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Free Derry () was a self-declared autonomous nationalist area of Derry, Northern Ireland, that existed between 1969 and 1972. Its name was taken from a sign painted on a gable wall in the Bogside in January 1969 which read, "You are now entering Free Derry". The area, which included the Bogside and Creggan neighbourhoods, was secured by community activists for the first time on 5 January 1969 following an incursion into the Bogside by members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). Residents built barricades and carried clubs and similar arms to prevent the RUC from entering. After six days the residents took down the barricades and RUC patrols resumed, but tensions remained high over the following months. Violence reached a peak on 12 August 1969, culminating in the Battle of the Bogside—a three-day pitched battle between residents and the RUC. On 14 August units of the British Army were deployed at the edge of the Bogside and the RUC were withdrawn. The Derry Citizens Defence Association (DCDA) declared their intention to hold the area against both the RUC and the British Army until their demands were met. The British Army made no attempt to enter the area. The situation continued until October 1969 when, following publication of the Hunt Report, military police were allowed in. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) began to re-arm and recruit after August 1969. In December 1969 it split into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA. Both were supported by the people of the Free Derry area. Meanwhile, relations between the British Army and the nationalist community, which were initially good, deteriorated. In July 1971 there was a surge of recruitment into the IRA after two young men were shot and killed by British troops. The government introduced internment on 9 August 1971, and in response, barricades went up once more in the Bogside and Creggan. This time, Free Derry was a no-go area, defended by armed members of both the Official and Provisional IRA. From within the area they launched attacks on the British Army, and the Provisionals began a bombing campaign in the city centre. As before, unarmed 'auxiliaries' manned the barricades, and crime was dealt with by a voluntary body known as the Free Derry Police. Support for the IRA increased further after Bloody Sunday in January 1972, when thirteen unarmed men and boys were shot dead by the British Army's Parachute Regiment at a march in the Bogside (a wounded fourteenth man died 4½ months later). The support began to wane after the killing by the Official IRA of a local youth who was home on leave from the British Army. After a Provisional IRA ceasefire, during which it entered talks with the British government, broke down, the British took the decision to move against the "no-go" areas. Free Derry came to an end on 31 July 1972, when thousands of British troops moved in with armoured cars and bulldozers to occupy the area. == Background == Derry City lies near the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It has a majority nationalist population, and nationalists won a majority of seats in the 1920 local elections. Despite this, the Ulster Unionist Party controlled the local council, Londonderry Corporation, from 1923 onwards.〔(History of the Bogside ), Museum of Free Derry, Retrieved 2009-04-11.〕 The Unionists maintained their majority, firstly, by manipulating the constituency boundaries (gerrymandering) so that the South Ward, with a nationalist majority, returned eight councillors while the much smaller North Ward and Waterside Ward, with unionist majorities, returned twelve councillors between them; secondly, by allowing only ratepayers to vote in local elections, rather than one man, one vote, so that a higher number of nationalists, who did not own homes, were disenfranchised; and thirdly, by denying houses to nationalists outside the South Ward constituency. The result was that there were about 2,000 nationalist families, and practically no unionists, on the housing waiting list, and that housing in the nationalist area was crowded and of a very poor condition.〔''(Londonderry: One man, no vote )'', The Campaign for Social Justice in Northern Ireland, (19 February 1965), Retrieved 2008-11-11.〕 The South Ward comprised the Bogside, Brandywell, Creggan, Bishop Street and Foyle Road, and it was this area that would become Free Derry.〔''(Introduction )'', Museum of Free Derry, Retrieved 2008-11-11.〕 The Derry Housing Action Committee (DHAC) was formed in March 1968 by members of the Derry Branch of the Northern Ireland Labour Party and the James Connolly Republican Club,〔McCann, Eamonn, ''War and an Irish Town'', p. 27〕 including Eamonn McCann and Eamon Melaugh. It disrupted a meeting of Londonderry Corporation in March 1968 and in May blocked traffic by placing a caravan that was home to a family of four in the middle of the Lecky Road in the Bogside and staging a sit-down protest at the opening of the second deck of the Craigavon Bridge.〔''(The Derry March - Chronology of Events Surrounding the March )'', Conflict Archive on the Internet, Retrieved 2008-11-11.〕 After the meeting of Londonderry Corporation was again disrupted in August, Eamon Melaugh telephoned the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) and invited them to hold a march in Derry. The date chosen was 5 October 1968, an adhoc committee was formed (although in reality most of the organizing was done by McCann and Melaugh〔) and the route was to take the marchers inside the city walls, where nationalists were traditionally not permitted to march.〔McCann, Eamonn, ''War and an Irish Town'', p. 37〕 The Minister of Home Affairs, William Craig, made an order on 3 October prohibiting the march on the grounds that the Apprentice Boys of Derry were intending to hold a march on the same day. In the words of Martin Melaugh of CAIN "this particular tactic...provided the excuse needed to ban the march."〔 When the marchers attempted to defy the ban on 5 October they were stopped by a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) cordon. The police drew their batons and struck marchers, including Stormont MP Eddie McAteer and Westminster MP Gerry Fitt.〔Lord Cameron, ''Disturbances in Northern Ireland'', chapter 4, paragraph 49〕 Subsequently the police "broke ranks and used their batons indiscriminately on people in Duke Street". Marchers trying to escape met another party of police and "these police also used their batons indiscriminately."〔Lord Cameron, ''Disturbances in Northern Ireland'', chapter 4, paragraph 51〕 Water cannons were also used. The police action caused outrage in the nationalist area of Derry, and at a meeting four days later the Derry Citizens' Action Committee (DCAC) was formed, with John Hume as chairman and Ivan Cooper as vice-chairman.〔McCann, Eamonn, ''War and an Irish Town'', p. 45〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Free Derry」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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