CO Tyrone businessman Pat Douglas’s anguished groan of pain echoed around the world on the evening of October 5 1968.
Television footage of the Donaghmore man being struck in the stomach with a policeman’s baton as he remonstrated with RUC leaders has become an enduring image from the day.
As he held out his arms and appealed for calm with the words “Gentlemen please, for God’s sake” a baton was rammed into Mr Douglas’s stomach forcing him to shout out in agony.
Mr Douglas, who died in 2003, went on to become a successful businessman, founding the Powerscreen company.
He eventually moved to the Isle of Man with his wife and nine children. In an interview with The Irish News on the 30th anniversary of the march in 1998, he recalled a special bond with Derry city.
He had attended St Columb’s college, overlooking the Bogside and witnessed at first hand the issues which brought him eventually to the civil rights housing protest on October 5.
Through a gerrymander and a woefully outdated electoral system, unionists controlled Londonderry Corporation despite only making up a third of the city’s population.
By refusing to build new homes, Catholics were forced to live in just two wards, North and Waterside. This meant nationalists could only return eight members of the corporation.
It also resulted in multiple families being forced to live in sub-standard tenement buildings. It was this, through the efforts of activist, Eamon Melaugh, that led to the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association supporting a march for better housing in Derry on October 5.
Mr Douglas recalled: “Derry people were perhaps some of the more victimised people in terms of poverty and lack of housing. There was a lack of roads and even street lights and the basics for a civilised society.”
He decided to join the Derry march because the people of Derry had supported the August Coalisland civil rights demonstration.
While the police attack on Mr Douglas became an iconic image, the Tyrone man said he initially felt embarrassed by the attention given to him.
“In many ways I felt terrible. I suffered nothing compared to what others suffered that day. Women and old men were battered for nothing but the camera just happened to be on me.”
Read more:
- Media attention on October 5 1968 changed Ireland forever
- Altnagelvin hospital was like a war zone following October 5 Civil Rights march
- President Michael D Higgins to address civil rights commemoration
- Official report severely criticised police actions on day of civil rights march
