Anthony Peacocke 1980s 1990s The Battle of the Bogside was a large three-day riot that took place from 12 to 14 August 1969 in Derry, Northern Ireland.

Thousands of Catholic/Irish nationalist residents of the Bogside district, organised under the Derry Citizens' Defence Association, clashed with the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and loyalists.

[1][2] It sparked widespread violence elsewhere in Northern Ireland, led to the deployment of British troops, and is often seen as the beginning of the thirty-year conflict known as the Troubles.

[4] The besieged residents built barricades, set up first aid posts and petrol bomb workshops, and a radio transmitter broadcast messages calling for resistance.

The British Army made no attempt to enter the Bogside, which became a no-go area called Free Derry.

[6] Nationalists argued that these practices were retained by unionists after their abolition in Great Britain in 1945 in order to reduce the anti-unionist vote.

[6] As a result, although Catholics made up 60% of Derry's population in 1961,[9] due to the division of electoral wards, unionists had a majority of 12 seats to 8 on the city council.

When the marchers, including Members of Parliament Eddie McAteer and Ivan Cooper, defied this ban they were batoned by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).

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".

It was at this point that the 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.

Police officers entered the house of Samuel Devenny (42), a local Catholic who was not involved in the riot, and severely beat him with batons.

[20] Others consider John Patrick Scullion, who was killed 11 June 1966 by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), to have been the first victim of the conflict.

During the clashes in Dungiven, Catholic civilian Francis McCloskey (67) was beaten with batons by RUC officers and died of his injuries the following day.

Initially, some loyalists had thrown pennies from the top of the walls at Catholics in the Bogside below, in return marbles were fired by slingshot.

[3] Nationalists lobbed stones and petrol bombs from the top of the high-rise Rossville Flats, halting the police advance,[24] and injuring 43 of the 59 officers who made the initial incursion.

The DCDA 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.

[4] Many local people, however, joined in the rioting on their own initiative and impromptu leaders also emerged, such as McCann, Bernadette Devlin and others.

[3] Late on 12 August, police began flooding the area with CS gas, which caused a range of respiratory injuries among local people.

[26] On 13 August, Jack Lynch, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of the Republic of Ireland, made a televised speech about the events in Derry, saying "the Irish Government can no longer stand by and see innocent people injured and perhaps worse".

Lynch also announced that the Irish Army was being sent to the border to set up field hospitals for those civilians injured in the fighting.

Almost the entire Bogside community had been mobilised by this point, many galvanised by false rumours that St Eugene's Cathedral had been attacked by loyalists.

At about 5pm a company of the 1st Battalion, Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire (who had been on standby at HMS Sea Eagle) arrived and took over from the police.

The British troops were at first welcomed by the Bogside residents as a neutral force compared to the RUC and the B-Specials.

On 13 August, NICRA called for protests across Northern Ireland in support of the Bogside to draw police away from the fighting there.

The CRA demands that all Irishmen recognise their common interdependence and calls upon the Government and people of the Twenty-six Counties to act now to prevent a great national disaster.

[3]Nationalists held protests at RUC stations in Belfast, Newry, Armagh, Dungannon, Coalisland and Dungiven.