February 1967: The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) is founded as a non-sectarian organisation to tackle the perceived bias of the Unionist majority government against the nationalist minority. They list six areas of reform of local government. The slogan “one man one vote” is born.
October 5th, 1968: NICRA and the Derry Housing Action Committee (DHAC) decide to hold a march to protest at housing in the city. The march is banned by the Stormont Government, but goes ahead anyway. The RUC baton charge protesters and the images of police violence are captured on television. Almost 100 protesters are injured.
December 9th, 1968: Northern Ireland premier Terence O’Neill defends reforms he is proposing in his famous televised Ulster “stands at the crossroad” speech. “What kind of Ulster do you want? A happy and respected province, in good standing with the rest of the United Kingdom? Or a place continually torn apart by riots and demonstrations, regarded by the rest of Britain as a political outcast?”
