Free Derry
The Derry Citizens Defence Association (DCDA) declared their intention to hold the area against both the RUC and the British Army until their demands were met.
Support for the IRA rose further after Bloody Sunday in January 1972, when 13 unarmed men and boys were shot dead by the British Parachute Regiment during a protest march in the Bogside (a 14th man was wounded and died 4+1⁄2 months later).
[3] The South Ward comprised the Bogside, Brandywell, Creggan, Bishop Street and Foyle Road, and it was this area that would become Free Derry.
It disrupted a meeting of Londonderry Corporation in March 1968 and in May blocked traffic by placing a caravan that was home to a family of four in the middle of the Lecky Road in the Bogside and staging a sit-down protest at the opening of the second deck of the Craigavon Bridge.
[6] After the meeting of Londonderry Corporation was again disrupted in August, Eamonn Melaugh telephoned the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) and invited them to hold a march in Derry.
The date chosen was 5 October 1968, an ad hoc committee was formed (although in reality most of the organising was done by McCann and Melaugh[6]) and the route was to take the marchers inside the city walls, where nationalists were traditionally not permitted to march.
The police, who were at the scene, chatted to the B-Specials as they prepared their ambush, and then failed to protect the marchers, many of whom ran into the river and were attacked with stones thrown from the bank.
In the early hours of the following morning, 5 January, members of the RUC charged into St. Columb's Wells and Lecky Road in the Bogside, breaking windows and beating residents.
[13] In his report on the disturbances, Lord Cameron remarked that "for such conduct among members of a disciplined and well-led force there can be no acceptable justification or excuse" and added that "its effect in rousing passions and inspiring hostility towards the police was regrettably great.
"[14] That afternoon over 1,500 Bogside residents built barricades, armed themselves with steel bars, wooden clubs and hurleys, and told the police that they would not be allowed into the area.
"[19] Following some acts of destruction and of violence late in the week, members of the DCAC including Ivan Cooper addressed residents on Friday, 10 January and called on them to dismantle the barricades.
A series of pitched battles followed, and barricades were built, often under the supervision of Bernadette Devlin, newly elected MP for Mid Ulster.
[23] Police pursuing rioters broke into a house in William Street and severely beat the occupant, Samuel Devenny, his family and two friends.
[26] The following day, several thousand residents, led by the DCAC, withdrew to the Creggan and issued an ultimatum to the RUC – withdraw within two hours or be driven out.
[28] Thousands attended his funeral, and the mood was sufficiently angry that it was clear the annual Apprentice Boys' parade, scheduled for 12 August, could not take place without causing serious disturbance.
[30] On 30 July 1969 the Derry Citizens Defence Association (DCDA) was formed to try to preserve peace during the period of the parade, and to defend the Bogside and Creggan in the event of an attack.
[32] Walkie-talkies were used to maintain contact between different areas of fighting and DCDA headquarters in Paddy Doherty's house in Westland Street,[33] and first aid stations were operating, staffed by doctors, nurses and volunteers.
Women and girls made milk-bottle crates of petrol bombs for supply to the youths in the front line[34] and "Radio Free Derry" broadcast to the fighters and their families.
On the third day of fighting, 14 August, the Northern Ireland Government mobilised the Ulster Special Constabulary (B-Specials), a force greatly feared by nationalists in Derry and elsewhere.
It was low in both personnel and equipment—Chief of Staff Cathal Goulding told Seán Keenan and Paddy Doherty in August 1969 that he "couldn't defend the Bogside.
The riot following the Officials' Easter parade in March 1970 marked the first time that the army used 'snatch squads', who rushed into the Bogside wielding batons to make arrests.
The Labour radicals and Official republicans, still working together, tried to turn the youth away from rioting and create socialist organisations—one such organisation was named the Young Hooligans Association—but to no avail.
[61] Two men, Séamas Cusack and Desmond Beattie, were shot dead in separate incidents in the early morning and afternoon of 8 July 1971.
In Derry, residents came out onto the streets to resist the arrests, and fewer people were taken there than elsewhere; nevertheless leading figures including Seán Keenan and Johnnie White were interned.
Eamonn McCann wrote that "the Derry Provos, under Martin McGuinness, had managed to bomb the city centre until it looked as if it had been hit from the air without causing any civilian casualties.
Troops from 1 Para then moved into Free Derry and opened fire, killing thirteen people, all of whom were subsequently found to be unarmed.
The Provisional IRA initially stated that they would not follow suit, but after informal approaches to the British Government they announced a ceasefire from 26 June.
Martin McGuinness was the Derry representative in a party of senior Provisionals who travelled to London for talks with William Whitelaw, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
[78] The talks were not resumed after the ending of the truce following a violent confrontation in Belfast when troops prevented Catholic families from taking over houses in the Lenadoon estate.
[83] Many of the residents' original grievances were addressed with the passing of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972, which redrew the electoral boundaries and introduced universal adult suffrage based on the single transferable vote.
