Editing John Hume (section)

=== The "Third Force" ===
In 1963, drawing on his Maynooth thesis research, Hume wrote a script for a television documentary on Derry, [https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-a-city-solitary-1963-online "A City Solitary"], that was broadcast on both the [[BBC]] and [[RTÉ]].<ref name=":7" />{{rp|31–32}} It persuaded ''[[The Irish Times]]'' to open its pages to the "first considered statement" of Hume's political views<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Farren |first=Sean |title=John Hume: In His Own Words |year=2021 |isbn=9781846829987 |location=Dublin |pages=}}</ref>{{rp|33–34}}

In "The Northern Catholic" (18 and 19 May 1964), Hume wrote of an emerging "third force": a "generation of younger Catholics in the North" frustrated with the [[Irish nationalism|nationalist]] policy of non-recognition and [[Abstentionism|abstention]]. Determined to engage the great social problems of housing, unemployment and emigration, they were willing to accept "the [[Protestantism in Ireland|Protestant tradition]] in the North as legitimate" and that [[United Ireland|Irish unity]] should be achieved only "by the will of the Northern majority."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hume |first=John |title=A Northern Catholic writes... John Hume in 1964 |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/a-northern-catholic-writes-john-hume-in-1964-1.4321087 |access-date=2021-03-20 |newspaper=The Irish Times |language=en}}</ref>

"Normal politics" would not emerge in Northern Ireland from Catholic engagement alone. Much would depend on the responsiveness of the northern government whose "skilful placing" of investment was contributing to exceptionally high Catholic unemployment and emigration. If the governing [[Unionism in Ireland|unionists]] failed to respond to "repeated statements of Catholic willingness to get together", he warned that there would be a hardening of opinion and further polarisation.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|34}}

Hume first test of the possibilities for change was as chair in 1965 of the [[University for Derry Committee]].<ref name=":17" />{{rp|22–23}} Accompanied by the city's [[Ulster Unionist Party|Unionist]] mayor, [[Albert Anderson (politician)|Albert Anderson]], and its [[Parliament Buildings (Northern Ireland)|Stormont]] MP, the leader of the [[Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)|Nationalist party]], [[Eddie McAteer]], Hume led a 25,000-strong protest on the steps of Stormont, convinced that the case for developing Derry's [[Magee College]] as [[Ulster University|Northern Ireland's second university]] was "unanswerable".<ref name=":10">{{Cite thesis |title=John Hume : origins of a Derry icon 1960-74 |url=https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/18924 |publisher=University of St Andrews |date=2019 |degree= |doi=10.17630/10023-18924 |language=en |first=Daniel James |last=Keenan |page=|hdl=10023/18924 }}</ref>{{rp|138–139}} When the city lost out to [[Coleraine]], and when later the same year Derry again lost to [[Lurgan]] and [[Portadown]] for [[Craigavon, County Armagh|a new urban-industrial development]], Hume sensed a wider conspiracy. Addressing a meeting in London of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] [[ginger group]], Campaign for Democracy in Ulster, he suggested that "the plan" was "to cause a migration from West to East Ulster, redistributing and scattering the minority to that the Unionist Party will not only maintain but strengthen its position".<ref>''Derry Journal'', 6 August 1965, cited in Kingsley, Paul (1989), ''Londonderry Revisited: A Loyalist Analysis of the Civil Rights Controversy.'' Belfast Publications'','' pp. 98-99, {{ISBN|978-0-9515549-0-6}}</ref>

Involved in [[Housing association|voluntary housing movement]] in his home city, Hume argued that (notwithstanding "excellent assistance" form the Ministry of Development),<ref name=":17" />{{rp|20}} he battled the same sectarian-political logic within Derry itself. A unionist minority secured majority control of the city council through [[gerrymandering]] which involved restricting planning permission for potential Catholic homes.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|38–39}}<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Bardon |first=Jonathan |title=A History of Ulster |publisher=The Blackstaff Press |year=1992 |isbn=0856404764 |location=Belfast}}</ref>{{rp|648}}