ion of audiences outside of the region. It was the lack of jobs and houses in Derry, a region in Northern Ireland, and the allegations of discrimination and mismanagement by the Unionist Corporation. The Unionist Corporation encouraged support for the Derry march on 5 October 1968. The reaction of the Unionist government and the Royal Ulster Constabulary to this event, and to the civil rights movement in general, was to lead to 30 years of conflict. Some of the matters about which there were allegations of discrimination were the subject of reform in the late 1960s and early 1970s. For example changes to the law governing local government elections. These reforms ended the potential for mispractice. In a number of other areas reforms were to be more difficult and expensive to implement. Millions of pounds had to be spent to improve and increase particular public sector housing before this issue was to almost entirely disappear from the political agenda. A debate about the nature and extent of discrimination has been going on for many years. There are many in the Unionist community who maintain that there was no systematic apparent discrimination against Catholics. They also claim that any observed differences between the two communities, Catholics and Protestants, were the result of structural factors such as geographical concentration. It is obvious to me that the people of Northern Ireland have been forced to deal with discrimination in their own land for too long. This discrimination has lead to many of the violent acts the Irish have taken against the ruling British government. One such incident became known as "Bloody Sunday". "Bloody Sunday" refers to the events that took place in Derry on the afternoon of January 30, 1972. A Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) march had been organized to protest against the continuation of imprisonment without trial in Northern Ireland. An estimated 20,000 men, women and ch...
