1. The following statistics are from the 1966 Cameron Commission’s investigation into gerrymandering in Northern Ireland:
City of Derry Total Population Number of Ratepayers (eligible to vote)
Constituencies South Ward North Ward
The Waterside
Catholics Protestants Number of MPs 20,102 10,272 14,429 8,781
10,047 1,138 3,946 3,697
2,530 1,852
8 Nationalist 8 Unionist 4 Unionist
Source: A Story of Ireland by John McCormack, Mentor Books
From the statistics listed in the table, answer the following questions: (a) How many Catholics lived in the city of Derry? (b) How many Protestants lived in the city of Derry? (c) How many unionist MPs were elected in Derry? (d) How many nationalist MPs were elected in Derry? (e) Using this information, explain how gerrymandering worked.
2. Watch a video on YouTube of Jack Lynch’s speech on 13 August 1969. Search: RTE – archives – 1969 – broadcast – Taoiseach. In it he responds to the bloodshed occurring in Derry at that time. Answer the following questions: (a) What do you think he meant by ‘the Irish government can no longer stand by and see innocent people injured and perhaps worse’?
(b) Why would some people in Northern Ireland consider that the Irish government was planning to invade Northern Ireland?
(c) Why did he think that the RUC was no longer accepted as an impartial police force? (d) Why does Lynch think that the deployment of British troops would not be acceptable? (e) What was Lynch’s proposal to solve the issues in the six counties of Northern Ireland in 1969? (f) What did he instruct the Irish Army to do in Donegal? (g) In what two ways did he hope that the situation would not further deteriorate?