Origins
In August 1969, a confrontation between Catholic residents of the Bogside and police in Derry following an Apprentice Boys of Derry march led to a large communal riot now referred to as the Battle of the Bogside – three days of fighting between rioters throwing stones and petrol bombs and police who saturated the area with CS gas.
Protests and riots organised by NICRA in support of the Bogsiders began elsewhere in the Province sparking retaliation by Protestant mobs; the subsequent burning, damage to property and intimidation largely against the minority community forced 1,505 Catholics from their homes in Belfast in what became known as the Northern Ireland riots of August 1969, with over 200 Catholic homes being destroyed or requiring major repairs[6] and a number of people were killed on both sides, some by the forces of law and order. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) had been poorly armed and unable to adequately defend the Catholic community, which had been considered one of its traditional roles since the 1920s.[27]