Battle of the Bogside
The Battle of the Bogside (Irish: Cath Thaobh an Phortaigh) was a very large communal riot between the mostly unarmed residents of the Bogside area of Derry city in Northern Ireland allied under the Derry Citizens Defence Association and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).
The rioting took place in Derry, Northern Ireland, from August 12 to August 14, 1969, after the Royal Ulster Constabulary attempted to disperse nationalists who were protesting a loyalist Apprentice Boys of Derry parade along the city walls, past the nationalist Bogside area of the city. Rioting continued for three days in the Bogside. The RUC were unable to enter the area, however and the British Army was deployed to restore order. The riot, which sparked widespread violence elsewhere in Northern Ireland, is commonly seen as one of the first major confrontations in the conflict known as The Troubles.
Background
Tensions had been building in Derry for over a year before the battle of the Bogside. In part, this was due to long-standing grievances held by much of the city's population. Derry had a majority Catholic and nationalist population but, after the partition of Ireland in 1921, had been ruled by the unionist government of Northern Ireland. Unionists maintained political control of Derry by two means. Firstly, they allocated public housing in such a way as to keep the Catholic population in a limited number of electoral wards. This gerrymandering resulted in nationalists returning only one candidate from Derry to the Northern Ireland Parliament, while unionists returned two, althought nationalists had cast more votes. This housing policy had the additional effect of creating a housing shortage for Catholics. Secondly, only rate-payers were entitled to vote in local elections. As Protestants tended to be wealthier than Catholics, this meant that unionists also controlled Derry's local government. Catholics also alleged discrimination in employment.
In March 1968, a small number of radicals in the city founded the Derry Housing Action Committee, with the intention of forcing the government of Northern Ireland to change their housing policies. This group was founded principally by local members of the Northern Ireland Labour Party, such as Eamonn McCann and members of the James Connolly Republican Club (the Northern manifestation of Sinn Féin, which was banned in Northern Ireland). The Housing Action Committee took direct action such as blocking roads and invading local council meetings in order to force them to house Catholic families who were on council's housing waiting list for a long time. By the summer of 1968, this group had linked up with the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association and were agitating for a broader programme of reform within Northern Ireland. On October 5, 1968, these activists organised a march through the centre of Derry. However, the demonstration was banned. When the marchers, including members of Parliament Eddie McAteer and Ivan Cooper, defied this ban they were batoned by the RUC. The RUC's actions were televised and caused widespread anger in nationalist circles. The following day, 4000 people demonstrated in solidarity with the marchers in Guildhall Square in the centre of Derry. This march passed off peacefully, as did another demonstration attended by up to 15,000 people on November 16. However, these incidents proved to be the start of an escalating pattern of civil unrest, that culminated in the events of August 1969.
In January 1969, a march by the radical group People's Democracy from Belfast to Derry was attacked by loyalists at Burntollet, five miles outside Derry. When the marchers (many of whom were injured) arrived in Derry on January 5, rioting broke out between their supporters and the RUC, who were seen to have failed to protect the march. That night, RUC members broke into homes in the Catholic Bogside area and assaulted several residents. An inquiry led by Lord Cameron concluded that, "a number of policemen were guilty of misconduct, which involved assault and battery, malicious damage to property...and the use of provocative sectarian and political slogans".[1] After this point, barricades were set up in the Bogside and vigilante patrols organised to keep the RUC out. It was at this point that famous mural with the slogan "You are now entering Free Derry" was painted on the corner of Columbs street by a local activist named John Casey.
After further rioting on July 12 ("The Twelfth"), arising out of the Orange Order parades on that day, Irish republicans in Derry set up the Derry Citizens Defence Association, with the intention of preparing for future disturbances. The members of the DCDA were initially Republican Club (and possibly IRA) activists, but they were joined by many other left-wing activists and local people. This group stated their aim as firstly to keep the peace, but if this failed, to organise the defence of the Bogside. To this end, they stockpiled materials for barricades and missiles, ahead of the Apprentice Boys of Derry march on August 12.
On July 17, 1969, the first death arising out of the violence between nationalists and the RUC in Derry occurred. A local man, Samuel Devenny, died from injuries received when he was beaten with batons by RUC members who broke into his home after a riot in the Bogside on April 19, 1969. His teenage daughters were also beaten in the attack. Devenny is sometimes referred to as the first victim of the troubles.[2]
August 12, the Apprentice Boys March
The Apprentice Boys parade on August 12 commemorated the Protestant victory in the Siege of Derry in 1689 and was considered highly provocative by many Catholics. Although the march did not pass through the Bogside, it passed close to it at the junction of Waterloo Place and Williams street. It was here that trouble was expected to and did break out.
On the 12th of August, clashes occurred as the Apprentice Boys parade approached the Bogside at Williams street. Initially taunts were exchanged between the loyalists and Bogsiders. Stones were then thrown from both sides for a period, before the police forced the nationalists into Rossville street and the Bogside itself. They were followed by local loyalists, and the confrontation escalated. Large crowds turned out and pelted the police and the mob with stones and Molotov cocktails, and set up barricades to block their progress.
The Battle, August 12-15
The defence of the Bogside was coordinated to some extent. The Derry Citizens Defence Association set up a headquarters in the house of Paddy Doherty in Westland street and tried to supervise the making of petrol bombs and the positioning of barricades. They also set up "Radio Free Derry." However, many local people joined in the rioting on their own initiative and impromptu leaders also emerged, such as Bernadette Devlin, Eamonn McCann and others.
Locals youths climbed onto the roof of the High Flats on Rossville street, from where they bombarded the RUC below with missiles. When the advantage that this position possessed was realised, the youths were kept supplied with stones and petrol bombs. The RUC were in many respects badly prepared for the "battle". Their riot shields were too small and did not protect their whole bodies. In addition, their uniforms were not flame resistant and a number were badly burned by petrol bombs. They possessed armoured cars and guns, but were not permitted to use them. Moreover, there was no system in place to relieve officers, with the result that the same policemen had to serve in the rioting for three days without rest. The police responded to this situation by flooding the area with CS gas, which caused a range of respiratory injuries among the local people. A total of 1,091 canisters containing 12.5g of CS; and 14 canisters containing 50g of CS, were released in the densely populated residential area.[3] After two days of almost continuous rioting, during which police were drafted in from all over Northern Ireland, the RUC were exhausted, and were snatching sleep in doorways whenever the opportunity allowed.
On August 13, Jack Lynch, Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland made a televised speech about the events in Derry, in which he said that he, "could not stand by and watch innocent people injured and perhaps worse." He promised to send the Irish Army to the border and to set up field hospitals for those injured in the fighting. Lynch's words were widely interpreted in the Bogside as promising that Irish troops were about to be sent to their aid. Unionists were appalled at this prospect, which they saw as a threatened invasion of Northern Ireland. In fact, although the Irish Army was indeed sent to the border, they restricted their activities to providing medical care for the injured.
By August 14, the rioting in the Bogside had reached a critical point. Almost the entire community there had been mobilised by this point, many galvanised by false rumours that St Eugene's Cathedral had been attacked by the police. The RUC were also beginning to use deadly force. Two rioters were shot and injured in Great James' Street. The B-Specials, an auxiliary, mostly Protestant police force, much feared by Catholics for their role in sectarian killings in the 1920s, were called up and sent to Derry, provoking fears of a massacre on the part of the Bogsiders.
On the afternoon of the 14th, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, James Chichester-Clarke, took the unprecedented step of requesting the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson for troops to be sent to Derry. Soon afterwards a company of the Prince of Wales Own Regiment relieved the police, with orders to separate the RUC and the Bogsiders, but not to attempt to breach the barricades and enter the Bogside itself. This marked the first direct intervention of the London government in Ireland since partition. The British troops were at first welcomed by the Bogside residents as a neutral force compared to the RUC and especially the B-Specials. Only a handful of radicals in Bogside, notably Bernadette Devlin, opposed the deployment of British troops. This good relationship did not last long however, as the Troubles escalated. Over 1000 people had been injured in the rioting in Derry, but no one was killed. A total of 691 RUC men were deployed in Derry during the riot, of whom only 255 were still in action at 12.30 on the 15th. Manpower then fluctuated for the rest of the afternoon: the numbers recorded are 318, 304, 374, 333, 285 and finally 327 at 5.30 p.m. While some of the fluctuation in numbers can be put down to exhaustion rather than injury, these figures indicate that the RUC suffered at least 350 serious injuries. How many Bogsiders were injured is unclear, as many injuries were never reported.[4]
Rioting elsewhere
A call by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association for people to stretch police resources to aid the Bogsiders led to rioting in Belfast and elsewhere, which left five Catholics and a Protestant dead. That same night (the 14th) a loyalist mob burned all of the Catholic homes on Bombay Street. Over 1,500 Catholics were expelled from their homes in Belfast. Taken together with events in Derry, this period of rioting is widely seen as the point in which The Troubles escalated from a situation of civil unrest to one of a three-way armed conflict between nationalists, state forces and unionists.
Documentary
The documentary Battle of the Bogside, produced and directed by Vinny Cunningham and written by John Peto, won "Best Documentary" at the Irish Film and Television Awards in October 2004.
See also
References
- ^ Eamonn McCann, War and an Irish Town, page 108
- ^ CAIN Chronology of the Conflict - 1969
- ^ Dr Raymond McClean (1997). The Road To Bloody Sunday (revised edition). Guildhall: Printing Press. ISBN 0-946451-37-0. (extracts available online)
- ^ CAIN: Events: Stetler, R. (1970) The Battle of Bogside: The Politics of Violence in Northern Ireland
External links
- Images from the booklet "Battle of Bogside" published in (1969).
- A synopsis of released Harold Wilson State papers from the time period available here.
- CAIN project chronology of events available here.
- The Battle of the Bogside at IMDb