On the 50th anniversary of the Caledon Protest, Professor Paddy Gray reflects on its historical context and legacy. Professor Gray is Emeritus Professor of Housing at the School of Architecture and the Built Environment at Ulster University.

“It’s a damned lie.” That was the reaction of Austin Currie, elected as an MP for East Tyrone in 1964, to the assertion by John Taylor MP that the allocation of a house to a 19-year-old single girl who was given preference over 269 other applicants on the waiting list in Dungannon Rural District Council, including some living in unfit dwellings, was justified.

Recently I shared a platform with Austin Currie at a housing conference held in Dungannon as one of a series of events to mark the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights movement in Northern Ireland (NICRA). This was of particular significance to me as Austin was the key figure in the Caledon squatting incident that happened on June 20th 1968 – an event I have shared with many students over the past 30 years given its significance in transforming housing policy. It was the first time I had heard a recount of the incident in his own words.

A campaign against the unfair allocation of housing in the Dungannon area had been ongoing since 1963. The Campaign for Social Justice had been formed by husband and wife Conn and Patricia McCluskey, which preceded the establishment of NICRA. Housing was at the forefront of the campaign, particularly in areas like Dungannon and Derry. Discrimination in the way housing was allocated had long been a source of anger for nationalists over how decisions were made by local councils, many of which tended to be unionist-dominated. In a recent interview with the Irish Times Currie said: “It was so blatant, we had to do something… I had tried everything else. As a public representative, this injustice was rankling, and something had to be done.”

He and two others broke into a house that had been allocated to the unmarried 19-year-old Emilie Beattie who at the time worked for a solicitor who was a prospective unionist election candidate. When the police arrived, the sergeant said it was a civil matter and he would not get involved unless there was a breach of the law and so he left. It was the actions of Miss Beattie’s brother who was also a policeman, but in plain clothes, that was to make the headlines which awaiting TV crews were able to capture. He broke the door down with a sledgehammer and, according to Currie in an interview with the Irish News, “He tried to throw us out physically but we walked out to the waiting cameras and reporters. It was big news because an MP had taken part in the protest and WD Flecks from the television was there. For the first time, discrimination in housing was getting reported, which was the important thing.”

The sergeant at the time was an Ian Duncan who, in a letter to the Belfast Telegraph on the 8th October 2004, said “It was a distasteful duty that I had to perform because I believed in the actions of the protesters against the unjust allocation of housing at this time. Not only were the Catholics of the area discriminated against but I believe it was only those who shopped in councillor William Scott’s store had any chance of getting a council house… My personal experience of this was when I visited Mr Scott to ask for a house to be allocated to one of my constables, who was living in a very poor house with his wife and young baby. He told me that there was such a demand on these houses that he was under great pressure to allocate to the most needy.

”One thing that was against the constable and all the police, was the fact that we got paid once a month and naturally all the police families did a ‘big shop’ at the new supermarkets in Armagh. That left us in Mr Scott’s bad books. A short time later I spoke to a Protestant who lived next door to my constable and he informed me that Mr Scott tried to persuade him to take one of the new houses because he did not want too many Catholics in them. It was then that Miss Beattie was allocated a house and the subsequent disturbances followed.”

 

“It is easy to take for granted its uniqueness”: Establishment of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, 1971

In the aftermath of the Caledon squatting incident, civil rights marches followed together with violence and disturbance. As a result, the Cameron Commission was established to consider and investigate “disturbances in Northern Ireland.” defined the first general cause of the disorders in 1969 in the following terms:

A rising sense of continuing injustice and grievance among large sections of the Catholic population in particular in Londonderry and Dungannon in respect of:

  1. The inadequacy of housing provision by certain local authorities;
  2. Unfair methods of allocation of houses built and let by such authorities, in particular refusals and omissions to adopt a points system and
  3. Misuse in certain areas of discretionary powers of allocation of houses in order to perpetuate Unionist control of the local authority.

It became apparent that change was necessary and it was never going to go back to the way it was. In 1971, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) was formed and assumed the functions and responsibilities that had previously been undertaken by 61 local authorities, three Development Commissions and the Northern Ireland Housing Trust and by 1973 owned and managed 155,000 dwellings. It had to operate, however, within a climate of increased violence.

Within a year of its formation, the Executive’s headquarters suffered a bomb attack causing considerable damage and in the same year 14,000 homes had been affected in Belfast alone by 284 explosions, rent collectors were robbed on a weekly basis, a rent and rates strike was launched mainly amongst the nationalist population, over 60,000 people were forced to leave their houses and social housing became highly segregated something which is still with us today.

Despite these difficulties, NIHE is one of the great success stories that has emerged from the days of the civil rights movement. Since its introduction it has delivered significant social benefits throughout Northern Ireland with the quality of the housing stock having moved from one of the worst in Western Europe to what is now regarded as best quality stock. It introduced a points system for allocating social housing in 1974 which still exists today albeit in a somewhat different format. It has never been found guilty of religious discrimination.

In its first house condition survey carried out also in 1974 it found that one in five houses were unfit for human habitation. In Belfast one quarter of all homes required 25% of homes requiring either intervention or demolition. Since then unfitness had reduced substantially to around 2% according to recent figures. It is rightly regarded nationally and internationally as a leading authority on ‘best practice’ on both housing management and community building.

The organisation has become such an intrinsic part of the region’s administrative landscape that it is easy to take for granted its uniqueness.  As a public sector landlord its scale has been unrivalled for many years, not only within the United Kingdom, but throughout Europe, and the range of functions for which it has had responsibility is virtually unparalleled by any housing authority in any jurisdiction.

More recently, however, the organisation came under attack. In January 2013 the Minister of Social Development Nelson McCausland, announced radical changes including a Social Housing Reform Programme (SHRP). The announcement led to a media frenzy including a headline from the BBC ‘The Northern Ireland Housing Executive looks set to be dismantled in a major re-structuring move by the Department of Social Development’. It referred to the ‘scrapping’ of the organisation and much debate ensued as to where it might go, with suggestions that the landlord function would be broken up.

Indeed the new Chair of the organisation, Donald Hoodless, shortly after his appointment stated that he could “see three, five or perhaps a maximum of seven housing associations being created from the Housing Executive stock… It’s still open that some of the stock could transfer to existing housing associations, but essentially new housing associations are likely to be formed.”

Given the socio-political geography of Northern Ireland, however, concern was expressed, mainly from the nationalist parties with one senior politician suggesting that it could lead to the ‘Balkanisation’ of the region.

Given all of the debate about its status and the criticisms, the NIHE has come out of it all virtually unscathed. It did suffer a reputational battering for a period but many commentators will agree that it is now a healthier and slimmer organization with an appetite to do business in a province still deeply divided particularly in its own estates. The argument for breaking it up has dissipated but it does need to raise much-needed cash to invest in its stock.

As a public body that comes under the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement it is constrained from borrowing and relies heavily on government subsidy at a time when funds are scarce. The organisation has stopped building new housing since 2002 and a house condition report by Savills in 2015 estimated that existing NIHE stock needs £7 billion investment over the next 30 years (340m each year over next 5 years) and nearly half the stock needs immediate attention.

 

“We have come a long way from the days of injustices”: 50 years on

It is now 50 years since the Caledon incident. Looking back many agree that it was one of a number of significant events that led to formation of the NIHE and the depoliticisation of housing. The NIHE is still with us supported now by around 20 housing associations who now build social housing.

There are new challenges such as rising homelessness, high levels of segregation and pressures on public investment in social housing. But we have highly skilled housing professionals working with communities across the province helping to improve their living conditions. We have come a long way from the days of injustices in housing allocations, high levels of poor housing conditions and other abuses that took place at that time.

Austin Currie, himself, has no regrets over his role. He recently told the Irish News:

“It was the beginning of the civil rights campaign proper. In a very, very short time, we managed to have a successful resolution to many of the abuses. The Housing Executive was set up; gerrymandering was stopped with the introduction of PR voting and the B Specials were abolished… I believe it was a beginning and I believe I helped change history.”