In a report for RTÉ's "Seven Days", Rodney Rice looks back on the Belfast to Derry march and the escalation of violence across Ulster.
Rodney Rice looks back on the Belfast to Derry march and the escalation of violence across Ulster.
It features marchers in Antrim town and Randalstown, breaking the RUC cordon at Dungiven, marchers at Burntollet and arriving at Derry.
The report claims that the RUC have proved their inability to do their job in the maintenance of peace. The civil rights leaders also lost control of their supporters as Derry fell into a state of virtual civil war.
In the aftermath of the People's Democracy march from Belfast to Derry, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Captain Terence O'Neill, issued a statement warning that his government would consider "a reinforcement of the regular police by greater use of the Special Constabulary for normal police duties" if what he called "warring minorities" did not "rapidly return to their senses."
The Minister of Home Affairs, Captain Long, said that there would be "an active and immediate investigation" into complaints about the RUC's actions in Derry on the night of 04 January 1969.
