Panic on the streets of Derry as rioting leaves at least 17 dead

Derry, 25 June 1920 - Derry City is recovering after a week of intense sectarian fighting.

A clear picture of events has been difficult to piece together, but from the fragments of information that have emerged, the scale and seriousness of the violence is clear. According to reports, the city was in a state of panic over prolonged exchanges of gunfire between republicans, unionists and the authorities in such places as Long Tower Street and Upper Fountain Street, as well as in the neighbourhood of Upper Fahan Street and Bishop Street, and in the Waterside district.

One exchange company telegram reported dead and wounded men lying in the streets, their bodies unable to be removed because of snipers concealed on rooftops on a number of streets.

The sectarian nature of the fighting was underlined by the killing of William Kane, a catholic railway worker. According to a report by the Cork Examiner’s Derry Correspondent, Mr Kane was held up by an Orangeman and asked his religion. When he responded ‘catholic’, he was immediately shot. In his dying declaration he gave the name of his assailant to the police.

Alongside the gunfire, there have been forced evictions in different quarters of the city. There have also been reports of large scale looting, mainly focussed on food which is in short supply in the city.

Magistrates urged people to remain indoors as the military and police prepared to disperse disorderly mobs by force.

Scenes from Derry. Left: Soldiers standing by an armoured car fitted with a Lewis gun to disperse snipers. Right: Soldiers posted behind sandbags with Lewis guns (Image: Illustrated London News [London, England], 3 July 1920)

A large contingent of the Norfolk Regiment was dispatched to the city and two military destroyers aimed searchlights on a number of the troubled areas. Sinn Féin Volunteers also took to patrolling different parts of the city, claiming that their purpose was to protect the interests of the city as a whole.

The city of Derry has been in a state of turmoil for the last couple of months; official reports indicate that this most recent period of rioting has left at least 17 dead and 29 injured.

Among the dead was a Canadian soldier, Edwin A. Price, who was shot outside the Diamond Hotel where he was staying while visiting his brother. 

The coroner’s verdict was that Mr Price had died from wounds caused ‘by a bullet fired by some person or persons unknown, and that said person or persons are guilty of murder.’ The coroner added that all the cases arising from the recent unrest that he had investigated would receive a similar verdict. The coroner said that while it was a terrible state of affairs, he was glad to see that their city had settled down.

Political reaction
Speaking in the House of Commons, Denis Henry, MP for Londonderry South and Attorney General for Ireland, has said that the city is now in the control of the military authorities. When questioned if the disarmament of the civilian population was underway, Mr Henry responded that the ‘disarmament of the disloyal portion of the population has always been proceeding in Derry.’ Pressed as to which groups were disloyal, Mr Henry commented that they were the portion of the population ‘that are not applying to the government for permission to keep arms.’

An editorial in the Irish independent has described his answers as ‘unbecoming flippancies and shameless travesties.’ The paper argued that the implication of what the Attorney General said in Westminster is that the unionists who have been shooting at nationalists in the city had the permission of the British government to keep the service rifles that they had been using.

Writing in the Irish Bulletin, Arthur Griffith, Sinn Féin TD, claimed that the rioting in Derry had no accidental origin. Rather, he states, it was planned and directed by unionist leaders, in collusion with eminent individuals in England and with agents of the British government in Ireland.

A cartoon echoing the sentiements of Arthur Griffith in the Irish Bulletin, depicting Edward Carson shouting encouragement and a soldier standing by and watching, as a unionist gunman wreaks havoc in a catholic area (Image: Sunday Independent, 27 June 1920)

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]