2 July 2024 Derry and Donegal

 2 July 2024     Derry and Donegal

 

We started the day by driving to Derry (or Londonderry as some call it), located on the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It is also one of Europe’s last walled cities and the only one in Ireland that has its walls fully intact.  The walls were built between 1613-1618 to defend the city from early 17^th century settlers.  They form a one-mile oval with watchtowers, battlements, gates, bastions, and big aul cannons located throughout the walls. 

 When we first arrived, Tom took us on a short walking tour in “Free Derry” to see some of the murals that are painted on buildings on the Republican (Catholic side of the city).  Most of them relate to the British occupation and the “Bloody Sunday” that resulted from the British policy of “Internment.”  Under this policy, British soldiers invaded private houses of anyone they thought might be connected to the IRA, physically removed the males from the house and put them in prison with no warrants, charges or due process.

 

Memorial to the 10 Hunger Strike Victims

Sign When Entering Free Derry

Memorial to the Bloody Sunday Massacre

Our next stop was at the Museum of Free Derry which documents the history of the turbulent Troubles era, especially the timeframe from 1968-1972 known as “Free Derry.”  This was a self-declared autonomous Irish nationalist area in the Bogside section of Derry, that grew out of the Northern Ireland civil rights movement seeking to end Irish Catholic discrimination and British internment.  Many Catholics lost their homes to the protestant citizens of Londonderry and could not get decent jobs.   They got their inspiration for the US's Civil Rights  Movement.

                                           

                                                                Murals in Derry

Man with Gas Mask on from British Gas Attacks

Woman in Red was a Housewife Shot by British
in her Backyard

Trying to Carry One of the Bloody
Massacre Victims to Safety

The Victims of Bloody Sunday Massacre

British Soldier Breaking Into House
During Internment Period

Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement
in Derry

Here we had a museum volunteer who discussed this turbulent time following the Bloody Sunday Massacre and effect it had on her family.  Her 17 year old brother was killed in the massacre while she was living in Canada.  She talked about what happened and the fight the families of the victims waged to clear the names of those killed.  The sporadic violence that began on 5 January 1969 when the proclamation of Free Derry was first announced and grew in intensity, culminating in the  12 August 1969 Battle of Bogside, a three-day battle between the residents of “Free Derry” and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the police force in Northern Ireland.  Two days later the British army replaced the RUC, and a somewhat tenuous peace returned.  However, the residents of Derry began to actively recruit members to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and by July 1971, the somewhat peaceful relationship between “Free Derry” and the British Army deteriorated when the British Army killed two young men in Derry.  This deteriorating relationship continued until it reached a climax on 30 January 1972 in the 1972 Bloody Sunday Massacre.  The British Army killed 14 unarmed civilians during a peaceful protest.  And unfortunately for the British it occurred in full view of the public and the press.  This Sunday Massacre had the highest number of people killed in a single shooting incident during the “Troubles,” and it was the worst mass shooting in Northern Irish history. The museum is very small and almost all the items in it where either posters, newspaper clippings and videos of that day.

This event shocked the world, and Derry’s residents were further outraged when an Official Inquiry found that while the soldiers’ behavior bordered on being reckless, the soldiers were not guilty of any criminal acts in the Massacre. 

As a result of the massacre, the biggest strike in Europe since WWII occurred in the Republic of Ireland. On 2 February 1972, the British Embassy in Dublin was burned down by irate crowds.  And with Anglo-Irish relations at their lowest point, the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs asked the United Nations Security Council to send a UN peacekeeping force to Northern Ireland, which the British refused to allow.

 “Free Derby” finally came to an end on 31 July 1972 when the British moved in thousands of troops with armored vehicles and bulldozers.  During an August 1973  inquest into the shooting that found the shootings to be justified and cleared the soldiers and Britain of any wrongdoing, the city’s coroner, a retired British Army major, declared the killings murder in his following statement:

 

“This Sunday became known as Bloody Sunday and bloody it was. It was quite unnecessary. It strikes me that the Army ran amok that day and shot without thinking what they were doing. They were shooting innocent people. These people may have been taking part in a march that was banned but that does not justify the troops coming in and firing live rounds indiscriminately. I would say without hesitation that it was sheer, unadulterated murder. It was murder”.

 For years this massacre remained a divisive subject between Derry’s Catholics and Protestants and resentment continues against the British Army.  Citizens of Free Derry pushed to have the victims of this massacre declared innocent.  Finally in 1998, British Prime Minister Tony Blair authorized a second inquiry into the massacre.  When the second inquiry found that the protesters were innocent and posed no threat to the British Army,  then British Prime Minister David Cameron apologized to the people of Derry for the “unjustified and unjustifiable” killings by the British Army.  Still only one person was charged and his trial has yet to begin.  England has also said that no one else will be charged.

 Although much of the violence has since ended with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, there are still many visible reminders of the turbulent times – the iconic gable wall that first announced the entrance to “Free Derby”and  murals depicting the young victims of ‘The Troubles” – are found throughout the city.  And the Peace Bridge spans the River Foyle that divides the two sections of the city – Waterside (mainly Protestant and unionist) and Cityside (mainly Catholic and nationalist).

 After our discussion  we were joined by a local guide who took us on a tour around the city walls.  Our guide lived through this era and was able to provide further insight into the challenges of daily life during this period of time, and about their hopes for the future.  He also could not stop saying “thank you” to America for helping bring about the Good Friday Agreement.  The walk ended at the City Town Hall, a beautiful 1887 neo-gothic building which actually looks like a church (its architect specialized in building churches so this building looks like a church).  This is where the Derry City Council members meet.  The original building was damaged during The Troubles but has been restored.  Amazingly, one of the arsonists that set fire to the City Hall, was elected as a member of the Council after he served his sentence and was released from jail.

Part of the City Walls

Looking Out from the City Walls

Presbyterian Church Next to City Walls

Walking On top of the City Walls

Gate in the City Walls

Bell Tower Near City Walls

Derry City Hall

Tower that was Part of City Walls

 

Peace Bridge

After our walk concluded, Bill and I walked part way over to the Peace Bridge, a pedestrian bridge, which opened in 2011.  It connects Ebrington Square  to the city center.  The hope was that the bridge would end a 400-year old physical and political gap by bringing the Protestants east side closer to the mostly Catholics west side.  

 

After lunch we boarded our little bus for the drive to Donegal.  As soon has we left the town of Derry, we were back in the Republic of Ireland.  As we had a little extra time, Tom took us on another unplanned adventure to see Grianan of Aileach, a Ring Fort originally constructed as a royal fortress around 1700 BC before the arrival of the Celts.  (Ring forts are small circular fortified settlements that were built during the Bronze, Iron, and Middle Ages.)  Over the centuries the original fort has been destroyed and rebuilt with the fort you see today having been reconstructed in the 1870s.  The interior of the foot is about 75’ in diameter and there are three terraces that can be reached by a series of stone steps.  I made it to the first terrace and decided I pushed my luck as far as it would go and very carefully made my way back down.  The views from the hill that the fort is located on are spectacular.  It is a like a quilt made of many shades of green patch-work panels laying in front of the rivers Foyle and Swilly that feed into the Bay of Donegal with hills and mountains on both sides.  But it is very windy on top of the hill.  The view alone is worth the drive to the fort.

 

Inside the Ring Fort

Inside the Ring Fort

Steps Leading to the Terraces

The Ring Fort

View From the Ring Fort

View From the Ring Fort

View From the Ring Fort

 

View From the Ring Fort

A White Flower that Look Like a Little Bird

View from the Ring Fort - As You Can See-It was 
Very Windy

View of the Irish Countryside on Way to Our Hotel

We then drove to our hotel in Donegal, the Mill Park Inn, a beautiful hotel with a spa and many blooming flowers.  For dinner, we all walked down to the center of Donegal to a restaurant close to the river that flows through the town.  After several weeks of pub food, it was nice to have roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce to eat!