Derry has always been top of my must-do list of things to see and do in Ireland. Belfast too. Why? Because the Troubles of 1969 – 1998 occurred during a time when I was at least dimly aware that something awful was going on in Ireland. I graduated from college and started my first job in 1969, got married in 1972, had Jeff and Rebecca in 1977 and 1980, moved from New Hampshire to Minnesota 1986, and sold Harmonic Systems in 1999. When contemplating historical events of, say, 1649 when Charles I lost his head, it’s pretty abstract. A date to be memorized, maybe. But events during the Troubles are right in my face.
Today, for me, was perfect. We had a guided tour this morning and I spent the rest of the day touring the city on my own while the ladies did domestic things. The weather was perfect and much of the time I wandered aimlessly, ducked into a museum or two and enjoyed being outside and free from our van.
So, when I sat down I sat down at 7:30 after a great fish dinner and pint of Guinness at the Bishop’s Gate Hotel, I thought the day had been truly a success.
Boy, was I wrong. The best was yet to come.
At 8 we walked up the hill from our place on High Street to the Rocking Chair Pub. They stop serving food at five so we’d eaten dinner elsewhere, but the live music was supposed to start at 8 PM. And, Nancy’s one Irish drink was going to be a Bailey’s on the rocks. Away we went.
The music was phenomenal. A pickup band of five: a guitar-like instrument whose player also sang. Two bagpipe like instruments played by squeezing a bag with the arm rather than blowing air from the mouth. These two guys would pick up a clarinet or tin whistle or some other unknown wind instrument for some tunes. A flute, tin whistle and clarinet player. And a solo violinist.
The highlight of the evening was when the band members asked the guy sitting to my left to sing. He agreed and sang a ballad that included a line something like, “Here’s to the man who has the music and here’s to the man who has the smile,” sung to a typical Irish minor key tune. Later, I asked the man about the song. “My father taught it to me when I was a boy and it’s in a way autobiographical.”
Turns out the singer grew up near Derry but has lived in Long Island and Delaware for 45 years. He’s a professional musician who started out singing and playing in an Irish pub on Long Island. He and his group have branched out to do rap and country and western. He’s back in Ireland to do a concert with his brother and sister next Saturday. It’s already sold out, so I’ll bet he’s someone famous.
OK, enough of that. The real deal for me was to get a better understanding of Derry’s history and particularly The Troubles. Here’s a brief outline:
– Derry was the site of a Christian monastery as early as the 6th Century AD.
– The Vikings made an appearance but did little damage as was the case elsewhere in Ireland
– Same with the Normans who came after 1066.
– King James I, a Scotsman before he became king of England, wanted to claim ownership of Ireland so he transported a bunch of Scotsmen and Northern Englishmen to Ulster to establish a plantation in 1623. He got the funds to build a wall around what is now Derry from the money guys at the City of London. Derry was renamed Londonderry in recognition of their financial contribution.
– The wall was built to keep native Irish out. From that time until the 1970s, Irish people were not permitted within the walls of Derry. They were denied the right to vote and many other civi rights. Those inside the walls were Protestants. Those outside, Catholic. There were and are more Catholics in Derry by a wide margin.
– There were rebellions and wars throughout the 1600s and beyond, too many to list. But by 1920 Britain had had enough and wanted to ditch the entire island. But the Protestant loyalists within the walls of Derry objected and threatened to take up arms against Mother England. A compromise was reached: the six counties of Ulster (which was originally 9 counties) were designated Northern Ireland. The rest of the island was established as the Republic of Ireland.
Compromises seldom please anyone and this was true in spades in Ireland. The predominantly Catholic Republic of Ireland has, over the years, done quite well, attracting high-tech and pharmaceutical companies in the 1990s. The North, however has had a different story. There are a number of intertwined issues as I’ve come to understand it. These issues resulted in the Troubles of 1969 – 1998.
First, there is the question of civil rights. Catholics in Northern Ireland have been denied basic rights since the time of James I. This came to a head in the 1960s and 1970s, concurrent with the civil rights movement in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Protestants in Northern Ireland, including Derry, feared that a Catholic administration would bring an end to Protestant religion and way of life. These Unionists opposed any movement toward unification.
Catholics in the Republic and Republicans in the North, began armed resistance. Armed Protestant forces in the North fougt against the IRA and other militaristic groups. Soon, British forces were sent to Northern Ireland to control the situation. The result was a thirty-year conflict that led to murders, mass shootings and bombings in Ireland and England. Peace was tentatively established in 1968.
One of the most horrific events in this conflict was the Bloody Sunday killing of 14 members of the Catholic opposition by British soldiers in the Bogside area of Derry, outside the walls and a short walk from our apartment.
We toured Bogside with a guide who has a special connection to Bloody Sunday: his father was one of the 14 shot and killed that day.
The day and other events of The Troubles is commemorated by wall murals in the Bogside neighborhood. See the pictures. Here is the significance of some of them.
Person in gas mask – the person behind the mask is a 14-year-old boy
Woman with bull horn – is Bernadette McAliskey, a woman who defied odds and became a civil rights leader and later a member of Parliament in London.
You Are Now Entering Free Derry sign – a slogan taken from the Free Berkeley movement of the 1970s.
Support Gaza sign – people in Derry see the fight for Palestinian rights as parallel to their own: righting the wrong created by British imperialism.
Innocent – four pictures of the 14 killed. Our guide’s father is the man on the left of the first row.
Man with rock confronting armored vehicle. Our guide said the man survived and is standing over there across the street from where we were standing. Later, on my walk around, I met Billy McVeigh.
No Surrender – later on, while walking the mile-long walk with Judy and Nancy, we saw two signs that show the residual resistance put up by loyalists who refuse to give in to the Republicans who want a united island and the end of British control of Northern Ireland.
Enough, time for bed. Tomorrow a tour of the Antrim coast of Northern Island, traveling to our final stop in Belfast.
The history was interesting to read. Have a fascinating day tomorrow!