Civil rights talk re-ignites row

Unionists and republicans yesterday emerged from a major conference on the North's civil rights movement utterly divided on the events that helped start the Troubles.

While nationalists recalled the non-violent protests of 1968 as a campaign against anti-Catholic discrimination, a senior unionist told how he still felt simmering resentment over the events.

President Mary McAleese told the Derry conference she hoped today's political institutions would help bridge old divisions, but speeches from rival politicians highlighted splits in the current power sharing government.

The civil rights movement campaigned against anti-Catholic discrimination in jobs and housing allocation, as well as highlighting the gerrymandering of political boundaries that ensured unionist domination in majority nationalist areas.

But DUP Culture Minister Gregory Campbell told the conference the campaign for reforms was a purely nationalist project and said Protestants who grew up in poverty resented their community being blamed for Catholic hardships.

Typical

"I was typical of working class unionist thinking. Nothing about the Civil Rights Campaign attracted me, rather as the protests grew so did my resentment and anger,'' said Mr Campbell.

He said Protestants in Derry were intimidated out of the area as the Troubles unfolded and hit out at Sinn Fein who he said were today falsely claiming they were being unfairly treated in government.

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness catalogued the control of the old unionist government at Stormont over politics, housing, employment and security policies.

"Regrettably there are still those within political unionism who refuse to acknowledge these past abuses or its role and contribution in all that occurred."

SDLP leader Mark Durkan accused the DUP and Sinn Fein of carving up power between them and excluding his party.

"These lapses into the old Stormont culture might be excused as blips by some.

"But they should be resisted as slips on a dangerous slope by all who convey the experience of the Civil Rights cause," Mr Durkan said.

Maurice Hayes Comment, page 29