“40 Years On - The Civil Rights Challenges in Ireland Today - Tackling Poverty, Sectarianism, Racism and Inequality”
Continue reading ‘Event: THE McCLUSKEY CIVIL RIGHTS SUMMER SCHOOL’
Photo of the late Martin Meehan being arrested on October 5th, 1968 at the civil rights march in Duke Street Derry.
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- (L-R) Neil O'Donnell and Roddy O'Carlin are welcomed home at the L.M.S. railway station after their release from H.M. Prison, Belfast where they were incarcerated for one month due to D.H.A.C. activities.
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- The 'two Eamonns', (L-R ) Melaugh and McCann addressing a D.H.A.C. street protest
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- J.J. O' Hara pictured being 'lifted' during blockage of other vehicles, the first occupied by the Mayor of Derry, at the official opening ceremony of the lower deck of Craigavon Bridge.
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- G.F. O'Doherty, Editor of Reality
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- (L-R) Mrs. Nellie Gorman, Mrs. Bridget Bond and Mr. Ivan Cooper taken at one of the 'lulls' before the storm at Derry Corporation's monthly meetings.
Originally published: Reality, No. 7, Centre Pages
Buoyed up by the fact that the Coalisland to Dungannon march on August 24th had been, in the main, peaceful, and deemed to be highly successful, the Derry Housing Action Committee formally requested the Civil Rights Association executive to consider holding its next demonstration in the city to highlight the need for democratic reforms, and specifically the plight of hundreds of local homeless families. The NICRA executive responded, a few weeks later, indicating their approval with the proviso that any organising committee should be as broadly based as possible. The date for the next march was scheduled for Saturday, October 5th, at 3 PM, with the agreed assembly point being the Waterside railway station.
Continue reading ‘Memories of Duke Street -Recollectons by Fionnbarra Ó Dochartaigh, Doire’
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- derry-duke-street-before-re-development
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- Young people assembled on Guildhall Square to protest after Oct. 5th 1968. Some sit down to block traffic. The majority remain standing. Others view the event from Derry's Walls above at Shipquay Gate.
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- A meeting of the Londonderry Corporation.12 Unionists sat on the left opposite eight Nationalists. For almost fifty years the Unionists elected their own Mayor although a minority in the city. This was only possible through Gerrymandering. The Corporation was abolished and replaced with a Commission as part of the initial batch of reforms. Others were announced over a 50-day period following the events on Duke Street on October 5th 1968.
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- Businessman Michael Canavan, treasurer of the Derry Citizens' Action Committee is arrested by police after he and other chosen members of the DCAC 'symbolically' breached the police barriers by climbing over them on Craigavon Bridge during a mass demonstration for Civil Rights.
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- Police arrest members of the Derry Housing Action Committee during a sit-down protest along the route to be taken by the Mayor. As First Citizen the plan was that he would occupy the official car. This first car was suddenly blocked immediately after the cutting of a ribbon to open the under-deck of Craigavon Bridge to traffic. Uniformed police were assisted by Special Branch. It was at this DHAC protest that the American civil rights anthem, "We shall overcome" was publicly sung in Derry for the first time. A few leading members of the "Choir", and its "conductor", who had remained standing, were very quickly seized and taken to Victoria Barracks, the main RUC base in the city.
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- Copy of DHAC newsletter, Reality, No. 7, published after October 5th 1968. Its editor wrote: "Our cover shows up the brutality of the R.U.C. on that historic date October 5th. In any other country an independent public inquiry into police conduct would be an essential-but in Northern Ireland, far from being made to answer, they are indeed encouraged and it seems they can do whatever they please."
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- A St. Columb's College student, formerly held and beaten by three policemen, highlighted on the front cover of Reality, No. 7, is photographed, again. Obviously unconscious after his ordeal on Duke St. on Oct. 5th the teenager is literally dragged away to Victoria Barracks on Strand Road. He was a nephew of a local businessman, who was an active member of both the local Labour Party and the Derry Citizens' Action Committee.
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- Gerry Fitt, MP for West Belfast, is warmly welcomed in Derry. Behind him is 'Vinny' Coyle, the DCAC's Chief Marshall of over 700 stewards. He and other stewards acted as unpaid bodyguards for civil rights leaders. Behind the smiling crowd of well-wishers policemen look on. It is believed that this picture was taken outside Derry Courthouse on Bishop Street during the hearing of 'civil rights cases'.
This “banning order” was delivered by the RUC to those named on the instructions of the Stormont Minister for Home Affairs who viewed these four men as being the prime organisers of Derry’s first official civil rights march. The late Sean (John) Gallagher was the chief marshall on the day. The three others named were taken from their homes early on Oct. 6th and charged at a special court held at the main RUC base, Victoria Barracks on Strand Road. The original document was recently donated to the Museum of Free Derry by Fionnbarra Ó Dochartaigh, a co-founder of Nicra, whose name appears in English:
The hundreds of people who attended Rebecca McGlade’s funeral last Sunday was testimony to the love and respect she had built up during her life.
Continue reading ‘Rebecca McGlade - A Tribute in the Northern People 1989′
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Cathy Harkin died on 22nd July, 1985