that ��’N�𾱱��� had begun.

Archive content from ����tv: Ten Chapters of the Northern Ireland Troubles ()