Ireland 1969: The Bogside Uprising

One of the founders of this Blog, John Throne,  (Sean O’Torain) took part in the Battle of the Bogside. Or as he calls it The Bogside Uprising.  In preparation for the battle that was to come in the Bogside a local committee was set up. The Bogside Citizens Defense Association.  (BCDA) John Throne was elected on to that committee. He was the only person on that committee from a Protestant background, in fact his family were leaders of the Orange Order the right wing Protestant organization. By that time John Throne himself had broken from this background and was an atheist and socialist. He deals with the Bogside Uprising in Chapter 15 of his new book – “We’ll Take A cup Of Kindness Yet”.   Below is a small excerpt. 

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The Bogside uprising was no skirmish. Thousands of people participated. Over 1,000 people were injured in the fighting. Over 350 police sustained serious injuries. The Battle of the Bogside as it came to known was a real mass uprising. The genuine article. This is what I was part of.

Towards the end of the fifth day of the uprising  the police were exhausted and the B Specials, the part-time totally Protestant and mainly rural state militia, armed with 303 rifles, were called up and ringed the Bogside. These bitter, siege mentality, mainly rural people had no idea who their real bosses were or what the balance of forces were or what was and what was not possible. As they saw it things were simple, they were there to shoot the Catholics, Fenians, Taigs. They would soon put an end to this disorder. A massacre was on the cards. If this had taken place it is unlikely that I would be writing this book.

If such a massacre had taken place the fighting would have spread to the South and Britain and upheavals would have been inevitable in the US , Australia and other countries where there were large Irish populations. England, Scotland and Wales, all their major cities had large Irish populations or populations of Irish descent. This was the importance of the Bogside uprising. It had the potential to become a world-wide crisis for British imperialism. I was involved in an event of world significance.

Faced with this threat the London government ordered the Northern government and state to pull back and sent in the British Army to take control. This was a major development. For the first time the Northern sectarian state had been pulled out of direct control of the Catholic population in the main cities of the North and direct control had been given instead to the British Army. The Protestant state and most Protestant people were enraged as they saw this as giving in to the Catholics.   

As the uprising in the Bogside escalated a small petrol bomb factory was set up. The workforce was mainly women in their thirties forties and fifties. There was a happiness, a joy even, in them, along with an intent seriousness, as they liberated themselves from decades of discrimination and being treated as second-class citizens both as Catholics and as women. Many of them worked in the shirt factories and were the main breadwinner in their homes. This gave them confidence, skills and the ability to work together as a team. They were applying their life and work experience to this new task of operating the petrol bomb factory. After all it was not that much different from working together to make shirts.

Women making petrol bombs. Source

The full reality of the situation was brought home to me by a woman who came out of a small store. She was in her forties. She joined in stoning the police and cursing them with the most extreme ferocity. ‘I’ve waited too fucking long for this,’ she shouted as she threw the stones. Spittles of rage flew from her mouth. Her face turned bright red with her rage. When a policeman was hit with a petrol bomb and went up in flames she shouted at the top of her voice in celebration. The intensity of her anger  made me understand the seriousness of the events in which I was involved, helped me see the powerful hatred of the majority of the Catholic population for the Northern state, helped me see that this uprising would not be ended with some cerebral discussion over what was fair and what was not fair. This was an uprising by people who had been living under an unjust system and state for a long time and they were going to fight.

As we were throwing the stones and petrol bombs word came that the petrol bomb factory was running out of petrol. Along with another member of the Labour Party I got my car and we drove out to a petrol station on the Letterkenny road. But what the ... ? It was closed, locked up. We looked at each other. What were we going to do now? Then we burst out laughing.

There we were taking part in an uprising against the state. Just about one of the most serious actions you could take and we were worried about a locked door at a petrol station. Looking around we found a couple of big rocks, hefted them up and threw them through the glass doors of the station, turned on the power, helped ourselves to all the cans we could find, filled them with petrol and drove back to the Bogside. The ladies stepped up production. The petrol filled bottles were loaded into milk crates and rushed to the front by younger legs. The front was the Rossville Street flats. The petrol bombs were thrown from the top of these down on to the police and their supporters below. They would come flying down with their flaming tails rejoicing.

As the uprising went on the police began to fire canisters of CS gas. When these would land the white gas would come fizzing out stinging and blinding the eyes. The entire area was a great violent drama. The CS gas canisters flying from the police and landing with their fizzing white tails, petrol bombs flying down from the top of the high flats with their multi- coloured flaming tails, stones and rocks being thrown at the police and outside attackers from the defenders of the Bogside and Creggan, and the police and their supporters responding by throwing stones and with baton charges, yes a great violent drama.

Towards the end of the fifth day the police were exhausted and the B Specials, the part-time Protestant and mainly rural state militia, armed with 303 rifles, were called up and ringed the Bogside. These bitter, siege mentality, mainly rural people had no idea who their real bosses were or what the balance of forces were or what was and what was not possible. As they saw it things were simple, they were there to shoot the Catholics, Fenians, Taigs. They would soon put an end to this disorder. A massacre was on the cards. If this had taken place it is unlikely that I would be writing this book. 

Order this book here

If such a massacre had taken place the fighting would have spread to the South and Britain and upheavals would have been inevitable in the US and Australia and other countries where there were large Irish populations. England, Scotland and Wales, all their major cities had large Irish populations or populations of Irish descent. This was the importance of the Bogside uprising. It had the potential to become a world-wide crisis for British imperialism. I was involved in an event of world significance

Read John Throne’s full story of The Bogside Uprising in his recently published book  “We’ll Take A Cup Of Kindness Yet”.   This and his other best selling  book “The Donegal Woman” based on the life of his grandmother a Donegal peasant woman are both available at Books.ie  

John Throne can be reached at: loughfinn@aol.com