'I Ran Away' was a common joke about the IRA by the mid-1960s. The paramilitary group which had been routed during its Border Campaign of the 1950s was a shadow of its former self. The group was weak and was not capable of mounting armed action in the North - still, militant Nationalist feeling was rising in the six counties by 1966. 1966 marked the 50th anniversary of the East Rising, thus nationalist and republican groups held parades and marches to commemorate the Rising. In March of that year, a group of young Irish Republicans had destroyed Nelson's Pillar, which had looked over O'Connell Street in Dublin for nearly a century and a half. The supposed threat of a revived IRA was taken extremely seriously by some hardline nationalists, in particular, the Minister for Home Affairs, Bill Craig. Little more than a month after the incident on O'Connell Street, a group of loyalists led by Ian Paisley had set about forming the Ulster Constitution Defence Committee. From the UCDC a pseudo-paramilitary wing was founded - the Ulster Protestant Volunteers. The UPV had two central aims: firstly to raise grassroots support for Brian Faulkner and his policies; secondly to combat 'the growing tide of Irish Republicanism in Ulster.'
Around this time the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was formed and gained notoriety in the Shankill area of West Belfast. Unionists and loyalists in West Belfast had been shocked and dismayed by the election of Republican Labour Stormont MP Gerry Fitt as the new Westminster MP for the seat (defeating Unionist James Kilfedder, who would summarily become the Westminster MP for North Down in 1970). Many within the UVF were also members of the UCDC and the UPV. The group, which was led by former soldier Gusty Spence, began a petrol bombing campaign against Catholic homes, businesses, and schools. In one incident the group managed to kill an elderly Protestant widow. Making the situation even worse, the group had declared that it was in a state of "war" with those who supported or were associated with the IRA. Over the next few months, several Catholic civilians would be shot dead by the group. The Stormont government, while being no friend of nationalists in Belfast, would soon enough make moves to proscribe the group.
Many within the Unionist Party, in particular, the Loyalist fringes of Unionism, suspected that the newly formed civil rights campaign was little more than a Republican front-group whose ultimate and central aim was forcing Northern Ireland into a United Ireland. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) was founded in early 1967, and quickly became the largest and most recognisable group in the civil rights campaign. The campaign had several stated goals and aims: an end to job discrimination; an end to discrimination in the allocation of housing; one man, one vote; an end to the gerrymandering of electoral boundaries; reform of the RUC; repeal of the Special Powers Act. One of the first tests of the civil rights campaign would present itself in County Tyrone, where civil rights campaigners (including former Nationalist Party MP Austin Currie) had organised a peaceful protest against housing discrimination by squatting in a house in Currie's former constituency. The local Unionist controlled council had allocated the house in question to a single 19-year-old female Protestant (who was the secretary of a local Unionist Party politician) instead of either of two large Catholic families with children. The two families would join the squatting, taking up 'residence' in the house next door. They would soon enough be removed by RUC officers. The activists would remain in the original house for another two days until they too were forcibly removed by the RUC officers. Currie, a member of the local council, brought the case to the next council meeting, but was rebuffed and told to stop wasting council time. This incident helped to reinvigorate the civil rights campaign.
NICRA began street demonstrations by 1968, much to the ire of the Unionist government, in particular, the Home Affairs Minister, Bill Craig. The civil rights movement had held its first march in late August 1968, with the demonstrators marching from Coalisland to Dungannon. After the success of this march, a series of further marches were planned and held over the coming months. These marches would also attract loyalists, in particular, members of the UPV, who would attack some of the marches, all the while holding counter-demonstrations in an attempt to have Craig ban the marches. Nationalists would come to further resent the almost fully Protestant RUC for its apparent lack of reaction to the attacks. Craig let his presence be known when he banned a civil rights march in Derry in early October 1968.
The marchers predictably defied Craig's ban.
Craig in response ordered RUC officers to surround the marchers and to do as they pleased. Over 100 people were injured when the RUC officers did as Craig ordered, and proceeded to indiscriminately beat them. Among those injured was Gerry Fitt, the Republican Labour MP for West Belfast. Fitt was struck in the head by a baton, which caused a considerable amount of blood to flow from his head. He would be whisked away in a police car to a local hospital, where he was later discharged with stitches. "
I was a marked man before the march started," stated Fitt, "
These were stormtrooper tactics at their worst. They hit me once, but that wasn't enough - they had to have another go, and this was the cause of the wound which had to be stitched." The whole episode was captured by television news crews, who broadcast the scenes around the world. In the face of outrage from Catholics and nationalists, which would culminate in two days of rioting in Derry between nationalists and the RUC; Craig was reportedly 'satisfied' that there had been no unnecessary brutality at the banned march. He would summarily reject any sort of suggestions that the police had attacked the marchers unprovoked and had used their batons improperly. A strong law and order stand was a popular thing among many quarters in the English speaking world - how else could you explain the strong showing among self-professed orthogonians by the victorious Nixon/Finch ticket in that November's presidential race in the US.
Several days later, the student civil rights group - People's Democracy - was formed in Belfast; notable leading members included Bernadette Devlin, Eamon McCann, Cyril Toman, and Michael Farrell. The group, which had its name selected by accident (its leaflets bore no organisational name, in order to comply with law, the group's printer christened the group People's Democracy), the group would organise its own civil rights marches, but would eventually become radicalised and would be drawn into a Trotskyite orbit. In the winter of 1968, Faulkner would cause a great deal of consternation among the nationalist community with his suggestion that nationalist figures and leaders needed to do more to 'police their community' and that the responsibility for the violence in Londonderry was with the marchers. In response to this 'insult', People's Democracy organised a mass four day march from Belfast to Derry, beginning on the 1st January 1969. The march was almost immediately and was repeatedly harassed and attacked by loyalists. At Burntollet Bride the marchers were attacked by a group of several hundred loyalists, including some off-duty police officers. Armed with bricks, bottles, and iron bars, the pre-planned ambush was burned into the national psyche soon enough. When the procession finally arrived in Foyle, there were once again attacked. Some of the marchers would claim that the RUC did little to protect them and that some officers even helped the attackers.
That night, Catholic homes in the Bogside area of the city were attacked, with sectarian abuse, violence and threats occurring frequently. Residents responded by sealing off the Bogside area with barricades to keep the police out, creating 'Free Derry' which would briefly become a no-go area for the security forces sent in to quell the disorder. The barricades would eventually be brought down after Protestant NILP civil rights activist Ivan Cooper persuaded locals to remove the barricades. The damage done to the movement appeared to be extensive when a march in Newry got out of control. After the events there it appeared that most Protestants and a considerable amount of Catholics who had been erstwhile been supportive of the actions of the civil rights campaign had by that stage withdrawn their support.
It was under these conditions that Faulkner resolved to call a general election. The reasoning for this is unclear, though it is possible that a meeting between in Harold Wilson and Faulkner, who had been summoned to Number 10 by his British counterpart. Faulkner would tell the cabinet that Wilson had threatened to take over in Northern Ireland if the Unionist government could not manage to regain control. It was concluded that if the government couldn't find a solution politically, then it would be forced into a period of governance by security service power alone. The 1969 general election was the first election in nearly forty years to be fought on new electoral boundaries. Notably, the four seat constituency of Queen's University was abolished, and in its place, four new constituencies were created in the suburbs of Belfast in order to compensate for population growth in the area. The election was also notable for the number of various political entities contesting the election. These ranged from the Unionist Party to the NILP, the slightly rotting Nationalist Party, People's Democracy, Republican Labour, Ulster Liberals and various Independents of varying strands.
The election also saw the Unionist Party divided on between the Pro- and Anti-Faulkner factions; from the outset the anti-Faulknerites were on the back foot, having many of their MPs be threatened by Independent Unionists supported by the leadership. Most of the sweating among Unionist MPs were to be found in Belfast, where the Labour Party was threatening to increase its showing in the capital, perhaps gaining a series of seats outside of the west of the city. Elsewhere the main threat to Unionist Party candidates was Independent Unionist candidates who threatened to split the Unionist vote and let in a non-Unionist candidate. The Nationalist Party itself was also in for a rough time. In 1965 the party had won a mere seven seats, three of which looked to be tough for the party to hold onto in a mere four years later.
In the party's leader's seat of Foyle, Eddie McAteer was in the metaphoric fight for his political life, with a strong challenge coming from both the Independent candidacy of John Hume and Eamonn McCann now of the NILP. In Mid Londonderry, liberal Nationalist Party MP Paddy Gormley was threatened by Independent Nationalist Ivan Cooper, who threatened to split the nationalist vote and let Unionist R.W. Shields in through the middle. In South Armagh, Independent Nationalist Paddy O'Hanlon seemed likely to defeat ten-year veteran of Stormont, and Nationalist Party MP, Eddie Richardson. Throughout the election a wide series of predictions were made by the pundits and press alike: Labour on course to win EVERY seat in Belfast; Faulkner in a close race with a nationalist candidate in East Down; Nationalist Party could lose all seats; Unionists to lose majority; Pro-Faulkner Independents to unseat Anti-Faulkner Unionist MPs.
In the end, the result caught many off guard.
Overall the Unionist Party had lost four seats, reducing it to a 'mere' thirty seats, giving it a still workable six seat majority. Pro-Faulkner Official Unionist candidates had emerged victorious in 21 races, representing a loss of only one seat for that faction. Meanwhile, the Anti-Faulkner faction had dropped down to a mere nine seats, losing three seats. Two of these losses for the Unionist Party could be considered to be personal gains for Faulkner. In South Antrim and Iveagh, the anti-Faulkner candidates (Richard Ferguson and Samuel Magowan, respectively) lost to pro-Faulkner Independent Unionists (William Beattie and Charlie Poots, respectively.) In Bangor, a newly formed seat, Independent Unionist (and anti-Faulknerite) Robert Dodd McConnell had won a convincing victory, winning with a nearly 15% majority over his Official Unionist opponent.
In various seats Independent Unionists had nearly caused upset results; Bill Craig and Terence O'Neill both had strong challenges from Independent Unionists - O'Neill notably won a tight contest with Ian Paisley, who represented the first challenge O'Neill had ever experienced at the ballot box. Brian Faulkner himself was harmed by an Independent Unionist, who took nearly 5% of the vote in his East Down seat - Faulkner would still win a convincing re-election over his National Democratic opponent Eddie McGrady by nearly a 15% majority. Aside from these minor episodes, the results in Belfast were a sight for sore eyes for many in the Unionist Party. The party saw its numbers in Belfast culled down to a mere five MPs. Meanwhile, the NILP won nearly double this figure, taking nine seats. With the two Republican Labour MPs factored in, Belfast was fast becoming a labour dominated city. Out in the country, there was a mixed picture all around. The Unionists lost their 1965 gain in East Tyrone, with Austin Currie returning to Stormont easily under the Nationalist Party label. That result was a rare ray of light for the once great Nationalist Party, who would proceed to lose three races, two to Independent candidates, one to an Ulster Unionists (who gained Mid Londonderry with little under 5,000 votes, just above the 4,500 apiece for Independent Nationalist Ivan Cooper and Nationalist Paddy Gormley. Foyle went easily for John Hume, while on the other side of the Foyle, Liberal Claude Wilton scored a resounding victory over a split Unionist vote. 'Vote for Claude the Catholic prod' had seemingly worked as a campaign slogan.
Almost immediately as the dust settled, shifts in party identification began to take place. A beaming Austin Currie, the newly elected leader of the Nationalist Party, welcomed Paddy O'Hanlon into the Nationalist Party parliamentary group.
Already more successful than his predecessors... Poots and Beattie were welcomed into the Unionist Party proper with open arms in a press conference several days after the election. Claude Wilton, along with John Hume and Independent Unionist Robert Dodd McConnell began to align with the newly formed pressure group - New Ulster Movement. The group, under the chairmanship of Brian Walker soon boasted a membership of over 10,000. Later in 1969 Catholic Unionist and Ulster Liberal Party member Oliver Napier, along with former Ulster Unionist Bob Cooper, were appointed as joint Chairmen of the NUM's political committee - talk of a new political party began to abound.
Faulkner himself was privately conflicted by the results. Overall he saw the election results as being inconclusive. The Unionist Party had lost seats, but those were generally the anti-Faulknerites - indeed with the 'defections' of Poots and Beattie to the party, the election had rather
consolidated his position. Any talk of Faulkner leaving on his own terms after the election was done away with by Bill Craig, who managed to convince the Prime Minister that the result of the election had actually increased his hold over the Unionist Party. "
Now is the time to crush the weaklings" exhorted Craig to Faulkner over the weekend after the election. This was nothing new from Craig, but some in the party were becoming concerned that after the election Faulkner was beginning the heed to warnings of the echo chamber that had formed around him in cabinet. Only time would tell if that was true.
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[1]Details of the marches were collected with the use of Wikipedia, the BBC, and the Belfast Telegraph; the election results were collated with the use of ARK NI Elections and Wikipedia
