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| Bloody Sunday Memorial |
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| Mural remembering the slaughter from Bloody Sunday |
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| The wall that used to be a draw bridge which allows you to enter the town of Derry. |
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| Derry Wall that still has the original cannons in it. |
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| View from Derry wall. |
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| Downtown Derry. |
Today was an emotionally moving day. We were scheduled to take an award winning city tour of Derry. Doire, Derry, Londonderry has 1,500 years of history and culture enclosed within Ireland's only completely walled city. The tour included comprehensive information on the events of Bloody Sunday which took place on the streets of Derry on January 30th 1972. The Irish people were having a peace march through the town of Derry, when the British Army unjustifiably killed 14 people and seriously injured many more. I found it interesting that most of the people who died were 17 years old. This is because they are at an age of rebellion and tended to be the marches who started throwing rocks and other objects at the British Army. The British Army clearly was not defending themselves from real harm, which made this an all out slaughter and murder from the Army.
We were taken through the very poignant and moving recollections of the awful events of Bloody Sunday and we viewed the murals throughout town of the Bogside. I also learned that Derry still has a big split between the Protestant and Catholic community, as some call it Derry and others call it Londonderry. After taking the tour we were able to roam around the town, which had two shopping malls and many locally owned restaurants. We were lucky enough to avoid the rain on our tour, so all in all it was a great day. After heading back to the Hotel, we enjoyed a catered ham dinner with some great wine. This was a great change from the vegetable soup, and the panini's. Just a side note, I find it very interesting that every restaurant has a soup of the day, and EVERY day it is vegetable soup...may as well make it soup of the year! Goodnight.
Alex, thanks for the great posts, it's almost like we are experiencing a small part of your Irish trip. Gram is planning a special dinner upon your return. She said something about a veggie soup.
ReplyDeleteI believe you will meet up with some cousins in a few days. One of Them may be Claire Feeney, whose Dad, Ger Feeney recently died in that terrible boating accident. I wanted to give you a heads up.
Love,Pop