As Derry came out of World War 2 the housing situation for the people of Derry was dire. The Unionist even though they were in the minority in Derry by a big margin kept controlled Londonderry Corporation, through their policy of gerrymandering. By rigging the electoral wards they ensured that approx. 9,000 unionists votes elected twelve Unionist councillors to the Corporation, whilst over 13,000 nationalist votes were only able to elect eight Nationalist councillors to the corporation.  They also refused to extend the city boundary as this would upset their gerrymandering policy. The Unionist Controlled Rural District Council had the same gerrymandering policy. 

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With none or very little houses being built in Derry there was a situation that Catholic/ Nationalist families had to share small two up two down terraced house. Some of these house had three or four families in them. Some families of five or six people had to eat, sleep. wash, and cook in one small bedroom. There was one outside toilet which had to be shared between at times twenty people in one small dwelling. The plight of these families became unbearable and on the night of Wednesday  21 August 1946 they decided to take matters into their own hands and squatted in the empty Army and Navy camps that lay vacant after the war was over.

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The decision to order the mass evictions of the homeless people from the previously vacant military and naval camps in and around Derry by the offices of the British War Department and supported by the Londonderry Corporation, were viewed by the people of Derry with incredulity.

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The public were bracing themselves for scenes the likes of which had not been seen in Ireland since the evictions of the small Irish Farmers by their English landlords, during the famine/ potato blight.

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It was One hundred years earlier on 13 March 1846 during the famine/ ‘Great Hunger’ in Ireland, that evictions were carried out at the behest of English Landlords in places like Ballinlass, County Galway, and in many other Counties throughout Ireland.

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Many thousands of small Irish farmers were tenants of these Landlords , producing wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, and livestock. But only the potatoes were permitted to remain as food for the farmers themselves. Their other products were taken from them to pay their rent and were exported from Ireland to Great Britain. These exports continued on a weekly basis, even, during the years when the potato crops failed from 1845-1851.

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The British establishment called this sad period in Ireland ‘The Famine.’ The lie to this propaganda by the British was the fact that while Ireland was just a small country, yet hundreds of tons of its food was taken from them and exported to Great Britain each week. Less than half of this food would have been more than enough to feed the whole of Ireland.

 

As a consequence of their failed potato crops, the small farmers could not meet the payment of their rent. Simply because they were too weak to work, with having no food to eat, they were weak with hunger and illness. Subsequently they were evicted by their Landlords. The Police and Army, came and dismantled the roofs, removed windows and doors of their small cottages. Neighbours were not allowed to take them in, under threat that they too would be evicted if they did. Most ended up in the Workhouse.

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Fast forward to one hundred years later and the Royal Ulster Constabulary [ RUC ] and the British Army were doing exactly the same thing.

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They were evicting poor people from their tin huts in and around Derry and rendering them homeless.

However, on this occasion no one ended up in the workhouse, courtesy of the people of Springtown Camp who shared their own huts with the beleaguered families who had been evicted.

 

All of the squatters from several different camps in the City and surrounding areas were subsequently  evicted after court cases in. Derry Court. By May 1947 almost all of them were transferred to Springtown Camp. Where the huts were renovated for temporary occupancy by the families. However temporary meant over twenty one years to a lot of them, as the Londonderry Corporation decided to keep them in the camp simply because they were overwhelming catholic/ nationalist. Many protests took place by the Springtowners over the years and these protests were the precursor to the NICRA marches which eventually let to the sectarian Londonderry Corporation being disbanded in total disgrace. Regarding the NICRA marches and protest that followed, this led to the fall of the Unionist controlled Stormont government....These protest actions changed the governance of the North of Ireland for the better.

 

 

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Mrs Sidney Cook and Children moved to                                        Squatters with their children in 1946

84 Springtown Camp in 1947

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Mrs McGuinness saying goodbye to one of the delivery men

at Belmont Camp on the day of mass evictions 12 May 1947

she with her husband and family moved to Springtown Camp

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 Group photograph of people evicted from Belmont camp on Monday 12 May 1947.

all in this image went to Springtown Camp that day. Some well known campers include the McGuinness's on left, Charlie McMonagle, Eddie Kelly, Hugo Lewis, Tommy Cooke, Mary B. Kelly, Maggie Magowan, the children here are now 80 years plus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               

 

 

 

 

 

 

                           Spotlessly clean but selecting wallpaper would be tricky for these walls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The British Army dismantling the huts after residents were evicted. Just like the evictions by British landlords during the famine and potato blight.

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This family are on their way to Springtown Camp after being evicted from Belmont Camp in 12 May 1947

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Families  forced to move in to a tin hut in August 1946

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An eviction by the police in a County Galway village in 1847

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A little girl watches as British Soldiers demolish her hut after her family was evicted from Belmont camp on Monday 12 May 1947. Her family moved to Springtown Camp later that day.

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A family squatting in to a camp in 1946

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Children at a Halloween party in Belmont Camp 1946 almost everyone in this image went on to live in Springtown Camp after they were evicted

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Clooney Camp

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A sketch of an eviction during the famine handed down by memory through generations

from those who were there during the evictions 1847.