Politics in the Streets The origins of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland by Bob Purdie (1990) Originally published by The Blackstaff Press, Belfast PDF version included on CAlN with the permission of the author http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/crightslpurdiel NOTES Where the title of a book, article or pamphlet is not given fully, the complete reference will be found in the bibliography. In some cases collections of papers in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland had not been fully catalogued when I consulted them and it has not been possible, therefore, to give a fuller reference than the general accession number. ABBREVIATIONS HC Deb. Westminster House of Commons Debates (Hansard) NIHCD Northern Ireland House of Commons Debates PRONI Public Record Oflice of Northern Ireland UCD University College Dublin Archives Depamnent CHAPTER I Spence told a journalist of how I Belfast Telegraph, 31 October 1962 'frightening' had been reports of 2 For this debate see NIH~52: an IRA plot in 1966. This referred 702-16~30 October 1962 to a ludicrous scare story of the 3 See Bew, Gibbon and Patterson, time about a planned 1916-style 1979, pp. 63-128, for a discussion takeover of the main Belfast post of Unionist 'populism'. office, combined with infiltration 4 Irish Weekly, 17 February 1962 by republicans of, among other 5 Ibid., 29 May 1965 bodies, the Protestant churches, 6 O'Neill, 1969, p. 41 the Salvation Army and the 7 Irish Weekly, 5 September 1964 Freemasons. The reports seem to 8 Rea, 1966, PP. 7-8 have been a highly coloured 9 Bailie, 1964, P. 15 interpretation of the rather more 10 McCafferty, Niall, 1966, p. 30 modest plans which the 11 Bleakley, 1964, p. 104 republicans did have, and which 12 Boulton, 1973, P. 53 will be outlined in Chapter 3. I 3 Smethwick was a parliamentary Since the Ministry of Home consti~encyin the English Affairs had copies of the relevant Midlands made (in)famous by the documents, suspicion about the victory of the Conservative source of the reports must fall on candidate in the 1964 general it; see Belfrage, 1988, p. 265, election, after what was widely for Spence's statement. interpreted as a racialist campaign. 15 Nelson, 1984, p. 72 14 However, members of the uVF 16 PRONI D 3342/A/3 may have been partly the victims 17 The Matthew Plan, or the Beet of political manipulation. Many Regional Survey and Phof 1963 years later, UVF leader Gusty was drawn up for the Brookeborough government by Provisional Sinn F6in after the Professor Sir Robert Matthew of republican split in 1970. the University of Edinburgh. It 10 McAllisier, 1977, pp. 13-15 established a 'stop-line' to limit 11 Quoted in Van Voris, 1975, p. I4 the growth of Belfast and 12 See Thayer, 1965, pp. 215-16 introduced the first comprehensive 13 Quoted in White, 1984, pp. 43-4 urban planning seen in Northern 14 Johnson, 1964, P. 3 Ireland. The Wilson Plan was 15 O'Brien, 1972, p. I41 commissioned by the O'Neill 16 McAllister, 1975, p. 358 government and was published in 17 Duffy, 'Cross Roads'. New 1965. Drawn up by Thomas Nation, July 1964, p. 11 Wilson, a distinguished economist 18 Duffy, 'A Reviving Proposal . of Northern Ireland origins, and Should the Northern Ireland Adam Smith, Professor of Political Parliament Have More Powers?', Economy at the University of New Ireland, March 1963 Glasgow, it introduced regional 19 Thayer, 1965, p. 216 planning and was designed to 20 White, 1984, pp. 53 and 56 encourage growth outside the 21 McKeown, Ciaran, 1984, p. 24 Belfast area, including the new 22 Ibid., p. 29 university and the new town of 23 Irish Weekly, 12 August 1967 Craigavon. 24 McKeown, Ciaran, 1984, pp. 30-1 18 The Lame gun-running took place 25 Irish Weekly, 4 March 1967 in February 1914, when Major 26 Harkness, 1983, p. 185 Fred Crawford, aboard the Clyde 27 See Elliott, 1973, pp. 93-4 Valb,landed 35,000 Mauser 28 Brett, 1963, p. 19 rifles and 2,500,000 rounds of 29 Nelson, 1984, PP. 46-7 ammunition obtained from 30 Long, 1963, P. 19 Germany to arm the UVF to resist 31 The Mater Hospital was a Home Rule for Ireland. The ' Catholic voluntary hospital on incident holds a place in Unionist Belfast's Crumlin Road which and loyalist mythology somewhat received no financial assistance parallel to that which the landing from the Government. of guns for the Irish Volunteers 32 Brett, 1978, p. 62 by Erskine Childers in July I914 33 PRONI D 302611 has for nationalists. 34 Ibid. 35 Ibid. CHAPTER 2 36 Wright, 1973, P. 267 I For a discussion of the APL, see 37 Ibid., p. 268 Purdie, 1986. 38 Brett, 1978, p. I31 2 See Purdie, 1983 39 McAughtry, 1981 3 Irish Weekly, 28 April 1962 40 Gillespie, 1985, p. I I 4 Thayer, 1965, P. 204 41 Belfast Telegraph, 14 December 5 0 hA& et al., 1975, P. 3 1962 6 Bell, 1970, P. 341 42 McElro~,1964, P. 22 7 Rooney, 1984, p. 80 43 PRONI D 3342/A/7 8 Ibid., p. 81 44 PRONI D 3342/A/2 9 Not to be confused with the An 45 Gillespie, 1985, p. 26 Phoblacht published by 46 PRONI D 3342/A/2 premises in several constituencies could only use one extra vote in a I Ulster Yew Book 1963-5 2 Birrell et al., 1971, pp. 1254 constituency of their choice). 3 Rose, Richard, 1971, p. 294 Graduates of qm resident in 4 Whyte, 1983 rmd Brett, 1986 Northern Ireland could vote both 5 Irish Weekly, 14 November 1963 in their constituency of residence 6 See Tomlinson, 1980, pp. 128-9 and for the three Stormont MPS 7 Dungannon Obsewer, 21 elected to represent the university. September 1963 (Graduates entitled to a business 8 Ibid. vote could not use that ad the 9 Ibid., 18 May 1963 University vote.) 10 Ibid., 15 June 1963 c. For local government the 11 Ibid., 31 August 1963 franchise .was restricted to I2 Quoted in Van VoriS, 1975, p. 50 householders and their spouses 13 Feeney, 1976, PP. 4-5 who were on the Stormont I4 Quoted in Van VoriS, 1975, p. 50 register. This excluded tenants I5 Interview, 26 August 1981 and other adults living in only 16 Irish News, 18 January 1964 pan of a house. There were I7 Quoted in Van VoriS, 1975, p. 53 additional votes for businesses, 18 Interview, 26 August 1981 which could nominate up to six 19 CS] Campaign Newslener, no. 10, electors to use one extra vote 28 December 1969 each. 20 PRONI D 2993 21 At this time the franchise in R. J. Lawrence (1965, p. 26) Northern Ireland was different for found that more than a quarter of Westminster, Stormont and local the parliamentary electors had no government elections: local government vote. It should also be noted that the local a. For Westminster it was the government electoral boundaries same as in the rest of the United were drawn up in such a way as to Kingdom, that is, all adults who ensure greater representation for had reached the age of twenty-one those paying the greatest amount and whose names were on the in rates. This, for example, was register were entitled to vote, the reason given to two Quakers, except that there was a qualifying Denis Barritt and Charles Carter, period of three months' residence for the apparently anomalous in Northern Ireland. division of the wards in Derry, b. For Stormont it required when they investigated allegations electors to have been born in of discrimination (1962, pp. Northern Ireland or to have been 121-5). It is not easy, therefore, resident in the United Kingdom to decide exactly how far the for seven years (a provision mainly electoral laws discriminated intended to exclude citizens of the against Catholics. They were not Irish Republic). There were also the only ones to be disqualified additional votes for the occupiers from the local government of business premises in the franchise but they were constituency, with a value of at disproportionately affected by the least f 10 per annum (electors with ward boundaries which delivered into Unionist control some local 37 PROM D 302613 authorities which might otherwise 38 PROM D 302611 have been controlled by 39 Rose, Paul, 1981, p. 178 Nationalists. However, Unionist 40 PRONI D 302611 defences of the system have the 41 PROM D 302612 unmistakable ring of special 42 Rose, Paul, 1981, p. 194 pleading, and there seems to be 43 Ibid., p. 180 no common-sense reason to doubt 44 Ibid., pp. 197-8 that there was discrimination 45 PROM D 302611 against Catholics and that it was 46 Government of Ireland Act, 1969 deliberate. 47 Quoted in Van Voris, 1975, p. 53 22 Charles Brett, in a commentary on 48 Wallace, 1967, pp. 168-9 the Legal Aid and Advice Bill, 49 Mackintosh, 1968, p. 173 noted that one of the few 50 Wallace, 1967, p. 161 unanimous recommendations of 51 For this debate see HC Deb. the Steele Committee, which had 733:1296, 8 August 1966 been responsible for drawing up 52 Wilson, 1971, p. 270 its main proposals, had been the 53 O'Neill, 1972, p. 83 provision of a special form of legal 54 Brett, 1978, PP. 134-5 aid, without financial limit, for 55 Irish Weekly, 9 December 1967 cases involving matters of public 56 PROM D 302611 interest, brought before the Court 57 Ibad.