admiration following the first manned moon landing by Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. 1 August A huge protest rally over events in Northern Ireland was held outside the General Post Office, Dublin. The crowd demanded that the Irish Army cross the border. The farthing and halfpenny coins were withdrawn from circulation as Ireland moved towards decimalisation. 3 August – Taoiseach Jack Lynch made a state visit to the Lebanon. 5 August – Belfast experienced the worst sectarian rioting since 1935. 12 August – Rioting broke out in Derry in the Battle of the Bogside, the first major confrontation of The Troubles. 13–17 August – Sectarian rioting took place in Northern Ireland. 13 August – As the Battle of the Bogside continued, Taoiseach Jack Lynch made a speech on television saying that the Irish government "can no longer stand by" and demanded a United Nations peace-keeping force for Northern Ireland. 14 August – British troops were deployed for the first time in Northern Ireland to restore law and order. Their presence was welcomed at first by many in the Catholic population of Derry. 15 August – A night of shooting and burning took place in Belfast. In Dublin, a Sinn Féin party protest meeting called for the boycott of British goods, Irish government protection of the people of Northern Ireland, and United Nations intervention. 16 August – British soldiers were deployed in particularly violent areas of Belfast. 17 August – Members of the Garda Síochána (police) clashed with protesters on O'Connell Street, Dublin, as a march against the Northern Ireland situation headed for the British embassy. 27 August – The B-Specials began to hand in their guns following a call by Lieutenant-General Ian Freeland to disband them. British Home Secretary, James Callaghan, visited Belfast. 30 August – Jack Lynch ordered the Irish Army Chief of Staff, General Seán Mac Eoin, to prepare a plan, called Exercise Armageddon, for possible incursions into Northern Ireland in defence of Catholic communities there. August – Andrew Boyd's historical work Holy War in Belfast was published in Tralee, going through six impressions in three years. 10 September – The British Army started to construct the first of the Northern Ireland 'Peacelines' on the Falls-Shankill divide in Belfast, marking the first of many 'Peacewall' constructions across the city. 10 October – The Hunt Committee Report recommended an unarmed civil police force in Northern Ireland and abolition