Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association

Common card · No. 396348

The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA; Irish: Cumann Cearta Sibhialta Thuaisceart Éireann) was an organisation that campaigned for civil rights for Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Formed in Belfast on 9 April 1967, the civil rights campaign attempted to achieve reform by publicising, documenting, and lobbying for an end to discrimination against Catholics in areas such as elections (which were subject to gerrymandering and property requirements), discrimination in employment, in public housing and abuses of the Special Powers Act. The genesis of the organisation lay in the emergence of a more self-confident Catholic professional middle class who, following the example of the US civil rights movement, campaigned for equal rights and reform. The Campaign for Social Justice was formed in January 1964. A younger generation, inspired by the 1960s wave of worker and student protests across Europe was also ready to take to the street to...

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