The Freedom to Be Catholic: the Struggle to Control the Historical Memory of the Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland, 1968
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THE FREEDOM TO BE CATHOLIC: THE STRUGGLE TO CONTROL THE HISTORICAL MEMORY OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN NORTHERN IRELAND, 1968-1969 A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Abigail Bernhardt August, 2012 THE FREEDOM TO BE CATHOLIC: THE STRUGGLE TO CONTROL THE HISTORICAL MEMORY OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN NORTHERN IRELAND, 1968-1969 Abigail Bernhardt Thesis Approved: Accepted: _______________________________ _______________________________ Advisor Dean of College Dr. Martin Wainwright Dr. Chand Midha _______________________________ _______________________________ Faculty Reader Dean of Graduate School Dr. Michael Graham Dr. George Newkome _______________________________ _______________________________ Department Chair Date Dr. Martin Wainwright ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………………...1 II. USING THE NARRATIVE TO CONTROL THE MEMORY OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT……………………………………………….…….......……….12 Foundations of the Civil Rights Movement………………………….……….….12 August 1968 – Coalisland to Dungannon………………………………………..23 October 1968 – Derry……………………………………………………………28 November and December 1968 – Escalation…………………………………….42 January 1969 – Belfast to Derry…………………………………………………45 August 1969 – Derry “The Battle of the Bogside”………………………………57 III. USING THE MEMORY TO CONTROL THE MEANING OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT........…………………………................................………………………69 Shaping the Meaning of the Civil Rights Movement...................................….....69 IV. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………84 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………..86 iii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The civil rights movement of late 1960s Northern Ireland brought the question of Ireland back to the British government’s attention with sudden violent urgency. What began as isolated local events escalated to a national issue that drew international attention. The civil rights movement focused on addressing inequalities that existed within Northern Ireland between the Protestant and Catholic communities. The main goals of the civil rights movement were to address housing inequality, electoral reform, employment discrimination, and brutality by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).1 These disparities led Catholics to believe that their society was structured specifically to exclude them. In 1968, several local groups came together under the banner of civil rights to address these grievances. From the beginning of the agitation for equal treatment for Catholics, tensions escalated between the Catholic and Protestant communities, particularly the Nationalist and Unionist factions in each group. Between 1968 and 1969, there was a significant increase in violent clashes as Catholics staged more demonstrations and drew international attention to their situation. Conservative Protestant backlash fueled the conflict, which would eventually span three decades, a period 1 Christopher Hewitt, “Catholic grievances, Catholic nationalism and violence in Northern Ireland during the Civil Rights Period: a reconsideration”, British Journal of Sociology, 32 (Sept. 1981), 363. 1 commonly referred to as “the Troubles”. 2 As civil rights gave way to the Troubles, the struggle to control the memory of the movement began. The publication of memoirs and autobiographies contributed to the battle for meaning not only by outlining motives and rationales but also by designating the importance of events through page space and interpretation. By examining the language used and exploring the political motivations of the authors, this thesis seeks to understand the creation of the historical memory and how the individual purposes of each author came together in order to shape the common understanding of what happened. It also explores in the intersection of civil rights, nationalism, and socialism. This thesis examines the period from August 1968 through August 1969 through the eyes of three men: Terence O’Neill, Gerry Adams, and Eamonn McCann. Specifically, this paper seeks to determine how their writing reflects the ways in which they attempted to shape the historical memory of the events of those thirteen months years after the fact. As Catholic activists, McCann and Adams tend to interpret the events of 1968 and 1969 in a similar way with an equal view as to their importance, as opposed to O'Neill, who tries in his writing to minimize their importance. Terence O’Neil was the moderate Unionist Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1963 to 1969. In contrast to McCann and Adams, both Catholics, O'Neill was an Anglican. In 1972, three years after leaving office, he published The Autobiography of Terence O’Neill, in which he gives an account of his life from birth to when he resigned 2 “The Troubles” refers to the period from roughly 1969 to 1998, starting with the rioting in the Bogside in Derry and ending with the Belfast “Good Friday” Agreement. Some sectarian violence has continued since 1998, which problematizes such a timeframe. 2 as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.3 In addition to the summary of his life, he argues that he did the best he could for Northern Ireland under the circumstances in which he was forced to operate. The civil rights movement, in his view, caused as many problems as it solved because of the ensuing societal upheaval. Gerry Adams was a Catholic activist and a member of Sinn Féin, the republican political party often associated with the paramilitary Irish Republican Army, during the civil rights period.4 In 1986, he published The Politics of Irish Freedom, which serves as autobiography and political manifesto.5 Adams uses the book to explain how he came to be involved in groups such as the West Belfast Housing Action Committee and Sinn Féin and how his political activism shaped his politics to the time of publishing. In his opinion, the civil rights movement was a good start to improving the lives of Catholics, but ultimately only an independent, united Ireland could provide the desired outcome. Eamonn McCann was also a Catholic activist, and a leading leftist in Derry.6 He was heavily involved in local organizing, especially in the Derry Housing Action Committee (DHAC) and the planning of the civil rights march on October 5, 1968. In 1974, he first published War and an Irish Town, in which he describes what it was like growing up Catholic in Northern Ireland and gives his account of the civil rights 3 Terence O’Neill, The Autobiography of Terence O’Neill (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1972). 4 Adams is currently president of Sinn Féin, has published multiple subsequent books calling for the unification of an independent Ireland, and remains an active figure not only in Northern Ireland but in Europe more generally. 5 Gerry Adams, The Politics of Irish Freedom (Dingle: Brandon Book Publishers, 1986) 6 The name “Derry” is a point of contention. The official name of the town and province that share this name is “Londonderry”, but because of its British connotations, Nationalists refer to it instead as “Derry”. For the sake of clarity, Derry is used here because the two sources that refer to it most prominently used the Nationalist name. 3 movement, particularly the events in Derry in which he served as an active participant.7 For McCann, the civil rights movement was an immediate means to address the inequalities he saw in society, although he too had in mind the larger goal of full Irish independence. Terence O’Neill placed a lot of the blame for the state of Anglo-Irish relations on the shoulders of Queen Victoria, claiming that if she had treated Ireland as she had treated Scotland then Ireland would have had a better relationship with Britain.8 It is interesting that O'Neill attributed so much responsibility to the symbolic power of the monarch, a reflection, it would seem, of his loyalty to Britain and particularly to the monarchy. However, the tensions, especially sectarian tensions, have a far longer history. England first colonized Ireland in 1170 during the reign of Henry II, beginning a long and complicated relationship between the two islands. For at least half of their shared history, Britain and Ireland also shared a common religion. This changed in 1534 when Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church.9 The English during the reign of Henry VIII established the first plantations in Ireland and began the attempt to convert the Irish to Protestantism. With the exception of Queen Mary, who continued the plantation scheme of her father which would cause so many problems in later centuries and spawn the Catholic nationalist movement, the increasing tendency for British monarchs to embrace 7 Eamonn McCann, War and an Irish Town, 3rd Ed. (London: Pluto Press, 1993). War and an Irish Town has gone into its third edition, though McCann claims at the beginning of the third edition that he has taken care not to make too many modifications to the text itself, despite the addition of a new sixty page introduction. McCann has since retired from activism, although he retains his journalist credentials and continues to reside in the Bogside. 8 O’Neill, Autobiography, 3. 9 Paul F. State, A Brief History of Ireland (New York: Checkmark Books, 2009), 93. 4 Protestantism led to tensions between the two groups, especially during the religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.10 Once Britain became a Protestant state, the nobles sent to Ireland to continue colonizing were Protestants after their monarch, while the majority