| Battle of the Bogside | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Troubles and the 1969 Northern Ireland riots | |||
 Bogsiders defending their barricades | |||
| Date | 12–14 August 1969 | ||
| Location | Derry, Northern Ireland, UK 54°59′52″N 7°19′38″W / 54.99778°N 7.32722°W | ||
| Caused by | (see background) | ||
| Methods | large-scale rioting | ||
| Resulted in |
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The Battle of the Bogside was a large three-day riot that took place from 12 to 14 August 1969 in Derry, Northern Ireland. Thousands of Catholic/Irish nationalist residents of the Bogside district, organised under the Derry Citizens' Defence Association, clashed with the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and loyalists.[1][2] It sparked widespread violence elsewhere in Northern Ireland, led to the deployment of British troops, and is often seen as the beginning of the thirty-year conflict known as the Troubles.
Violence broke out as the Protestant loyalist Apprentice Boys marched past the Catholic Bogside. The RUC drove back the Catholic crowd and pushed into the Bogside, followed by loyalists who attacked Catholic homes.[3] Thousands of Bogside residents beat back the RUC with a hail of stones and petrol bombs.[4] The besieged residents built barricades, set up first aid posts and petrol bomb workshops, and a radio transmitter broadcast messages calling for resistance.[4] The RUC fired CS gas into the Bogside – the first time it had been used by UK police.[4] Residents feared the Ulster Special Constabulary would be sent in and would massacre Catholic residents.[4]
The Irish Army set up field hospitals near the border and the Irish government called for a United Nations peacekeeping force to be sent to Derry. On 14 August, the British Army were deployed and the RUC were withdrawn. The British Army made no attempt to enter the Bogside, which became a no-go area called Free Derry. This situation continued until October 1969 when military police were allowed in.
- ^ "1969: Police use tear gas in Bogside". BBC News. 12 August 1969. Archived from the original on 6 October 2018. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
- ^ "History – Battle of the Bogside". Archived from the original on 31 July 2015. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
- ^ Stetler, Russell. The Battle of Bogside: The Politics of Violence in Northern Ireland. Chapter 3: August Archived 23 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Reproduced by Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN).
- ^ a b c d Coogan, Tim Pat. The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal and the Search for Peace. Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. pp. 87–90