One prominent northern personality who had a daughter on the march contacted some former colleagues in the IRA to ask them to keep an eye on the students. The first intimation the marchers had of this unasked-for protection came when a marcher got up to relieve himself outside a barn one night and bumped into a man with a shotgun. The incident gives an accurate insight into the state both of policing and of the IRA’s armament at the time.
