In the late 1960s, a civil rights campaign started in Northern Ireland, to get equal treatment for Roman Catholics Adams was an active supporter and joined the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in 1967. Instead of leading to change, the civil rights movement there were protests counter-demonstrators called Loyalists. In August 1969 there was rioting in Northern Ireland’s big cities of Belfast and Derry, and the Government of Northern Ireland asked for the British army to help keep control.