Civil Rights and the PIRA

Table of Contents:

Emergence of the PIRA and the Civil Rights Movement 1939 to 1970s
Formation of the Republic (1939) and Britain Passes the "Ireland Act" (1949)
Provisional IRA splits from "Official" IRA (1970)
Northern Ireland/Ulster Civil Rights Movement
Bloody Sunday
Irish Republican Socialist Movement

Formation of the Republic (1939) and Britain Passes the "Ireland Act" (1949)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/northern_ireland/history/64247.stm
1939-67: Relative calm before the storm
Mainland bombings The IRA begins a bombing campaign in Britain, hitting targets in London, Birmingham and Manchester in January 1939. The campaign fizzles out after the worst attack in August, which kills five people in Coventry.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/6477/ireland.html#Section%201
Ireland's Post-War Years - Background/War's End: 1945-1959
As Ireland remained mostly neutral during World War II (With the exception of its letting allied troops, American and English included, use their ports as base locations for air force and naval operations ), there was not a lot of military action in Ireland around 1945, but political wars were just beginning to be waged as Anglophobia rose. To some, anything Anti-British was considered welcome, and Eamon deValera even went so far as to express to a German diplomatic representative his formal condolences for the recent death of his leader, Adolf Hitler.1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/ni/brookeborough.shtml
War and Peace - Brookeborough's rule - up to 1963
On 15th November 1945 all the Nationalist MPs and senators, together with around 500 other delegates, met in Dungannon. There they formed the Irish Anti-Partition League, 'with the object of uniting all those opposed to partition into a solid block'. The Nationalists abandoned their erratic abstentionism of the inter-war years, and soon had the enthusiastic backing of de Valera and Irish organisations in Britain and America. During the crises of the Cold War, however, they found it difficult to arouse international interest.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/ni/revival_uvf.shtml
War and Peace - The revival of the UVF 1966
Traditional fears and suspicions remained strong despite the fresh atmosphere O'Neill was attempting to create. Ferocious but short-lived rioting had occurred in Divis Street in Belfast in 1964 when the Republican candidate displayed an Irish tricolour in a window. The man who demanded the removal of the flag was the Rev Ian Paisley, founder and Moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church. Paisley was O'Neill's most vocal critic and called for his resignation. He gathered support from those Protestant fundamentalists with the liveliest fear of Catholicism, but he was beginning to widen his appeal to greater numbers of loyalists who were apprehensive that O'Neill's bridge-building gestures to the nationalist minority were weakening the bulwarks of unionism.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/ni/o_neill_diffic.shtml
War and Peace - O'Neill's difficulties 1967
O'Neill faced mounting criticism from traditional unionists who felt that he was undermining their heritage. In 1966 there was a long-running wrangle over the naming of a bridge over the Lagan in Belfast - councillors wanted it to be called 'Carson Bridge', and the issue was resolved only by naming it 'Queen Elizabeth II Bridge'. Paisley continued to grab the headlines by marching in protest against 'Romanising tendencies' in the Presbyterian Church and in conducting his campaign 'O'Neill Must Go'.

The Provisional IRA splits from the "Official" IRA (1970)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/troubles/origins/pira.shtml
Provisional IRA emerges
Between 1956 and 1962 the IRA mounted an unsuccessful border campaign. Internment without trial, introduced first in the north and then in the south, curtailed military operations and ultimately broke morale. On 26 February 1962, the IRA announced that Operation Harvest, its border campaign, was over

http://law.gonzaga.edu/borders/documents/ireland.html
Transient Nationalism: Evolved Patriotism in the Republic of Ireland
I. Diverging Roads - On February 11, 1996, IRA explosives tore through London's Canary Wharf district, killing two people, causing millions in damages, and efficiently derailing more than a year of supposedly unprecedented peace efforts. Its effects proved tragic. For almost a year and a half, with the help of US and Irish diplomatic aid, Northern Ireland's republican movement and British and Northern Ireland political entities had inched closer to the same table, slowly poking through stalemates and reluctantly shedding conditions for negotiation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/troubles/factfiles/pira.shtml
Paramilitaries - Provisional IRA
The Provisional IRA emerged in December 1969 when the IRA Army Convention agreed to end its policy of abstention and recognise the parliaments in Dublin, Belfast and Westminster. Those opposed to the change set up the Provisional Army Council. With their simple message of Brits Out they appealed to those angered by the 1970 Falls Road curfew, the introduction of internment in 1971 and Bloody Sunday in 1972.

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Congress/2435/irahist.html
The Irish Republican Army and the armed struggle in Irish politics
There has always been a tradition of armed resistance to the British military and political occupation of Ireland. This tradition generally only found effective expression when after a period of non-armed agitation, large sections of the Irish people, faced with the British government's denial of the legitimate demand for Irish independence, exercised the right to use armed struggle.

Northern Ireland/Ulster Civil Rights Movement

ENGLISH

http://free.freespeech.org/republicansf/19691981.htm
IRELAND: EVENTS 1969-1981
1969 - January March by Peoples Democracy (Students Civil Rights and socialist body) from Belfast to Derry City in rejection of reformist concessions by Stormont Premier O'Neill. It is harassed by militant loyalists en route and is attacked by stone-throwing mobs at Burntollet Bridge. RUC stand by and do not intervene. On arrival at Derry City, RUC attack Bogside (nationalist) area and a week-end of rioting ensues.

http://www.csu.edu.au/division/marketing/tms/TO91/TO91p4.htm
Women against the strong-arm
Conflict and struggle are synonymous with Northern Ireland where a region continues to come to terms with a political situation that has developed over 800 years of colonial rule. An integral part of that struggle has been in the methods of policing that have shaped the daily lives of its people and provided the space for resistance to develop.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/sunningdale/
The Sunningdale Agreement - December 1973
1. The Conference between the British and Irish Governments and the parties involved in the Northern Ireland Executive (designate) met at Sunningdale on 6, 7, 8 and 9 December 1973. - 2. During the Conference, each delegation stated their position on the status of Northern Ireland. - 3. The Taoiseach said that the basic principle of the Conference was that the participants had tried to see what measure of agreement of benefit to all the people concerned could be secured. In doing so, all had reached accommodation with one another on practical arrangements...

http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/ws94/uwc43.html
Ulster Workers Council (UWC) strike of May 1974: When British army chiefs refused to obey orders
The Ulster Workers Council (UWC) strike of May 1974 was just one of the incidents that showed, far from being "impartial", the RUC and the British army did their best to prop up loyalism. This strike was a response to the Sunningdale agreement signed in the Autumn of 1973. This allowed for a "power-sharing" government made up of the Unionists, Alliance and SDLP parties. The agreement also bought into existence, in the spring 1974, the so-called "Council of Ireland". This was somewhat like the existing Anglo-Irish Secretariat, i.e. a talkshop mainly concerned with cross-border security co-operation.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/dublin/bowyer.htm
'In Dubious Battle - The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 1972-1974', by J. Bowyer Bell
Chapter VIII - The Dublin bombs, if without parents, were not without reason. Such bombs in 1972 and 1974 should not have been unexpected. The Troubles could not be pent up within six counties, for in theory and in fact both the Republic and Britain were arena as well to a multi-dimensional Anglo-Irish unconventional conflict. This struggle could not be contained by legal definitions, analytical categories, or wishful thinking. The Dublin and Monaghan bombs were in fact not the only bombs detonated in the Republic nor the only violence that came south. There had been other incidents, especially in the spill-over of the violence along the border, but even in Dublin.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/intern/pdfs/news2.pdf
Anti-Internment News, No. 2 : Bulletin of the Anti-Internment League, 1972.
After Derry - While mass arrests and internment continue in the Six Counties and demonstrators are punished with the death sentence, the campaign in Britain and the extension of the struggle to the 26 Counties assume ever greater importance. The revulsion at the killings in Derry on 30 January - inevitable as they were - give us new opportunities to build up a massive anti-imperialist movement in Britain.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/intern/pdfs/news4.pdf
Anti-Internment News, No. 4 : Bulletin of the Anti-Internment League, 1972
Why direct rule? - Direct rule is desperate gamble mada by a despairing government. No one should imagine that a defeated Tory government is any more generous than one which has the upper hand. The sole advantage of "Direct Rule" to the Tories is that in the short term it has given them added flexibility in their handling of the Northern Ireland situation. They have abolished Stormont. This pleases anyone involved in opposition politics in Northern Ireland.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/bfriday/bf.htm
Key Events - 'Bloody Friday', Belfast 21 July 1972
'Bloody Friday' is the name given to the events that occurred in Belfast on Friday 21 July 1972. During the afternoon of 'Bloody Friday' the Irish Republican Army (IRA) planted and exploded 22 bombs which, in the space of 75 minutes, killed 9 people and seriously injured approximately 130 others. In addition to the bombs there were numerous hoax warnings about other explosive devices which added to the chaos in the streets that afternoon. Many people believe these hoax warnings were deliberately used to reduce the effectiveness of the security forces in dealing with the real bombs.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/crights/odochart.htm
The Homeless Revolt - chap. 3 from 'Ulster's White Negroes': From Civil Rights to Insurrection - by Fionnbarra Ó Dochartaigh
On a cold February day in 1968, four women and two men sat in the Corporation Housing Department reception. They were discussing the overall housing situation in the city, and in particular the plight of the four worsen present, all of whom then lived in flats at Limavady Road. Within the previous few days their landlord had cut off their electricity and they were forced to live in candle-lit rooms and cook on open fires.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/pdmarch/egan.htm
'Burntollet' by Bowes Egan and Vincent McCormack
OPPONENTS of the Northern Ireland government accuse it of operating a police state. The Ulster Unionists, who have held control for nearly half a century, make automatic denial each time this charge is urged. Undocumented allegations and blanket disclaimers do not help towards fair assessment. For seven months we have examined what happened during a Civil Rights march from Belfast to Derry. We have also looked to the aftermath of this demonstration, its consequences, and action taken by the authorities.

http://www.etext.org/Politics/INAC/coughlin.interview
Anthony Coughlin interview (Civil rights activist and former member of Connolly Association)
An interview with Anthony Coughlan, founder member of the Connolly Association, Civil Rights activist, Irish Sovereignty Movement and author of several books including "Fooled Again?". - From IRIS Magazine of November 1988. IRIS is a publication of the
Republican Movement.

http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~msc/histog.htm
The Civil Rights Movement, Internment & The Prevention Of Terrorism Act; 1968 - 1981 - by Sherry Peters
Mass protests, riots, hunger strikes, and continued bombing campaigns over the past three decades, have brought the'lrish Question'onto the international stage. The magnitude and duration of the sectarian violence has secured the Troubles in the consciousness of the world. The 'Irish Question', which has persisted in British politics for well over a century, was believed to be answered with the partition of Ireland in 1922.

http://www.etext.org/Politics/INAC/job.discrimination
THE CHALLENGE TO DISCRIMINATION - A LONG ROAD TO MARCH - By Oliver Kearney
Published by Labour Committee on Ireland in association with '68 Civil Rights Committee. Published in the USA by the American Protestants for Truth on Ireland. - The road from the County Tyrone village of Coalisland to the market town of Dungannon is a little over four-and-a-half miles long and mostly uphill. It is a long road to march.

http://www.etext.org/Politics/INAC/british.counterinsurgency
BRITISH COUNTER INSURGENCY STRATEGY - by Pat McGeown from-- An Camcheachta/The Starry Plough
In essence Britain's counter-insurgency strategy, which at present dates from the arrival of British forces, their generals
and experts in 1969 to the present day, is best described as a political/military strategy coordinating governmental, judicial,
economic, social and psychological agencies and dimensions, and aimed at containing, isolating and destroying identifiable
resistance.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/troops/chap4.htm
The British Army - August 1969-April 1970
Honeymoon - British troops had been on the streets of Derry for only four days when the army GOC in Northern Ireland, Lt Gen., Sir Ian Freeland, said that he suspected that the 'honeymoon' period would be short-lived, that it had probably already reached its peak and that the army could soon become an object of both Protestant and Catholic hostility.

http://www.oconnellstreet.com/blkgreen.htm
Oppression is colorblind - In the 1960s and '70s, Irish and black civil rights activists shared a common goal - by Brian Dooley
Protestors at the first filmed civil rights march in Northern Ireland, in Derry on Oct. 5, 1968, echoed the demands of black Americans in calling for police reform, in chanting "One Man, One Vote," and in singing "We Shall Overcome." Nationalists in Northern Ireland had been making the identification with black American civil rights activists for years, both in general and in very specific ways.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/troops/nogo.htm
Extracts from 'NO GO - A Photographic Record of Free Derry'by Barney McMonagle (site includes many maps and photos)
Time tends to impose order on the past. We look back on the early days and think we discern the outline of what comes later. Knowing now how things happened, we assume this is the way it was bound to be. But the trajectory wasn't pre-set. The chaos we felt around us was for real, and rich in possibilities other than those which came to pass. The well-composed, neatly cropped photograph doesn't always tell the truth. The out-of-focus picture is sometimes more accurate. It's said now with a certain sadness that nothing ever changes...

http://dnausers.d-n-a.net/dnetvcro/Civright.html
The civil rights movement in Northern Ireland
The 1960s are often seen as a period of slow political reform, unprecedented in the history of the Northern Ireland state. Catholics, traditionally supporters of a reunified Ireland, and liberal-minded protestants who generally advocated the maintenance of the union of Northern Ireland with Great Britain but who also wished to see a degree of change, began a campaign to seek the redress by their Unionist government of a number of grievances. Reform was sought to combat perceived discrimination against catholics in housing, employment and the electoral system.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/derry/derry.htm
The Derry March, 5 October 1968
The information on the Civil Rights march in Derry on 5 October 1968 is divided into a number of subsections. The headings of these subsections are listed below. A first draft of the web pages associated with each of these sections is available. - Selected reading list - Summary - Background - Chronology - Main events of the day - Details of source material

Bloody Sunday

ENGLISH

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/bsunday/mad.htm
Massacre at Derry
Derry differs from all other atrocities that have occurred to date in the struggle for civil rights and democracy in Northern Ireland. The 1969 attempted pogrom was not ordered or directed by the British Government. This massacre was. That mass-murder took place in Derry on Sunday, January 30, 1972 is beyond doubt. There is no need for an inquiry into this fact. There were more than 30,000 eye-witnesses.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/bsunday/walsh.htm
THE BLOODY SUNDAY TRIBUNAL OF INQUIRY - A Resounding Defeat for Truth, Justice and the Rule of Law
On the afternoon of Sunday 30 January 1972 a "civil rights" march made its way from the Creggan Estate in Derry en route to the city centre. The march was taking place in breach of an Order prohibiting such marches. A political decision was taken to stop the march in the Bogside before it reached the city centre. The task of stopping the march fell to the British Army. The operational plan for achieving this result envisaged that violence was likely once the march reached the army barricades at the edge of the Bogside.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/bsunday/grimaldi.htm
Extracts from 'Blood in the Street' by Fulvio Grimaldi
BLOOD in the STREET - "Today we march. And march we can, 'cause our streets are free." On 30 January 1972 Italian photo-journalist Fulvio Gnmaldi and his English partner Susan North joined an anti-internment march in Derry, to photograph and record a day that wasn't thought to be "particularly out of the ordinary". There was no foreboding, no thought that that day, that march, was to become indelibly inscribed as one of the blackest moments in the dark history of the Northern Ireland conflict. Within hours, thirteen civilians lay dead, a further thirteen injured.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/bsunday/read.htm
'Bloody Sunday', Derry 30 January 1972 - A Selected Reading List
Key Texts - British Irish Rights Watch. (1994), Submission to the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Summary and Arbitrary Executions: The Murder of 13 Civilians by Soldiers of the British Army on 'Bloody Sunday', 30 January 1972. London: British Irish Rights Watch. - Civil Rights Movement. (1972), Massacre at Derry. Derry: Civil Rights Movement. - Daly, Edward. (2000), Mister, Are You A Priest? Dublin: Four Courts Press.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/bsunday/mcclean.htm
Extracts from 'The Road to Bloody Sunday' by Dr. Raymond McClean
Over the weekend there was much speculation about the behaviour of the paratroopers at Magilligan. This had been their first introduction to the Derry area, and we had no doubt that their introduction indicated a shift in emphasis by those in authority to a much tougher approach. On the following Sunday, 30 January 1972, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) had planned an anti-internment march for Derry City; the route to be from Creggan, via the Bogside area to the Guildhall Square.

http://hometown.aol.com/BRuke1/Derry.html
BLOODY SUNDAY- DERRY - January 30, 1972 - Photos
For additional photos, audio recordings and information by reporter/photographer William L. Rukeyser, click here

http://larkspirit.com/bloodysunday/
Remembering Bloody Sunday - January 30, 1972
On January 30, 1972, soldiers from the British Army's 1st Parachute Regiment opened fire on unarmed and peaceful civilian demonstrators in the Bogside, Derry, Ireland, near the Rossville flats, killing 13 and wounding a number of others. One wounded man later died from illness attributed to that shooting. The march, which was called to protest internment, was "illegal" according to British government authorities. Internment without trial was introduced by the British government on August 9, 1971.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/bsunday/birw.htm
'Bloody Sunday' - Submission to the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Summary and Arbitrary Executions
1. INTRODUCTION - 1.1 This submission seeks the assistance of the Special Rapporteur on Summary and Arbitrary Executions in relation to the deaths on 30.1 .1972 (Bloody Sunday) of 13 civilians, killed by the British army. 13 others were injured. - 1.2 We believe that these deaths come within the remit of the Special Rapporteur because they involved: "The deprivation of life of civilians by members of the armed or security forces in violation of law governing the state of war or armed conflict" and because they were deaths which took place: "As a result of abuse of force by police, military or any other governmental or quasi-governmental forces". [United Nations Factsheet No. 11...

ESPAÑOL

http://www.u2eastlink.com/discografia/discos/war.php
WAR (1983) -Grupo U2
...El Domingo Sangriento (Sunday Bloody Sunday) original ocurrió en la Pascua de 1916 cuando 14 personas fueron disparadas por los 'Black and Tans' en respuesta a la campaña de asesinatos seguida por el IRAcontra oficiales del gobierno.
El segundo Domingo Sangriento ocurrió en la ciudad de Derry el 30 de Enero de 1972, cuando soldados del Regimiento de Aire atacaron a una manifestación pacífica. 13 civiles murieron y todos ellos estaban desarmados...

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/5049/irlanda.html#Domingo de sangre
EL DOMINGO DE SANGRE (Bloody Sunday)
En el Ulster, la represión siempre está presente, y el horror sigue reservándonos capítulos inéditos e impensables. Uno de esos capítulos fue la masacre de Derry, el día 30 de Enero de 1972. En esa jornada varios miles de católicos efectuaban una marcha en pro de los derechos cívicos.

http://www.edai.org/centro/eur/reinounido/N1101798.html
Reino Unido: La investigación sobre el «Domingo sangriento», Amnistía Internacional
Amnistía Internacional ha expresado su satisfacción ante el anuncio realizado ayer por el primer ministro británico Tony Blair, sobre la apertura de una «investigación judicial completa» sobre los hechos ocurridos el «Domingo sangriento», hace 26 años, cuando soldados del ejército británico mataron e hirieron a varias personas desarmadas en Irlanda del Norte.

http://actualidad.wanadoo.es/noticias/80854.html
El Gobierno británico planeó en 1972 una 'limpieza étnica' en el Ulster
El ex primer ministro conservador Edward Heath planeaba en 1972 hacer una "limpieza étnica" en Irlanda del Norte para redefinir la fronteras de la provincia y que la habitaran sólo protestantes, según revelan documentos desclasificados hoy.

http://www.upaz.edu.uy/informes/ulster/crono.htm
Informe Irlanda del Norte
Las tropas británicas matan a 14 manifestantes católicos durante el "Domingo Sangriento" en Londonderry.

http://cine.elcorreodigital.com/datos/peliculas/pelicula220203.html
DOMINGO SANGRIENTO - (Pelicula) Terror en Irlanda del Norte
El Oso de Oro conseguido en el Festival de Berlín del 2002 avala este contundente drama político, centrado en la descripción de los aterradores acontecimientos registrados el 30 de enero de 1972, cuando 13 personas murieron acribilladas por paracaidistas

Irish Republican Socialist Movement

ENGLISH

http://www.irsm.org/general/history/starryplough/inla_interview.htm
Interview With INLA - June/July 1982 - Irish National Liberation Army
The Irish National Liberation Army is now more united, determined and capable than ever.. This is according to an exclusive interview given to the Starry Plough by a member of the INLA's Headquarters Staff.

http://www.irsm.org/general/history/starryplough/
An Camhchéachta: The Starry Plough - History of the Newspaper
The Starry Plough Newspaper is the party organ for the Irish Republican Socialist Party, which first started printing in 1975. These historic articles from the Starry Plough offer an insight into the Irish Republican Socialist Movement. We plan to put more articles and graphics from the Starry Plough online as they become available.

http://www.irsm.org/general/history/costello/
"I Owe My Allegiance Only to the Working Class" - Selected Writings and Speeches of Seamus Costello
Seamus Costello: An Appreciation - Oration at Bodenstown - Aims, Principles, Policies - Principled Stand - Loyalism and the Connolly Approach - The Broad Front - Policy Statement - Interview with Seamus Costello - Tribute to a Comrade - Seamus O'Coistealbha

http://www.irsm.org/general/history/irsm20yr.htm
Irish Republican Socialist Movement - Twenty Years of Struggle
Origins of the IRSM - Most founding members of the Irish Republican Socialist Party and Irish National Liberation Army came out of the Official Irish Republican Movement. Provisional Sinn Féin and the Provisional IRA had split from what became known as the "Officials" in late 1969/early 1970, ostensibly over Sinn Féin's decision to drop its traditional position of abstentionism in regard to Dail Eireann (the parliament of the 26-county statelet), but the cleavage represented divisions of a deeper nature...

http://www.irsm.org/general/history/tapowerdoc.htm
The Ta Power Document: An Essay on the History of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement
Introduction: The Irish Republican Socialist Movement is proud to publish this essay written by Thomas "Ta" Power on the history of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement, and his analysis of how the Movement should be reorganized to overcome past weaknesses it had encountered. The essay called for the armed aspect of the movement to subordinate itself to the political direction of the party.