THE POINT OF In August 1969 the Six Counties erupted in civil unrest and loyalist pogrom as the Orange state came apart at the seams. Nationalists were no longer prepared to endure discrimination and second-class citizenship, and the only answer the statelet had for the demands of its oppressed minority was violence and repression. Two landmarks stand out in those few brief and turbulent days, which had tremendous consequences for the Orange State, for British rule in the Six Counties, and for republican resistance to both. Free Derry Corner and Bombay Street
became synonymous with that period. Free Derry Corner was the spot where nationalists, armed with petrol bombs, stones, and any other missiles that came to hand, took on and defended Free Derry from the RUC. In Belfast, days later, loyalist mobs took advantage of the IRA’s disorganisation and lack of weaponry to invade Catholic areas, driving people from their homes, burning, and looting. Of all the areas worst affected, Bombay Street, stood out in people’s memories and became the symbol of Belfast’s last pogrom.
NO RETURN
* The following series of interviews by An Phoblacht’s LAURA FRIEL (first published in 1999) tells of that critical period in Belfast’s troubled history, a moment which brought British soldiers onto the streets and set the scene for the long war ahead. 44
ISSUE NUMBER 3 – 2019 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 3 anphoblacht
