Free Derry - IRA Resurgence

IRA Resurgence

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) had been inactive militarily since the end of the Border Campaign in 1962. It was low in both personnel and equipment—Chief of Staff Cathal Goulding told Seán Keenan and Paddy Doherty in August 1969 that he "couldn't defend the Bogside. I haven't the men nor the guns to do it." During the 1960s the leadership of the Republican Movement had moved to the left. Its focus was on class struggle and its aim was to unite the nationalist and unionist working classes in order to overthrow capitalism, both British and Irish. Republican Clubs were formed in Northern Ireland, where Sinn Féin was proscribed. These clubs were involved in the formation of NICRA in 1967. In Derry, the James Connolly Republican Club worked closely with Labour Party radicals, with whom they set up the Derry Housing Action Committee and Derry Unemployed Action Committee. The Derry Citizens' Defence Association was formed initially by republicans, who then invited other nationalists to join. Although there were tensions between the younger leaders like Johnnie White and the older, traditional republicans such as Seán Keenan, both sides saw the unrest of 1968-69 as a chance to advance republican aims, and the two shared the platform at the Easter commemoration in April 1969.

The events of August 1969 in Derry, and more particularly in Belfast where the IRA was unable to prevent loss of life or protect families burned out of their homes, brought to a head the divisions that had already appeared within the movement between the radicals and the traditionalists and led to a split in December 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA. Initially, both armies organised for defensive purposes only, although the Provisionals were planning towards an offensive campaign. In Derry there was far less hostility between the two organisations than elsewhere. Householders commonly paid subscriptions to both. When rioters were arrested after the Official's Easter parade in March 1970, Officials and Provisionals picketed their trial together. At the start the Officials attracted most of the younger members. Martin McGuinness, who in August 1969 had helped defend the barricades, initially joined the Officials, but a few months later left to join the Provisionals.

Relations between the army and the residents had steadily decayed since the first appearance of troops in August 1969. In September, after clashes between nationalist and unionist crowds that led to the death of a Protestant man, William King, the army erected a 'peace ring' to enclose the nationalist population in the area they had previously controlled. Roads into the city centre were closed at night and people were prevented from walking on certain streets. Although some moderate nationalists accepted this as necessary, there was anger among young people. Clashes between youths and troops became more frequent. The riot following the Official Republican Easter parade in March 1970 marked the first time that the army used 'snatch squads', who rushed into the Bogside wielding batons to make arrests. The snatch squads soon became a common feature of army arrest operations. There was also a belief that they were arresting people at random, sometimes days after the alleged offence, and based on the identification of people that they had seen from a considerable distance. The rioters were condemned as hooligans by moderates, who saw the riots as hampering attempts to resolve the situation. The Labour radicals and Official Republicans, still working together, tried to turn the youth away from rioting and create a socialist organization—one such organization was named the Young Hooligans Association—but to no avail. The Provisionals, while disapproving of riots, viewed them as the inevitable consequence of British 'occupation' of Ireland. This philosophy was more attractive to rioters, and some of them joined the Provisional IRA. The deaths of two leading Provisionals in a premature explosion in June 1970 resulted in young militants becoming more prominent in the organization. Nevertheless, up to July 1971 the Provisional IRA remained numerically small.

Two men, Séamas Cusack and Desmond Beattie, were shot dead in separate incidents in the early morning and afternoon of 8 July 1971. They were the first people to be killed by the army in Derry. In both cases the army claimed that the men were attacking them with guns or bombs, while eye-witnesses insisted that both were unarmed. The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), the newly-formed party of which John Hume and Ivan Cooper were leading members, withdrew from Stormont in protest, but among the residents there was a perception that 'moderate' policies had failed. The result was a surge of support for the IRA. The Provisionals held a meeting the following Sunday at which they called on people to "join the IRA". Following the meeting, people queued up to join, and there was large-scale rioting. The army post at Bligh's Lane came under sustained attack, and troops there and around the city came under fire from the IRA.