Patrick Thompson

'Out of sight and out of mind?’: British Perceptions of the Northern Irish Civil Rights Movement 1967 - 1972'

Supervised by Professor Richard English and Dr Peter McLoughlin. Funded by the Department for the Economy Postgraduate Studentship Scheme.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Northern Ireland underwent a period of socio-political polarisation and upheaval. This was centred on the rights of the region’s Catholic minority and their long-term concerns regarding democratic representation, widespread gerrymandering, unemployment, and housing. The resulting Northern Irish Civil Rights movement sought to avoid traditional ethno-nationalist fault lines. Instead, it appealed directly to the British government - over the head of Northern Ireland's regional parliament with its permanent Protestant/Unionist majority - to achieve its goals.

The movement had some startling early successes, securing the promise of major concessions from the Protestant political establishment and a renewed prominence of Northern Ireland in Westminster’s political calculations, the like of which had not been seen since the 1920s. Yet ultimately, as Northern Ireland dissolved into the sectarian violence of The Troubles, the movement fell apart.

To date, most academic studies of the Northern Irish Civil Rights Movement have focused on its direct relevance to what came after. Understanding the movement is vital to understanding the origins of the Troubles. Yet, there is a gap in our knowledge of the movement itself. Specifically, the movement’s unique approach of appealing to Westminster under the mantra ‘British Rights for British Citizens’ raises questions about how the British political, media and public sphere responded to this.