Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O’Neill and his Minister for Home Affairs, Brian McConnell, are met at Aldergrove Airport by a UTV film crew to discuss the previous day’s violent march in protest which had been led against the Presbyterian Church annual General Assembly. Both men discuss the possibility of action against Paisley and future marches.
The church had been holding their annual General Assembly at the Assembly Buildings in Fisherwick Place, Belfast. The Assembly became famous that year for what happened outside the meeting. The rival Free Presbyterian Church was led by a Moderator in the shape of Rev Ian Paisley and he was marching upon the Assembly with 1,000 followers to protest what he believed to be attempts to merge with the Roman Catholic church. While the chances of this ever happening seem remote, the protest took place nevertheless with undercurrents of protest about Northern Irish society in general. At one point the march turned violent and four police officers were injured in widely publicised scenes.
The fallout from the angry confrontation which brought Belfast City Centre to a standstill reverberated for a long time with Paisley ending up serving a three month jail sentence for his part in it and Prime Minister Terence O’Neill being forced to contemplate banning marches. Paisley would now be an implacable enemy of O’Neill for the remainder of his term in office.