The Civil Rights Movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. It was accompanied by much civil unrest and popular rebellion. The process was long and tenuous in many countries, and most of these movements did not achieve or fully achieve their objectives. In its later years, the Civil Rights Movement took a sharp turn to the radical left in many cases.

Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is a European province of United Kingdom which has witnessed violence over many decades mainly because of sectarian tensions between the Catholic and Protestant community.

The Civil Rights struggle in Northern Ireland can be traced to Catholics in Dungannon who are fighting for better housing for the members of the Catholic community. This domestic issue would not have led to a fight for Civil Rights if the policies of Northern Ireland did not make being a registered householder the qualification for the local government franchise. Thus these Catholics were not only challenging what they saw as unfair housing policies, they were also taking the first steps toward fighting for Civil Rights for their community. Using various means to defend and improve the conditions for their communities, these Catholics were in fact preparing a large part of the Catholic population to move beyond local and domestic issue and to embrace the larger purpose of the Civil Rights battle. This substantial contribution made by women is often erased from the general history of Northern Ireland primarily because this country still has a Protestant majority and a conservative culture who often overlook the role of women in the political sphere. .

On a broader and more organized front, in January 1964, the Campaign for Social Justice (CSJ) was launched officially in Belfast. This organization took over the woman's struggle over better housing and committed itself to end the discrimination in employment. The CSJ promised the Catholic community that their cries would be heard. They challenged the government, promising that they would take their case to the Commission for Human Rights in Strasbourg and to the United Nations.

Having started with basic domestic issues, the Civil Rights struggle in Northern Ireland escalated to a full scale movement that found its embodiment in the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. NICRA campaigned in the late sixties and early seventies and consciously modeled itself on the civil rights movement in the United States. Empowered by what African-Americans were doing, the movement took on marches and protest to demand better conditions for the minority of Catholics who lived in the Protestant state. Republican leader Gerry Adams explained that Catholics -courtesy of television- saw that it was possible for them to have their demands heard. He wrote that "we were able to see an example of the fact that you didn't just have to take it, you could fight back".