Derry Housing Action Committee

A small, radical group set up in February 1968 (Ó Dochartaigh; 1994) to campaign for improvements to housing in Derry. The group was made up of radical socialists, republicans and nationalists. Matt O'Leary was elected as its first chairman. Other founding members were Bridget Bond and Eamon Melaugh. One of the prominent members of the group was Eamonn McCann. The tactics of the group were to take direct, non-violent, action against those organisations responsible for housing in Derry, particularly the private landlords and Londonderry Corporation which was responsible for much of the publicly rented housing in the area. It was members of the DHAC which decided to invite the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association to organise a march in Derry on 5 October 1968. It was this march, and the Government's response to it, which marked the start of the present 'Troubles'. (See also: Derry Unemployed Action Committee.) See: Chapter 1, in, Ó Dochartaigh, Fionnbara. (1994). Ulster's White Negroes. Edinburgh: AK Press. ... Chapter 5, in, Purdie, Bob. (1990). 'Politics in the Streets: The origins of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland'. Belfast: Blackstaff Press.