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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2017
1968 has become synonymous with the large-scale global protests of that year. International scholarship has increasingly sought to examine instances of these protests in global peripheries, and amongst the most studied examples is Northern Ireland. The growth of civil rights protest in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s, which emerged from long-standing feelings of exclusion amongst the Catholic minority of the predominantly Protestant polity, was influenced by a broader international discourse of protest associated with the long 1968, notably the African-American civil rights movement. Simultaneously, in the west of Ireland, a number of protest groups also emerged in the late 1960s, frustrated at their communities’ perceived neglect by the government of the Republic of Ireland. This article will examine the emergence of these protest movements, discussing groups in the Galway Gaeltacht and other peripheral rural areas of Connacht, student activists in University College Galway, and campaigns challenging racism against the Travelling community. It will argue that they were influenced by the global protests associated with the long 1968, most notably by events across the border. For the purpose of the article, the ‘west of Ireland’ refers to the five Connacht counties of Galway, Roscommon, Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim.
1 Chris Reynolds, Sous les pavés: Northern Ireland, France, and the European collective memory of 1968 (Oxford, 2014), pp 11–18.
2 Brian Dooley, Black and green: the fight for civil rights in Northern Ireland and Black America (London, 1998); Simon Prince, ‘The global revolt of 1968 and Northern Ireland’ in Hist. Jn., xlix, no. 3 (Sept. 2006), pp 851–75; idem, Northern Ireland’s ’68: civil rights, global revolt and the origins of the Troubles (Dublin, 2007); Lorenso Bosi & Simon Prince, ‘Writing the sixties into Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland into the sixties’ in The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics and Culture, ii, no. 2 (Dec. 2009), pp 145–61; Simon Prince & Geoffrey Warner, Belfast and Derry in revolt: a new history of the start of the Troubles (Dublin, 2011); Reynolds, Sous les pavés; Simon Prince, ‘Do what the Afro-Americans are doing: black power and the start of the Northern Ireland Troubles’ in Journal of Contemporary History, l, no. 3 (July 2015), pp 1–20.
3 ‘The day the Troubles began’ (B.B.C., 2008).
4 Paul Arthur & Keith Jeffery, Northern Ireland since 1968 (2nd ed., Oxford, 1996); Paul Bew & Gordon Gillespie, Northern Ireland: a chronology of the Troubles, 1968–1999 (Dublin, 1999); Cillian McGrattan, Northern Ireland, 1968–2008: the politics of entrenchment (Basingstroke, 2010).
5 Niall Ó Dochartaigh, From civil rights to armalites: Derry and the birth of the Irish Troubles (2nd ed., Basingstoke, 2005), p. 48; Jane Helleiner, Irish Travellers: racism and the politics of culture (Toronto, 2000), pp 82–3; Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, ‘Languages, literature and culture in Ireland since the war’ in J. J. Lee (ed.), Ireland, 1945–1970 (Dublin, 1979), p. 113; Niamh Hourigan, ‘A comparison between the campaigns for Raidió na Gaeltachta and Teilifís na Gaeilge’ (Ph.D. thesis, University College Galway, 1998), p. 126; Jerry White, The radio eye: cinema in the north Atlantic, 1958–1988 (Ontario, 2009), p. 127.
6 Brian Hanley, ‘“The south is in the mood for violence”: Bloody Sunday 1972’ in History Ireland, xx, no. 1 (Jan/Feb. 2012), pp 42–4; idem, ‘Dublin bombs, 1972’ in History Ireland, xx, no. 6 (Nov/Dec. 2012), pp 46–7; idem, ‘“But then they started all this killing”: attitudes to the I.R.A. in the Irish Republic since 1969’ in Irish Historical Studies, xxxviii, no. 151 (May 2013), pp 439–56; idem, ‘“The forgotten massacre”: responses to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings’ in History Ireland, xxii, no. 3 (May/June 2014), pp 46–9.
7 Bosi & Prince, ‘Writing the sixties into Northern Ireland’, p. 146.
8 Ibid.
9 Emmet O’Connor, ‘Anti-communism in twentieth-century Ireland’ in Twentieth Century Communism, vi, no. 6, (Mar. 2014), p. 74.
10 Brian Hanley & Scott Millar, The lost revolution: the story of the Official I.R.A. and the Workers’ Party (Dublin, 2010), pp 109–10.
11 Ibid., pp 236–8.
12 Ibid., p. 89.
13 Roy H. W. Johnston, Century of endeavour: a biographical and autobiographical view of the twentieth century in Ireland (Dublin, 2003), p. 266.
14 Seán Swan, Official Irish republicanism, 1962–1972 (Lulu.com, 2007), pp 320–4; Hanley & Millar, The lost revolution, pp 144–8; Matt Treacy, The I.R.A. 1956–69: rethinking the republic (Manchester, 2011), pp 152–88.
15 Hanley & Millar, The lost revolution, p. 466.
16 Frank Gallagher, The indivisible island: the history of the partition of Ireland (London, 1957).
17 Tuam Herald, 12 Aug. 1950; Connacht Tribune, 1 Dec. 1951; Western People, 6 June 1964; Connaught Telegraph, 8 Aug. 1964.
18 John Whyte, ‘How much discrimination was there under the unionist regime, 1921–1968?’ in Tom Gallagher & James O’Connell (eds), Contemporary Irish studies (Manchester, 1983), pp 1–36.
19 Prince, Northern Ireland’s ’68, pp 72–4.
20 Ibid., p. 115.
21 Connacht Tribune, 10 Feb. 1967.
22 Connaught Telegraph, 23 Feb. 1967.
23 Irish Independent, 12 Dec. 1966.
24 Michael Kennedy, Division and consensus: the politics of cross-border relations in Ireland, 1925–1969 (Dublin, 2000), p. 308.
25 Roscommon Herald, 3 Nov. 1967.
26 Ó Dochartaigh, From civil rights to armalites, p. 48.
27 Ibid, p. 49.
28 Connaught Telegraph, 17 Oct. 1968.
29 Sligo Champion, 11 Oct. 1968.
30 Roscommon Herald, 11 Oct. 1968.
31 Connacht Tribune, 6 Dec. 1968.
32 Ó Dochartaigh, From civil rights to armalites, p. 49.
33 Ibid.
34 Connacht Tribune, 18 Oct. 1968.
35 Roscommon Herald, 25 Oct. 1968.
36 Aindrias Ó Cathasaigh, Ag samhlú troda: Máirtín Ó Cadhain, 1905–1970 (Baile Átha Cliath, 2002), p. 272.
37 Hourigan, ‘A comparison’, p. 142.
38 Ibid., p. 139.
39 Jerry White, The radio eye, p. 127; Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin, Language from below: the Irish language, ideology and power in twentieth-century Ireland (Berne, 2006), p. 246.
40 Eira Fon Parry, ‘Gluaiseacht Chearta Sibhialta na Gaeltachta and Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymreag: a comparative study’ (M.A. thesis, N.U.I., Galway, 2009), p. 63.
41 Hourigan, ‘A comparison’, p. 126.
42 Ibid., p. 150.
43 White, The radio eye, p. 127.
44 Hanley & Millar, The lost revolution, p. 237.
45 Connacht Sentinel, 19 Aug. 1969.
46 Bernadette Devlin, The price of my soul (New York, 1969), p. 76.
47 Hourigan, ‘A comparison’, p. 126.
48 Irish Times, 10 Mar. 1970.
49 Ibid., 31 July 1970.
50 White, The radio eye, p. 126.
51 Hourigan, ‘A comparison’, pp 155–6.
52 Irish Times, 6 Jan. 1971.
53 ‘Splanc Dheireadh na Gaeltachta’ (T.G.4, 2000).
54 Tuam Herald, 4 Apr. 1970.
55 ‘Splanc Dheireadh na Gaeltachta’ (T.G.4, 2000).
56 Ronald Weitzer, Policing under fire: ethnic conflict and police community relations in Northern Ireland (New York, 1995), p. 61.
57 Hourigan, ‘A comparison’, pp 180–1.
58 ‘Splanc Dheireadh na Gaeltachta’ (T.G.4, 2000).
59 Hourigan, ‘A comparison’, p. 186.
60 Ibid., p. 179.
61 Sligo Champion, 25 Oct. 1968.
62 Ibid., 11 July. 1969.
63 Ibid., 25 Oct. 1968.
64 Ibid., 1 Nov. 1968.
65 Liam Cullinane, ‘“A happy blend”? Irish republicanism, political violence and social agitation, 1962–1969’ in Saothar: Journal of the Irish Labour History Society, no. 35 (2010), pp 57–8.
66 Sligo Champion, 29 Aug. 1969.
67 Leitrim Observer, 14 Dec. 1968.
68 Ibid., 28 Dec. 1968.
69 Ibid., 15 Mar. 1969.
70 Roscommon Champion, 2 Feb. 1973.
71 Connaught Telegraph, 5 Jan. 2005.
72 Ibid., 15 Mar. 1969.
73 Ibid., 4 Nov. 1971.
74 Ibid., 11 Nov. 1971.
75 Ibid., 2 May. 1969.
76 Ibid., 21 Nov. 1970.
77 Unity, 15 Apr. 1970.
78 Connacht Tribune, 11 Oct. 1968.
79 Unity, 5 Dec. 1969.
80 Connacht Tribune, 24 Oct. 1969; Tuam Herald, 1 Nov. 1969.
81 Paul Arthur, The People’s Democracy, 1968–73 (Belfast, 1974), pp 80–1.
82 Connacht Sentinel, 14 Jan. 1969.
83 Connacht Tribune, 4 Apr. 1969.
84 Connacht Sentinel, 8 Apr. 1969.
85 Irish Press, 4 Apr. 1969.
86 Arthur, The People’s Democracy, pp 53–4.
87 Irish Independent, 8 Apr. 1969.
88 ‘Splanc Dheireadh na Gaeltachta’ (T.G.4, 2000).
89 Hourigan, ‘A comparison’, p. 179.
90 Tuam Herald, 12 Apr. 1969.
91 Sligo Champion, 11 Apr. 1969.
92 Ibid., 23 May. 1969.
93 Connacht Tribune, 4 Apr. 1969.
94 Arthur, The People’s Democracy, p. 83.
95 Ibid., p. 73.
96 Ibid., p. 91.
97 Connacht Tribune, 22 Aug. 1969.
98 Unity, 14 Dec. 1971.
99 Connacht Sentinel, 1 Feb. 1972.
100 Sunday Independent, 19 Dec. 1971.
101 Helleiner, Irish Travellers, pp 81–3.
102 Aoife Bhreatnach, Becoming conspicuous: Irish Travellers, society and the state, 1922–1970 (Dublin, 2006), p. 141.
103 Irish Press, 30 Oct. 1968.
104 Connacht Tribune, 7 Feb. 1969.
105 Connacht Sentinel, 26 Aug. 1969.
106 Tuam Herald, 6 Sept. 1969.
107 Connacht Tribune, 5 Sept. 1969.
108 Helleiner, Irish Travellers, pp 104–5.
109 Connacht Tribune, 5 Sept. 1969.
110 Tuam Herald, 13 Sept. 1969.
111 Roscommon Herald, 12 Sept. 1969.
112 Irish Press, 30 Aug. 1969.
113 The Observer, 6 Sept. 1970.
114 The Guardian, 8 Sept. 1970.
115 Hansard N.I. (Commons), lxxvii, 1443 (19 Nov. 1970).
116 Ulster Herald, 12 Dec. 1970.
117 Connacht Tribune, 1 Nov. 1974.
118 Helleiner, Irish Travellers, p. 83.
119 Sligo Champion, 4 Feb. 1972.
120 Leitrim Observer, 5 Feb. 1972; Hanley, ‘“But then they started all this killing”’, p. 443.
121 Sligo Champion, 4 Feb. 1972.
122 Reynolds, Sous les pavés, p. 170.
123 Hanley, ‘“The south is in the mood for violence”’, p. 44.
124 Eamonn McCann, War and peace in Northern Ireland (Dublin, 1998), p. 209.
125 Connacht Tribune, 28 July 1972.
126 Galway Advertiser, 15 July 1976.
127 Sligo Champion, 19 July 1981.
128 Ibid.
129 F. Stuart Ross, Smashing H-Block, the rise and fall of the popular campaign against criminalisation, 1976–1982 (Liverpool, 2011), p. 3.
130 Eamonn McCann, War and an Irish town (3rd ed., London, 1993), pp 3–4.
131 Hanley, ‘“But then they started all this killing”’, p. 454.
