On the 24th of August 1968, the first-ever civil rights march was held in Northern Ireland. This coincided with The Beach Boys being number one in the US charts with ‘Do It Again’; and that’s precisely what they did in Northern Ireland. Over the following year, there would be more marches and, as a result, more counter-demonstrations.
A few weeks earlier, the organiser of the march, Michael McLoughlin, had gone to the RUC barracks to submit the application for the march. His application had outlined his plans for 5,000 marchers and 20 bands, carrying placards and banners, to be in attendance.
When interviewed by The Irish News, Mr Mcloughlin stated that his application was a bit ambitious, but that he did expect around 2,000-3,000 people to attend (of which, there were also working class protestants who also felt that their civil rights were being violated). He also said that they had prepared the civil rights ground very well over a period of five years, from 1963, so people were ready for it.
It wasn’t just Michael McLoughlin that was responsible for doing the groundwork for this march, in fact, a lot of credit can be given to the women of the Homeless Citizens League. In 1963, this group of young mothers had taken to the streets of the town with their prams because they were unable to get a house for their young families.
The Irish News reported that the right to vote was linked to property ownership. Electorally, the town was split into three wards, but, even though the population of the town was evenly balanced between Catholics and Protestants, houses were built and allocated so as to ensure that two of the wards would always return unionist candidates, and hence a unionist majority on Dungannon Urban Council.
Most nationalist voters were crammed into the single remaining ward, which meant that many people, especially young families, were unable to get a house, and were living in overcrowded and often unsanitary conditions.
McLoughlin, joined by Austin Currie MP, John Donaghy, Labour councillor Jack Hassard, and Tom O’Connor and Brian Quinn from the Republican Clubs gathered at Currie’s house the night before the march. They were soon visited by the police, who had called to inform them that there had been opposition, with protests likely, to the march that could lead to the onset of trouble. Their solution was to have the civil rights march re-routed. Naturally, this was met by objections from everyone gathered at the house, but unfortunately, the police gave the order, serving them under the Public Order Act, and that was that.
On the morning of the march, crowds of men, women and children gathered in the square in Coalisland, County Tyrone. Many were carrying placards with slogans such as “End discrimination”, “Justice for all”, and a single banner with “Civil rights”, before, at around 7:30 am, they began walking to their destination; Dungannon.
As the crowds were marching, the footpaths were said to be 2-3 people deep, singing “We shall overcome”, with the feeling amongst the marchers that they were actually contributing to a new era in civil rights.
The joyous marching came to a halt went they reached Dungannon. It was here that they were met by rows of police behind a rope barricade. The police were doing exactly as they had said the night before at Austin Currie’s house and were rerouting the march to avoid any confrontation with the loyalist protestors who were behind them in great numbers.
This did not deter the marchers from delivering their message, and with their own stewards doing their job, linking arms and creating a safe zone, the speeches began.
Despite the restrictions and counter-protests that took place, the march passed off without incident. The publicity surrounding the march acted as encouragement to other protesting groups to form branches of the NICRA.
The chant of “We Shall Overcome” became an anthem amongst the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland. Many marches ensued in the following months right across Northern Ireland, some of which being subject to attacks by loyalist protestors in an attempt to get the marches banned.
The people had stood up, and the feeling was that they were finally being heard.
There is some great archived footage of the march in the RTE archives. You can view it here.