[1] On 28 April 1869, The Prince Arthur (later created Duke of Connaught and Strathearn) visited Derry, where a Catholic reportedly waved a flag bearing a harp with no crown and shouted for an "Irish Republic".
Members of the Protestant Apprentice Boys of Derry were angered by this, considering it a deliberate insult to the monarchy.
[2] In a sectarian riot that evening, three of the Apprentice Boys were shot dead by Londonderry Borough Police constables.
[1][4] A subsequent Commission of Inquiry ordered by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland found that the Londonderry Borough Police were inadequate to their task:[5] it had only 38 officers and, being majority-Protestant, was distrusted by Catholics.
[7] In response, the Londonderry Corporation refused to help fund a female searcher or hand over the former police force's records, citing the 1870 act stating they were not obliged "to make any payments for Constabulary purposes other than the moiety of the Constables pay to be charged as mentioned in the statute".