Bogside’s Own Government

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32078, 28 August 1969, Page 17

Bogside’s Own Government

(By CHRISTOPHER WARMAN, oj “The Times,” through N.Z. P.A.) LONDONDERRY, Aug. 27. Behind the barricades of Bogside, the people have set up their own “government.” Bogside is not an all-em-bracing, independent state, but its self-imposed partition from the rest of the city has given rise to problems of administration and security that must be tackled if its happy democracy is not to slip into ugly anarchy. Expanding from a commit tee formed when the British troops moved in to stop the fighting, the "government”— the Derry Citizens’ Defence Association—already controls several departments. It has a police force, a radio station, and, like all the

best-organised states, a “hot. line” to the other power—the Army. It even has two daily newspapers, a single-sheet newsletter from the association, and a propaganda sheet produced by the Derry Labour Party.

The main task is the maintenance of law and order in the absence of the regular police. In the whole area of Bogside and Creggan, there are about 25,000 people, and a body of vigilantes has been recruited to act as a police

force. They man the barricades 24 hours a day, and have dealt with their first crime. Two young lads, caught stealing copper piping from a burnt-out post office, appeared before a court consisting of members of the association’s committee, who gave them a severe ticking off and put them on probation. Quite what happens in the event of a serious crime, nobody knows; but the crime rate in the area has always been low and the self-govern-ing Bogsiders will face that question when it arises. The policing system seems to be working efficiently, and there have even been complaints that the licensed bars, with one or two exceptions, are now closing on time. Mr Paddy Doherty, a builder’s foreman, whose popularity and ability have

brought him to the leadership of this “people’s government,” and who by a happy chance lives at a No. 10. says: “This is much more difficult than the fighting.” But Mr Doherty maintains that the unemployed in the area—where shortage of jobs has been one of the causes of discontent—have never worked so hard. The immediate work of the “government” is varied. Clothes, and shoes in particular, are needed for many of the 400-or-so outside student helpers from Ireland, Britain and Europe who rallied to the call and came without any possessions.

Mr Doherty says that the original action committee has delegated much of its authority, and he estimates that about 30 persons are now involved in the departments—catering, transport, information, finance, and the billet-

Ing of refugees. A medical service is being supplied, although many residents have doctors outside the area. It includes a screening service for all the children who may have been exposed to C;S. gas, to establish whether there is any lung damage. Any incursion from outside the barricades is viewed with grave suspicion. It was found necessary to announce in the newsletter that repair men should not be interfered with “because they are doing necessary work which is of benefit.”

The difficulties facing the association at the moment are necessarily short-term ones, but they fully occupy the men in charge. No-one wants the barricades to stay for ever, but the Bogsiders are not prepared to remove them until their well-known demands are met.