Photographs on walls of the museum show events around the
time of the Bloody Sunday, 30th shootings exhibit | The Muse-
um of Free Derry
On 5 October 1968, at a small civil rights population became an everyday occurrence, and
demonstration in Derry, a single television camera support for violent resistance grew.
captured the violence used by the state against
the peaceful protest. The police assault on the In August 1971 the British and Unionist governments
march splashed the truth of Unionist misrule onto decided on the reintroduction of internment without
television screens around the world. In the aftermath trial, a tactic they used almost exclusively against
of 5 October the civil rights movement grew, as did the nationalist population. And it was at an anti-
opposition to it. Extremes within unionism opposed internment march in January 1972 that the British
any changes and called for even more repression. government showed just how far they were prepared
A student civil rights march was attacked by to go in the face of peaceful and dignified protest.
extremists, aided by the security forces, and in the
ensuing riots Free Derry was born.
As 15,000 people made their way through the streets
of Creggan and the Bogside in Free Derry members
When, in August 1969, the police again attacked of the British Army’s elite Parachute Regiment were
the Bogside, the community there resisted for three waiting. When the marchers reached the barricades,
days, and in the end, with the police pushed beyond most turned to peacefully make their way towards
their limits, the British army was sent back onto Free Derry Corner for a rally. The paratroopers
the streets of the north. They took to the streets followed them, firing indiscriminately into the
of the north as the new armed wing of Unionism, crowd.
using tactics honed in Kenya, Aden and elsewhere,
tactics that had aggravated rather than solved the In the next 10 minutes or so the British army killed
violent problems there. Clashes with the nationalist 13 unarmed men and boys and wounded 18 others,
100
Observing Memories
ISSUE 3