ABSTRACT
During the 1960s, debate was growing within the Unionist and Nationalist communities. Unionists pondered the best means of advancing their cause, particularly after the rise to the leadership of the relative moderate, Terence O'Neill, in 1963. The new Unionist leader believed that the best way to secure political dominance was to treat the Catholic minority on a more equitable basis. Nationalists meanwhile pondered the most appropriate means of rectifying their inequitable treatment in a polity in which they exerted scant influence. The political stagnation of the 1950s was about to be displaced by challenge and confrontation.
