TRAILING jets of bright orange flame, gasoline fire bombs arched across barricades that sealed off the dreary Catholic slum of Bogside from the rest of Londonderry. As the bombs exploded among groups of Northern Ireland's constabulary, setting some men afire, the police raised their billy clubs and beat a sharp tattoo on their riot shields. That was the signal to charge. Repeatedly, the police slashed into the mobs, but each time the Catholics drove them back across the barricades. "We've had 50 years of it—the System," hissed a leathery middle-aged man. "It should...
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