Summer Of 69 Flashcards
Summer of 69
• Unionists at first relieved when O’Neill resigned believing these concessions for Catholics would be scrapped grew even more frustrated when his replacement Chichester Clark turned 180 degrees and committed himself to continuing the reforms.
• In April, in Derry serious rioting between Nationalists and the RUC resulted in the death of Catholic Samuel Devenny after he was beaten by the police.
• Riots followed the 12th July Parades in Belfast, Derry and Dungiven. Many Catholics in Belfast had to flee after houses in Catholic areas were burned down by loyalists leaving 7 dead and hundreds homeless. Francis McCloskey died in Dungiven after being beaten the police.
• A rally was held in Dublin calling for the Irish Army to enter Northern Ireland to protect Catholics on August 1st.
• The Derry Citizens Defense Association (DCDA) was established in early August to protect Catholics from the RUC.
All these events served to keep turning up the heat in Northern Ireland and the tension continued to rise higher and higher. As August progressed, the final hurrah of the Marching Season loomed large; the Apprentice Boys March.
Violence is Belfast and derry
The Apprentice Boys parade in Derry was followed by more than two days of intense violence.
• What started as stone throwing while the parade passed a nationalist area of the city descended into widespread violence and rioting with stones making way for petrol bombs.
In Belfast meanwhile rows of houses in catholic areas were being attacked and burned down.
• 3500 mostly catholic families were forced from their homes.
• Paramilitary groups from both sides became involved with snipers aiming at civilians and co-ordinated attacks.
The battle of the bogside
Derry/Londonderry was in the midst of a crisis. Between August 12th – 14th the city descended into chaos. A widespread riot lasting 50 hours engulfed the Bogside area of the city, an almost exclusively republican area.
Emerging from stone throwing while Apprentice Boys Parade passed the Bogside the RUC moved in to stop the missiles before the event descended into chaos.
• Nationalists barricaded their streets in bid to prevent the police and unionists from entering while throwing petrol bombs back across the barricades.
Over the next two days, L/Derry and the rest of Northern Ireland was gripped by violence.
The Irish army in the summer of 69
The RUC was badly underprepared for the riot, lacking most of the equipment necessary to stop the violence.
For Unionists however the riots stirred paranoia and fear after Irish Taoiseach Jack Lynch made a speech in which he said 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. Although the Irish Army was sent to the border, they restricted their activities to providing medical care for the injured.
The British soldiers in the summer of 69
On the afternoon of August 14th, NI Prime Minister James Chichester Clark took an unprecedented step and called for British troops to be send to help in L/Derry and Belfast to try and stop the violence.
•The 1st Battalion Prince of Wale’s Own Regiment were deployed soon after, having been held on reserve at HMS Sea Eagle, a British naval base in County Derry.
The British troops were at first welcomed by the Bogside residents as a neutral force compared to the RUC and the B-Specials. Many Catholics saw the British soldiers as people who could protect them, welcoming them with tea, sandwiches and biscuits.
