Unfortunately, most of these 'nationalists' adopted an ‘I'm all right Jack’ approach, entered the labour market or emigrated to do so, and behaved like the three 'wise monkeys' – seeing, hearing or speaking 'no evil'. A handful from Queen’s in Belfast and elsewhere would in time become household names, simply because they had the audacity to see, hear and speak out against the Stormont-created status quo. Some of these and other civil rights' advocates, and their loved ones, would later pay a very high price for so doing.

The undoubted heroic influence of Martin Luther King, later assassinated in '68, and the 'Black' movement against segregation in America became a source of intense inspiration and pride for many activists 'on the ground'. King's movement included non-black support and standing shoulder to shoulder in our own ranks marched a similar minority of mainly liberal and socialist Protestants, several of whom, regardless of the inherent dangers from within their own communities, occupied key positions.

The educated 'brave hearts' drawn into the ranks of the action committees campaigning on the jobs and housing fronts, did make a difference, but such was greatly exaggerated by the subsequent media profile they sought or attracted. There were many non-graduate trail-blazers who made up a new wave of primarily working-class people in Derry and elsewhere, who were no longer prepared to be treated as second-class citizens. Essentially, and contrary to media assumptions, it was the rank and file homeless and unwaged who led the growing confrontation with the State leading to Duke Street on October 5th 1968 and beyond. They required no degrees, gowns or mortar boards to understand their own immediate plight. These common people had common-sense in abundance to evaluate the best means and tactics to effectively present their case for social change, including legislative reform, to local, national and much wider audiences abroad.

'Derrymandering'

Gerrymandering was one of those 'big words' I overheard while veterans of other struggles, like my late father, Harry [1899-1989] would gather around the fireside at 134 Bogside and talk of times past or struggles won or lost.

When I asked Harry, a master butcher with Doherty Meats, what 'Gerrymandering' meant, he gave a one-liner retort: "It's a cheap way of denying people their liberties without the expense of putting us all in jail". My mother, Mary Ellen, who died last June in her one hundredth year, had more patience, read from her dictionary and then proceeded to illustrate the point by drawing a map of Derry and placing different numbers inside the boundaries drawn.