Civil rights movement 1968-69 - 20 June 1968

20 June 1968 - The Caledon Protest

Austin Currie, a Nationalist MP at Stormont, and two local men occupied a house in Caledon, Tyrone, on 20 June 1968 in protest over its allocation by the local council to a nineteen-year-old unmarried Protestant, Emily Beatty, who was the secretary of a local unionist politician. A Catholic family with three young children had been evicted recently from the house next door.

After a few hours, the RUC removed Currie and his fellow-squatters. Currie said that they had squatted in protest against the allocation of the house to an unmarried woman while more than 250 people were on the waiting list in the Dungannon rural district. He also wanted to draw attention to the system of allocation which allowed an individual councillor to give houses to anyone he wished.

Background to the Caledon protest

RTÉ's "Eye Witness" programme looked back at the Caledon protest in a 1979 studio discussion. In this clip, presenter Tom Savage gives a background to Northern Ireland in 1968, the lead-up to Caledon and the beginnings of civil disobedience as a form of protest.

"Sixteen of us living in one small house"

The Catholic Goodfellow family were evicted from 11 Kinnard Park, Caledon, where they had been squatting. Shortly afterwards, the house next door, 9 Kinnard Park, was allocated to the unmarried Protestant Emily Beatty. Mrs Goodfellow tells Proinsias Ó Conluain about her dealings with Dungannon Rural Council and her family's eviction.

"I have no confidence in Dungannon Urban Council whatsoever"

Mrs Angela McCrystal gives Proinsias Ó Conluain a personal account of her experience of the housing situation in Dungannon and the formation of the Homeless Citizens League.

Nationalist MP protests at housing allocation

Nationalist MP Austin Currie and local men Joe Campbell and Patsy Gildernew occupy 9 Kinnard Park, Caledon, to protest over the unfair allocation of housing.

"This was the very first time that the ... news from London reported discrimination in housing in Northern Ireland"

Austin Currie recalls squatting in Caledon and the impact it had in a 1979 studio discussion on RTÉ's "Eye Witness" programme.