There had been sporadic violence throughout the year arising out of the Northern Ireland civil rights campaign, which demanded an end to discrimination against Catholics and Irish nationalists.

The British Army was deployed to restore order on 14 August, beginning the thirty-seven year Operation Banner, and peace lines were built to separate Catholic and Protestant districts.

[citation needed] During the summer of 1969, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) published a highly critical report which "criticised the Northern Ireland Government for police brutality, religious discrimination [against Catholics] and gerrymandering in politics".

[4] The ICJ secretary general said that laws and conditions in Northern Ireland had been cited by the South African government to justify its apartheid system.

[4] The Times reported that the Ulster Special Constabulary (B-Specials), Northern Ireland's reserve police force, was "regarded as the militant arm of the Protestant Orange Order".

[6] Disturbed by the prospect of major violence, the prime minister of Northern Ireland, Terence O'Neill, promised reforms in return for a "truce", whereby no further demonstrations would be held.

[citation needed] In spite of these promises, in January 1969 People's Democracy, a left-wing group, staged an anti-government march from Belfast to Derry.

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.

[12] At Leeson Street, roughly halfway between the two police stations, an RUC Humber armoured car was attacked with a hand grenade and rifle fire.

[12] Loyalists viewed the nationalist attacks of Wednesday night as an organised attempt by the IRA "to undermine the constitutional position of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom".

[25] At around 7 pm, a nationalist crowd the Falls gathered outside Hastings Street police station and began to attack it with stones and petrol bombs for a second night.

[21] From the rooftop of the Whitehall flats, part of the Divis complex, a group of nationalists would spend the rest of the night raining missiles on the police below.

[26] Loyalist crowds armed with petrol bombs, bricks, stones, sharpened poles and protective dustbin lids gathered at Dover and Percy Streets.

[20] At about 12:30 am, an IRA unit[32] opened fire on RUC officers and loyalists gathered at the intersection of Dover and Divis Street, at the edge of the Catholic district.

[21] At this point, the RUC, believing they were facing an organised IRA uprising, deployed Shorland armoured cars mounted with Browning machine guns,[20] whose .30 calibre bullets "tore through walls as if they were cardboard".

[34] The Republican Labour Party MP for Belfast Central, Paddy Kennedy, who was on the scene, phoned RUC headquarters and appealed to Northern Ireland Minister for Home Affairs, Robert Porter, for the Shorlands to be withdrawn and the shooting to stop.

[38] A unit of six IRA volunteers in St Comgall's School shot at them with a rifle, a Thompson submachine gun and pistols; keeping the attackers back and wounding eight.

Police responded by firing a Sterling submachine gun at several houses on the street, killing Catholic civilian Samuel McLarnon (aged 27).

Father PJ Egan of Clonard Monastery recalled that a large loyalist mob moved down Cupar Street at about 3pm and was confronted by nationalist youths.

[20] The Scarman Report concluded that the spread of the disturbances "owed much to a deliberate decision by some minority groups to relieve police pressure on the rioters in Londonderry".

[7][56]When the Irish government met on 14 and 15 August, it decided to send troops to protect the field hospitals and to call up the first line army reserves "in readiness for participation in peace-keeping operations".

The prime minister of Northern Ireland, James Chichester-Clark, responded: "In this grave situation, the behaviour of the Dublin Government has been deplorable, and tailor-made to inflame opinion on both sides".

[7]The Irish republican party, Sinn Féin, issued a statement saying, "The present events in the Six Counties are the outcome of fifty years of British rule.

Many Protestants, loyalists and unionists believed the violence showed the true face of the Catholic civil rights movement – as a front for the IRA and armed insurrection.

Violence escalated sharply in Northern Ireland after these events, with the formation of new paramilitary groups on both sides, most notably the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in December of that year.

While the thousands of British troops sent to Northern Ireland were initially seen as a neutral force, they quickly got dragged into the street violence and by 1971 were devoting most of their attention to combating republican paramilitaries.

The Scarman Inquiry concluded:Undoubtedly there was an IRA influence at work in the DCDA (Derry Citizens' Defence Association) in Londonderry, in the Ardoyne and Falls Road areas of Belfast, and in Newry.

In his study From Civil Rights to Armalites, nationalist author Niall Ó Dochartaigh argues that the actions of the RUC and USC (B-Specials) were a key factor in the worsening of the conflict.

Specifically, they criticised the RUC's use of Browning heavy machine-guns in built-up areas, their failure to stop Protestants from burning down Catholic homes, and their withdrawal from the streets long before the Army arrived.

[20] The report found that the B-Specials had fired on Catholic demonstrators in Dungiven, Coalisland, Dungannon and Armagh, causing casualties, which "was a reckless and irresponsible thing to do".