Derry Housing Action Committee

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The Derry Housing Action Committee (DHAC), together with the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) organised the October 5 1968 civil rights demonstration in Derry, whose banning and violent suppression by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) sparked the so-called 'Troubles'. The DHAC was formed in February 1968 by two socialists and four tenants in response to the plight of the homeless and those tenants in the city who suffered under 'Rachmanite' landlords. Named after the Dublin Housing Action Committee, the DHAC`s initial actions involved disrupting meetings of the Unionist-dominated Corporation in Derry`s Guildhall. After June 1968, when a caravan home was used to block a street, the DHAC`s actions became more militant.

Bibliography: see Fionnbara O`Dohartaigh`s Ulster`s White Negroes (AK Press, 1994).