On This Day, 9th October

1968

People's Democracy was formed

On the 9th of October 1968, at a meeting in Queen’s University Belfast, People’s Democracy was formed by students involved in the Young Socialist Alliance, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA), and other left groups and individuals. Its formation was in part in response to the attack on the NICRA march in Derry a few days before by the RUC, which is sometimes seen as the start of “The Troubles”.

The savagery of the R.U.C. on Duke Street dealt O'Neillism a hefy blow. It demonstrated graphically how little Unionism had changed and it shook the Catholics' faith in O'Neill. It had another important effect as well. It shook the students in Queen's University to whom the Border was irrelevant but who suddenly found on their own doorstep the sort of thuggery that shocked them in Chicago, Paris or Vietnam. October 5th gave birth to the Peoples Democracy, which combined a core of the Young Socialist Alliance with a lot of hitherto apolitical people brought up for the first time against the realities of life in N. Ireland. — From Struggle In The North, by Mike Farrell, 1970.

On This Day: 9th October Events and documents from this date in history