Today the group embarked on an hour-and-a-half bus ride, after a quick stop at Starbucks for the coffee hounds, to the city of Londonderry/Derry, also called The Walled City, the Maiden City, or Stroke City (a lot of names right?). The bus ride was surprisingly enjoyable for a teenager reluctant to do anything at eight in the morning, let alone staying awake on a bus ride to record events. The ride was comfortable, as we had a fairly large tour-bus type vehicle with AC etc., and the sights were incredible. The hour-and- a-half spent driving through the Irish countryside, which the group had never seen, was eye opening. Immediately after leaving Belfast, the countryside blossomed. There were rolling hills, quaint houses and several unique sights that could only truly be eclipsed on postcards, such as sheep and cows and especially green scenery. The countryside only stopped when we entered cities. We passed through the town of Dungiven, where Sinn Féin, a republican, Catholic party, had an office. Soon, after a number of round-abouts oddly placed in the middle of the highway, we reached Derry. As a side note, Derry is what the large Catholic majority in the city calls it and, representing the fine Catholic institution of Walsh Jesuit, it will be henceforth referred to as Derry.
We got off the bus at the Derry Guild Hall, where Brian Freil’s Translations, a class-favorite (Hi, Mrs. Varnish) having read it in pre-departure, was first staged. After a bit of waiting, we met our Irish tour guide, Ruairi O’Hara. He gave us some background first; like that the River Foyle divides the city into Protestant and Catholic areas. The tour started but luckily for Patrick. Mrs. Varnish noticed that we were down a member, so we waited. Ruairi then took us up onto the walls, which have been in Derry since the 1600’s, where we walked for sometime and observed St. Coulbumb’s cathedral and one of the few Loyalist communities at the Fountain district in Derry. We soon departed from the walls and saw Sean Keenan’s grave. Keenan was a confessed member of the IRA and helped to organize an area of Derry, known as the Bogside, into an area where Catholics could live independent of British Army raids, Protestant paramilitary raids, and from the police. Within sight of the grave where a number of murals commemorating the Battle of the Bogside and the Free Derry wall which marked a territory free from British rule under IRA control. The wall has since become a platform for voicing and protesting any other persecution or injustice. Today it protested involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Basque Country, and Palestine, amongst others.
Then we saw a monument to Bobby Sands and all of the other IRA members in the H block imprisoned as criminals without trial, which was perfectly legal until fairly recent times. Sands lead a group of prisoners in an attempt to earn political status for IRA members as prisoners of war ultimately culminating in a hunger strike and his death. He has been made into a very important martyr for all of the republican movement. Our last stop was at a monument dedicated to those civilians killed on Bloody Sunday by British paratroopers in the Bogside. The attack was unprovoked and was used as an example of British brutality by the IRA and the republican movement. On the monument, there were the names of the fourteen people who died and Ruairi told us that his father witnessed the event first hand. After a rather personal question and answer session with Ruairi, we headed off to a center dedicated to re-Gallicizing Northern Ireland where all of the food was listed in Gaelic and classes in Gaelic were offered. The food was surprisingly good for being actual Irish food and after a hardy meal we headed upstairs to hear Rauiri’s dad speak.
Our afternoon correspondent is Emily Love:
Greetings from Derry/Londonderry! This afternoon we spent time with Gerry O’hAra, Ruairi’s father, an Irish language activist and former Lord Mayor of Derry. During this one on one time between Gerry and our group we heard stories about Bloody Sunday and the events that Gerry and his family went through. We were all taken back when we heard that one of Gerry’s friends was shot and killed in the Bloody Sunday events on 30 January 1971 and then after that the rest of his friends and himself were on the run until they came back in August of that year. We also learned that Gerry had been arrested hundreds of times, some of which he would be taken just to be questioned for. He stated that almost weekly, storm troopers would barge into his house, tear everything apart and take him away from his family. As if this wasn’t shocking enough he continued to go on about how he could not go on a Sunday drive with his family due to the fact that there would usually be check points in the roads where he would be taken from his car, away from his family, searched, and sometimes arrested.
Now involved in politics, Gerry has held numerous positions ranging from mayor to every position in Sinn Féin. First becoming active in politics around the age of sixteen, Gerry joined Sin Féin in 198, after the hunger strikes, because there was a belief that there was political potential after the election of Bobby Sands. Not only was Gerry a chair person of Sinn Féin but also held a position on the committee for the peace process. Now a day’s Gerry is the National director of Irish language, working to make Gaelic more prominent throughout Ireland by setting up schools to teach Irish, youth clubs for teens and by reestablishing the Gaelic street names on the roads. He is also on the policing board working side by side with the people who once arrested and been on the other side of the conflict during the Troubles. When asked what has changed the most, Gerry responded quickly by saying fly fishing which stating in a light hearted manner, he has not had much time to do since 1998. Gerry also shockingly expressed a lukewarm reaction to the recent Saville report and animosity for the Catholic Church due to its lack of support during the darkest days of the trouble.
From there we were given free time where most of us went over to the Museum of Free Derry right where the fourteen killings happened. Bryan Kelly, a brother of a victim killed on Bloody Sunday, works at the museum and talked to us a little bit about what happened and the artifacts that were displayed. Set up by the Bloody Sunday trust about three years ago, articles such as the banner that covered a man in the street soaked in blood to the unapologetic letters sent to families of victims to the video clips shot by a man on Bloody Sunday who was later killed. This was a very moving experience that made the events of this awful moment in history much more real to us, especially after seeing these exact articles in the movie we watched at home, Bloody Sunday. After walking through the museum we took time to walk around Derry and get the feel for a city other than Belfast. In the heart of the city by the Guildhall a group of people gathered with bongos and allowed us to play with them, something that became quite a hit with us, and what some of us was the highlight of the day. Sadly Mr. Bizga had to pull us away so that we could make our bus home. Later that evening a group of people went out to eat at an Indian restaurant with Mr. Bizga and Mr. Brennan. It was a late night but an awesome day. We miss all of you lots! Cheers!
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