1968: The Long March is a special one-off documentary presented by Miriam O’Callaghan to mark the 50th anniversary of Civil Rights protests in Northern Ireland. Over the course of one year, those protests went from being a local issue about housing and voting rights in Derry, to becoming a national crisis which gained global attention. Ultimately, the events of 1968 led to a complete breakdown in law and order, the arrival of British troops onto the streets of Northern Ireland, and the outbreak of ‘The Troubles’.
This documentary is a timely and incisive examination of the realities of life in Northern Ireland fifty years ago, as encapsulated in that single year: 1968. In the documentary, Miriam connects the events in Northern Ireland with the civil rights movement in America, the student protests in Paris and global anti-Vietnam protests and examines the realities of life in Northern Ireland during this period as told by the people caught up in a tumultuous time.
Framed over a year, from Spring of 1968 (the earliest Derry Housing protests) to the summer of 1969 (when British Troops arrived in Northern Ireland), the documentary revolves around three crucial Civil Rights marches: in August, from Coalisland to Dungannon; in October in Derry (often cited as the ‘official’ beginning of the Troubles; and January of 1969 – the Martin Luther King-inspired ‘Long March’ that ended in serious violence in Burntollet.
Contributors to the documentary include Eamonn McCann, Bernadette McAliskey (Devlin), Kerry Kennedy (daughter of Robert F Kennedy), Rev. Al Sharpton, civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson, and many individuals who were right at the heart of protests in America and Northern Ireland.
1968: The Long March airs on RTÉ One on Tuesday, 14th August at 21.35