on 29 January 1967. Tony Smythe and James Shepherd from the National Council of Civil Liberties in London were present and there were more than 100 delegates from a variety of organisations, including Northern Ireland political parties. A 13-member steering committee was tasked at the Belfast meeting with drafting NICRA's constitution. One member, Dolley, had taken part at the meeting at Agnew's house. No original member self-identified as a Unionist or can be described that way, but a few days after the committee was formed, Robin Cole, former Chairman of the Young Unionists at Queen's University, was co-opted onto the committee by unanimous decision.) The original committee consisted of: 1. Chairman: Noel Harris, a trade unionist and member of the Draughtsmen and Allied Trades Association and the Communist Party. 2. Vice-Chairman: Conn McCluskey (one of the founders of the Campaign for Social Justice). 3. Secretary: Derek O'Brien Peters, of the Communist Party. 4. Treasurer: Fred Heatley, of the Wolfe Tone Societies. 5. Information Officer: Jack Bennett, a journalist with The Belfast Telegraph. 6. Betty Sinclair, a communist member of the Belfast Trades Council. 7. Liam McMillen, vice-chairman of the Republican Clubs (and Commanding Officer of the IRA Belfast Brigade). 8. John Quinn, of the Ulster Liberal Party. 9. Professor Michael Dolley, of Queen's University Belfast, a civil libertarian and member of the National Democratic Party (Northern Ireland). 10. Joe Sherry, of the Republican Labour Party. 11. Jim Andrews, of the Ardoyne Tenants Association. 12. Paddy Devlin, of the Northern Ireland Labour Party. 13. Tony McGettigan, unaffiliated. NICRA held a meeting to ratify the constitution on 9 April 1967. It was on this date that NICRA officially came into existence. There were some changes as the steering committee became NICRA's executive council, with Ken Banks of the Ardoyne Tenants Association replacing Jim Andrews; Kevin Agnew, a republican solicitor, replacing McMillen; and Terence O'Brien (unaffiliated) replacing McGettigan. Betty Sinclair became chairman. Robin Cole, a liberal member of the Young Unionists and chairman of the Queen's University Belfast Conservative and Unionist Association, was later co-opted onto the executive council. NICRA's constitution, aims and philosophy NICRA, as it eventually emerged, differed from what had been outlined in Tuarisc and discussed at Agnew's home in Maghera. The form which NICRA took was determined by the coalition of forces which came together to create it, of which republicans were only one element. Civil rights were the