June 1968: Squatters Rights

Discrimination in housing allocation.

On the 20th of June 1968, Jim Hines becomes the first person to run 100 meters in under 10 seconds. On that same day, it would have been interesting to see how fast Stormont MP Austin Currie ran to get to a house in Caledon, County Tyrone to start a protest against discrimination in housing allocation.

During the 1960s, the Dungannon council was widely regarded as being dominated by unionists. It was at this time that an informal agreement had been reached between local priest Fr Michael McGirr and unionist politician William Scott that 15 houses built by the council would be allocated to an equal number of Protestant and Catholic families. This is not how things transpired, with only one house allocated to a Catholic family, and the remaining 14 allocated to Protestant families.

What transpired next was outrage amongst the Catholic community with Fran and Mary Goodfellow, along with their children, making the brave decision to squat in an empty house in the Kinnard Park area of the village. They managed to stay in the house for eight months before they were charged with squatting and being given a 6-month stay of execution by the judge (in the hope that the council could resolve the issue). However, following those six months, in June 1968, the RUC barged through the door of the house and the Goodfellows, along with Mary’s mother Anne, and sister-in-law Geraldine were dragged from the home with their children, in front of crowds of supporters and the gathered media.

Following the family’s eviction, it came to light that a young 19-year-old Protestant girl named Emily Beattie (the secretary of a local Ulster Unionist Party politician) was living next door, and she had been given the house ahead of Catholic families.

This led Mary’s brother, Patsy Gildernew, to squat in the house in protest alongside two others, Austin Currie MP and local farmer Joe Campbell. After only a matter of hours, they were ejected from the house and subsequently charged with breaking and entering the property and squatting.

These events led to activity on both sides of the divide within Northern Ireland. The Republicans organised a picket against the charging of the squatters outside Caledon Courthouse on the day of the case. The UVF, on the other hand, released a statement, which appeared to be from Captain William Johnston. The statement read;

“As and from Saturday we resume our activities. We are resuming our activities against the IRA and Roman Catholic extremists because of Mr Currie's statements at Stormont yesterday and his action in barricading himself in a house at Caledon today.”

Tensions were beginning to build, now more than ever…