NEWLY-published footage of one of the most important days in the countdown to the Troubles has been made available by Northern Ireland Screen.
News reports and other film of a huge motor cavalcade to Stormont in 1965 in support of having Northern Ireland’s second university located in Derry is being released this week.
The release of the footage on NI Screen’s Digital Film Archive coincides with the 57th anniversary of the 2,000-strong cavalcade this Friday February 18.
As the north’s second city, it was widely assumed the new University of Ulster would be sited in Derry.
However, the unionist-controlled Stormont government opted instead to build the university in Coleraine. The move was seen as a blatantly sectarian decision to favour unionist Coleraine over nationalist Derry.
As publication of the report recommending Coleraine approached, a cross-community campaign was undertaken to force Stormont to site the university in Derry.
Led by John Hume and Nationalist Party MP Eddie McAteer, the campaign brought Mr Hume to wide prominence.
A schoolteacher at the time, he was already well-known in Derry for his community leadership and his work in establishing the Credit Union. However, the profile of the future Nobel Peace laureate was not as high outside his home city.
While the campaign garnered huge support and the cavalcade was joined by Ulster Unionist mayor Albert Anderson, it was doomed to failure as, behind the scenes, unionist political and business leaders – who came to be known as the “faceless men” – were campaigning against Derry.
Stormont’s decision is now seen as a significant stepping-stone in the emergence of the civil rights’ movement. It galvanised Catholic and nationalist opposition to the Northern Ireland political regime and quickened the onset of the Troubles.
The newly-uncovered footage shows a television report from Derry on the day before the cavalcade as well as footage of the cars arriving in Stormont. Hume, McAteer and Anderson are seen being applauded as they climb the steps to Stormont to hand over a petition demanding that the university decision be reversed.
Historian Éamon Phoenix believes the uncovered footage is of significant historical importance. Dr Phoenix said the decision to locate the university in Coleraine rather than Derry marked the moment when nationalists turned their back on the unionist regime.
“This is often seen as the moment when history failed to turn. Many see the discriminatory decision as leading directly to the civil rights movement which was launched the following year.
“It was the moment when the people of Derry realised the Stormont regime would not help them,” Dr Phoenix said.
The film footage is available at Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive.
