In 1962, the Matthew Plan (designed to decentralize Belfast as the urban centre) identified Portadown/Lurgan, not Derry, as a major centre for development in the north: a new city, Craigavon, was also part of the Matthew Plan.
B11 01.jpg
University for Derry campaign in Guildhall Square, 1965.
One of the city’s last two rail links, the Great Northern line to Dublin, was axed in 1964, in response to the Benson Report.
B11 02.jpg
University campaigners, including John Hume and Eddie McAteer, outside Stormont.
Significantly, the Lockwood Report of 1965 allocated the north’s second university not to the second largest city (Derry) but instead to unionist Coleraine. A protest motorcade to Belfast in 1965, led by professionals and business people, failed to reverse the decision.