After the tour of the Derry city walls and seeing the two Cathedrals, we met up with Paul, who gave us a tour of the Bogside and the murals there, which were painted in memory of the fights of the Troubles that happened here, as well as the Bloody Sunday Massacre.
This was a very dark time period for the inhabitants of the Bogside. As nationalist Irish Catholics, they were only allowed to live in small, overcrowded areas, and were denied jobs and political power. The tensions built up from this poor treatment resulted in riots as well as peaceful marches. On the 30th of January, 1972, British army members fired on protesters and killed 13 unarmed men. The army proceeded to say they had done nothing wrong, blaming the victims, and the whole event became a symbol of the injustice of the British and Irish conflict. More on that later though. First, a little more on the background, as seen through some of the murals.
This was a very dark time period for the inhabitants of the Bogside. As nationalist Irish Catholics, they were only allowed to live in small, overcrowded areas, and were denied jobs and political power. The tensions built up from this poor treatment resulted in riots as well as peaceful marches. On the 30th of January, 1972, British army members fired on protesters and killed 13 unarmed men. The army proceeded to say they had done nothing wrong, blaming the victims, and the whole event became a symbol of the injustice of the British and Irish conflict. More on that later though. First, a little more on the background, as seen through some of the murals.
This mural tells of the standing points of the Irish riots leading up to, and during, the Troubles. "One Man One Vote," alludes to the political power that was kept away from the majority of the people of Derry. Because of the way the electoral vote was set up, the Catholics, despite being a majority in number, could never have a majority vote when electing officials. This made them powerless to change their situation through the normal political system, and forced them to look to other means of being heard. "Jobs not creed" simply enough, speaks to the jobs being refused to Catholics because of their religion. At the time, most business owners were Protestant, and were regularly encouraged to hire only other Protestants. As suggested by the banners in the background, many of the protesters strongly associated with the civil rights marches lead by Martin Luther King Jr. in the US. Many took his model of peaceful protest, and chose to march in the streets to demand their rights, remaining non-violent. It was during one of these peaceful marches that the shooting of Bloody Sunday happened.
These two walls feature famous paintings. To the left is Pablo Picasso's "Guernica," and to the right (smaller, above the red car) is Francisco Goya's "The Third of May." These two murals would largely speak to the people of the Bogside. Firstly, many Irishmen went to Spain to help fight against Franco's troops, and the people of the Bogside would therefor have recognized the story behind these paintings. On a deeper level, however, these paintings speak of the atrocities of war and the repercussions or armed conflicts on innocents. As victims of the Troubles and the Bloody Sunday Massacre, the would have resonated with the people of the Bogside. These two works of art may have been painted on the subject of political strife in another country, but their message is universal. The violence seen by the people of Bogside is well described in these two paintings. Unlike the murals, these are far less hopeful, but seem truthful to the feeling of the times, while the people were suffering immensely at the hands of those around them.
And now on to Bloody Sunday. This event occurred on the 30th of January, 1972, when a peaceful protest by the Civil Rights Association of Derry were fired upon by members of the British Army. The march was peaceful, with the IRA guaranteeing that they would not be there. Protesters were speaking against internment (jailing without trial) in Northern Ireland, and were unarmed. At 4:07, however, a group of soldiers began to attempt to arrest the marchers, who fled. After they had begun to run away, the soldiers open fired, and over the course of half and hour, thirteen were killed and thirteen others wounded. To add insult to horrific injury, the policemen claimed that the marchers were carrying bombs and had attacked them, and they were not blamed by the government, but celebrated for what they had done. For many years, the families of those killed suffered brutality from unionist soldiers and police, who sincerely believed the 13 victims were gunmen and terrorists, and a campaign began for a second investigation. After years of attempting to get the government's attention, a second inquiry was finally filed, and this time the citizens of the Bogside were thoroughly interviewed and may witnesses were cross-referenced, and the victims were found to be completely innocent and unarmed. While the soldiers have not been prosecuted for their actions, the government's acknowledgement of the innocence of the people of Bogside has been seen as a first step in the peacemaking process. Many hope that the blame for Bloody Sunday will become more well known and that the soldiers will be sent to jail, but the future of this is still very much unknown.