Study sources D,E and F; all these source refer to a single city in Northern Ireland. Use the sources and your own knowledge, to explain why this city became a centre of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland.

Gerrymandering aided the start of the civil rights movements due to its byproducts and the consequences of Protestants having the important posts in the local council including the chairman because this power that the Protestants had, increased the discrimination catholic had to endure. It increased the discrimination  because the protestants had control of the council thus giving them power of what happen in education, housing and social services; in turn they ensure that protestants often received better treatment than Catholics. Source D co-insides with this due to the fact it show a catholic family’s house which has very poor living conditions and even has the bath outside. Also an eyewitness backs this up by saying “…appalling slum conditions in Derry and yet people just couldn’t get houses. They had to live in converted army huts. They had to live a couple of families to a house and so on.” Finally the discrimination in housing is sum up by the fact that in 1965 there were 2000 catholic families on the housing list but only a handful of protestant thus showing that most protestant had houses and we can infer that this was because the council was made up of majority catholic; due to gerrymandering which occurred In Derry, this is one of the reasons why Derry was the centre of the civil rights movement because they had to endure greater discrimination here than any where else due to gerrymandering.

Another long term reason why the civil rights movement centered around Derry was because the large proportion of businesses were owned or run by Protestants making Protestants more likely to be employed than Catholics this is proven by a statement from a catholic named Eamonn McCann “by the early 1960’s we could easily get a place at a university but couldn’t get a job as a lavatory cleaner at Derry Guildhall. That made us angry.”  This angry was pushed further because in 1964 the government stopped one of the two rail links going to Derry thus stopping new business coming to the area and making it even hard for them to get a job. Because these people were so emotional about this treatment it sparked many other short term reasons why the civil rights movement evolved in Derry.  One of these short term reasons was that in October 1968, the was a march arranged by a group called NICRA, the March progress through a predominantly protestant area of Derry, this march was then prohibited under the Special powers Act, this was seemingly ignored because the march continued in spite of this and this led to the police trying to disperse the protestors with water cannon and baton charge. It all ended with seventy Seven Catholics injured; subsequently tension rose in Derry and thus the civil right movement progressed because it led to more marches and more people getting involved because of this. One march being based on the Selma to Montgomery march it was held by the people’s Democracy from Belfast to Derry. But ended in tragedy when the marchers were ambushed by protestant and were stoned and beaten also when the reached the bogside in Derry local residents rioted. The police got involve and also attacked Catholics. This reinforces the tension that I’ve already stated. This build up in tension led to the IRA regenerate their terrorist campaign in 1970. This related to Derry because the Catholics there had the greater discrimination to endure thus the majority of them supported them or even joined them. This shows that Derry would have been the center of the movement because more people wanted civil right and would fight for it; them being in the IRA or supporting them. Furthermore a group called the RUC responded by searching catholic house in Derry and if they suspected anyone of being a terrorist they were interned; this was introduced by the British government. This in turn led to a peaceful march which brought the movement to its pinnacle, The event began after an illegal march took place in the centre of Derry, N. Ireland; the police and government banned the march as it was thought it would provoke violence. The march was lead by Catholic supporters (NICRA) who were demonstrating for Catholic rights, the Protestant-biased government and the internment of Catholics.  As the march approached the city centre where Army barricades were set up, the first shot of many was fired. Thirteen people were found dead after the incident with may others left injured. With neither side accepting blame for the incident Catholics in Derry believed protestant were behind it, this provoked great anger from the catholic community in Derry. And inspired more Catholics to fight for there right in Derry and this then spread across Northern Ireland.

On refection I believe that it was because there was a greater proportion of Catholics in comparison to protestant there was an issue in Derry. Since this lead to electoral fixing, this didn’t occur in the majority of the rest of Northern Ireland due to the fact the rest of Northern Ireland was the opposite to Derry. They had more Protestants in comparison to Catholics. This meant that Catholics had to endure more maltreatment because they were discriminated in the same ways in which the rest of Northern Ireland was but also in Government and if this wasn’t the fact they wouldn’t have had to endure any discrimination. This angered the people of Derry and made them do something about it e.g. marches which influenced more people to fight for their rights and thus the movements grow in Derry and progressing across Northern Ireland.