 The Derry Housing Action Committee ( <unk> ) was formed in March 1968 by members of the Derry Branch of the Northern Ireland Labour Party and the James Connolly Republican Club , including Eamonn McCann and Eamon <unk> . It disrupted a meeting of Londonderry Corporation in March 1968 and in May blocked traffic by placing a caravan that was home to a family of four in the middle of the Lecky Road in the <unk> and staging a sit @-@ down protest at the opening of the second deck of the Craigavon Bridge . After the meeting of Londonderry Corporation was again disrupted in August , Eamon <unk> telephoned the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association ( <unk> ) and invited them to hold a march in Derry . The date chosen was 5 October 1968 , an <unk> committee was formed ( although in reality most of the organizing was done by McCann and <unk> ) and the route was to take the marchers inside the city walls , where nationalists were traditionally not permitted to march . The Minister of Home Affairs , William Craig , made an order on 3 October prohibiting the march on the grounds that the Apprentice Boys of Derry were intending to hold a march on the same day . In the words of Martin <unk> of <unk> " this particular tactic ... provided the excuse needed to ban the march . " When the marchers attempted to defy the ban on 5 October they were stopped by a Royal Ulster Constabulary ( RUC ) cordon . The police drew their batons and struck marchers , including Stormont MP Eddie McAteer and Westminster MP Gerry <unk> . Subsequently the police " broke ranks and used their batons indiscriminately on people in Duke Street " . Marchers trying to escape met another party of police and " these police also used their batons indiscriminately . " Water cannons were also used . The police action caused outrage in the nationalist area of Derry , and at a meeting four days later the Derry Citizens ' Action Committee ( <unk> ) was formed , with John Hume as chairman and Ivan Cooper as vice @-@ chairman . 
