Derry Civil Rights March

Derry Civil Rights March

The Derry Housing Action Committee organised a march on 5 October 1968 in favour of civil-rights demands, including an end to gerrymandering and discrimination in housing and equality of voting rights. The march was initially supported by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, which had previously organised a march in August from Coalisland to Dungannon that had been opposed by Reverend Ian Paisley. The October march was subsequently banned by the Unionist Government.

The march went ahead anyway. The Royal Ulster Constabulary attacked the marchers on Duke Street, and basically beat the people off the street. The marchers were trapped between two lines of the RUC who drove the protesters across the river into the Catholic area of the Bogside. The original confrontation between marchers and the police became a general battle between the police and young residents of the Bogside, most of whom had taken no part in the march. 

The event was filmed by a TV cameraman and shown on news programmes across the world - exposing the reality of oppression of the Catholic population of the North of Ireland, and is considered a key moment in the start of the Troubles.