50: NICRA

From the BBC:

"Commemoration marks 50 years since first NICRA march"

Hundreds of people gathered in Coalisland on Saturday to commemorate fifty years since the first Northern Ireland Civil Rights March (NICRA).  The event was organised by Sinn Féin. The original march took place on the 24th August 1968 and saw thousands walk from Coalisland to Dungannon to protest against public housing allocation.  There was also a demonstration of more than 100 people, organised by anti-abortion group Precious Life, critical of Sinn Fein's stance on that issue.  Marchers on Saturday followed the same route from Coalisland to Dungannon as NICRA took in 1968. NICRA was formed in 1967, with demands to end to gerrymandering, and discrimination and calling for "one man, one vote".  The first march was planned to highlight concerns around the allocation of housing in County Tyrone and the belief that protestants were given preferential treatment. Ian Paisley's Ulster Protestant Volunteers held a counter-protest, as they opposed the march entering the Market Square in Dungann

^  50 years ago (August 1968) Northern Irish Catholics started a non-violent Civil Rights Movement (based on that of the US Civil Rights Movement) to get equal rights.  From the 1690s until 1920 the British imposed a 3 tier legal system (known as Protestant Ascendancy) in all of Ireland. At the top were British Protestants, then Irish Protestants and at the bottom were Irish Catholics. Basically that meant that Irish Catholics had no rights and a Protestant (either British or Irish) could legally do whatever they wanted to to a Catholic. 

 In 1920 Ireland was divided into the Irish Free State (later the Republic of Ireland) and Northern Ireland - which remained part of the UK. The 3 tier legal system was amended to include: British Protestants at the top, Northern Irish Protestants in the middle and Northern Irish Catholics at the bottom. Basically that meant that Northern Irish Catholics had no rights and a Protestant (either British or Northern Irish) could legally do whatever they wanted to to a Catholic. Everything in Northern Ireland was segregated between the two groups with the Protestants receiving the best of everything and the Catholics getting whatever was left. 

In 1968 the Northern Irish Catholics created the Civil Rights Movement to do away with the Protestant Ascendancy and to change the laws so that everyone (Protestant or Catholics) could have equal access to everything. They wanted equal rights in housing (a single Northern Irish Protestant woman with no children could get a 3 bedroom government home over a Northern Irish Catholic family with several children - leaving the Catholic family homeless.) They wanted equal rights in employment, one-man: one-vote and equal rights with the police (the Royal Ulster Constabulary- which was 99.9% Protestant) and known for its brutality against the Catholics. 

The Northern Irish Protestants did not like giving up their power and affluence and so started burning 150+ Catholic homes and businesses and attacking Catholics (8 killed and 750 injured - in the hope that the Catholics would leave Northern Ireland and go to the Republic of Ireland - while the Northern Irish Government and Police did nothing to help the Catholics. The wave of deadly anti-Catholic riots had the opposite affect on the Northern Irish Catholics who stayed in Northern Ireland rather then fleeing south. The Northern Irish Government asked the British Government in London to send in the British Military to calm things down. The British Military arrived on August 14, 1969. 

 At first the Northern Irish Catholics welcomed the British Military (throwing them parties and inviting them into their homes) because they saw the British as being there to keep the peace between the Northern Irish Catholics and the Northern Irish Protestants. In reality, the British Military (on orders from London) were only there to protect the Northern Irish Protestants and to end the Northern Irish Catholic Civil Rights Movement. 

 The good-will from the Northern Irish Catholics towards the British Military changed in July 1970 with the Falls Curfew when the British Military enclosed 3,000 homes in the Catholic Falls section of Belfast for 36 hours - - no one could go in or come out - while the British went door to door and ransacked and looted every house and business and arrested anyone they wanted to. The Curfew was broken 3 days later when thousands of Catholic women and children from another section of Belfast marched into the Falls with medical supplies and groceries for those in the curfew-zone.  

The non-violent Northern Irish Civil Rights Movement ended in 1972 when the British Military moved towards an open-policy of shooting unarmed men, women and children whose only "crime" was being Catholic. It started in August 1971 with the Ballymurphy Massacre in which the British Military (1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment) murdered 11 people and came to its height on January 30, 1972 with Bloody Sunday in which the British Military (again the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment) murdered 14 innocent and unarmed people (6 of the dead were under 18) and wounded 14 others in Derry/Londonderry. Both of those massacres were officially covered-up by the British Government and the British Military with British Prime Minister David Cameron officially acknowledging the Bloody Sunday Massacre of innocent people and the cover-up by the British in June 2010.  

After Bloody Sunday the non-violence campaign of the Northern Irish Catholics was abandoned. Virtually overnight every Northern Irish Catholic man, woman and child joined the IRA or one of the numerous Catholic para-military groups and started fighting back against both the Northern Irish Protestants, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British Military,  

The Troubles in Northern Ireland lasted from 1968-1998. It included bombings and attacks in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe and resulted in the deaths of: 705 British soldiers, 301 Royal Ulster Constabulary officers, 368 IRA and other Northern Irish Catholic para-militants, 162 Northern Irish Protestant para-militants, 11 Gardi (police in the Republic of Ireland), 1,841 Northern Irish civilians (Protestants and Catholics) and 50,000 injured. 

On April 10, 1998 the Good Friday Agreement was signed (by the British Government, the Irish Government and the major Northern Irish Catholic and Protestant para-military groups.) It finally gave legal equal and civil rights to the Northern Irish Catholics and did away with the Protestant Ascendancy. The British Military left Northern Ireland July 31, 2007. 

 Many people around the world (Catholic and Protestant) believe that The Troubles and all the death, devastation and division of the 30 years could have been avoided if the British Government in London had simply imposed their power and given the Northern Irish Catholics equal civil rights (something every other group within the United Kingdom had been granted decades before in both Great Britain - - England, Scotland and Wales - - as well as in the various British territories and colonies around the globe - everywhere except in Northern Ireland.)

In 2015, the leaders of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and 12 other Commonwealth Realms agreed to give equality to the Line of Succession so that a Protestant man or Protestant woman - whichever one was born first - could be the King or Queen. The Monarch was also allowed to marry a Catholic, but a Catholic is still legally forbidden to be the King or Queen. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-45235534