Battle of the Bogside 1969
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 12 August 1969 – 14 August 1969 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1969 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | Post-1945 (1946 onwards) | derived from year |
| Location | Northern Ireland | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | 1969 Northern Ireland riots, The Troubles | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United Kingdom | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 54.9978, -7.3272 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of the Bogside was a large three-day riot that took place from 12 to 14 August 1969 in Derry, Northern Ireland. Thousands of Catholic/Irish nationalist residents of the Bogside, organised under the Derry Citizens' Defence Association, clashed with the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and loyalists, and sealed off the neighbourhood to authorities. It sparked widespread violence elsewhere in Northern Ireland, led to the deployment of British troops, and is often seen as the beginning of the thirty-year conflict known as the Troubles.
Violence broke out as the Protestant Apprentice Boys marched past the Catholic Bogside. The RUC drove back the Catholic crowd and pushed into the Bogside, followed by loyalists who attacked Catholic homes. Thousands of Bogside residents beat back the RUC with a hail of stones and petrol bombs. The besieged residents built barricades, set up first aid posts and petrol bomb workshops, and a radio transmitter broadcast messages calling for resistance. The RUC fired CS gas into the Bogside – the first time it had been used by UK police. Residents feared the Ulster Special Constabulary would be sent in and would massacre Catholic residents.
The Irish Army set up field hospitals near the border and the Irish government called for a United Nations peacekeeping force to be sent to Derry.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Bogside (revision 1369191757), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Siege of Derry 1689 · 0 km
- Battle of Binnion Hill 1557 · 15 km
- Battle of Farsetmore 1567 · 24 km
- Battle of Glenmaquin 1642 · 24 km
- Battle of Scarrifholis 1650 · 31 km
- Attack on Ballygawley barracks 1985 · 62 km
Other battles of the The Troubles
- Battle of St Matthew's 1970
- Battle at Springmartin 1972
- Battle of Lenadoon 1972
- Attack on Ballygawley barracks 1985
- Battle of Newry Road 1993
All 6 battles of the The Troubles →
Browse more: battles in Northern Ireland · Europe · Post-1945 battles