Derry: Past and Present
Present day view of the Bogside and Creggan
neighborhoods from the city walls…
Derelict houses in Catholic
Derry outside the old city
walls…
Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association met with
members of the Derry Housing Action Committee
and planned a march for October 5, 1968
The Northern Ireland Civil Rights
Association (NICRA) formed in 1967 and
demanded…
1. Repeal the Special
Powers Act
2. One man, one vote
• Those who paid rates
(taxes) were allowed to vote
3. End to gerrymandering electoral districts
4. Anti-discrimination laws
5. Disbanding the RUC
6. Fair allocation of public housing
The first civil rights march in Derry: the
beginning of the modern phase of “the
Troubles,” October 5, 1968
Police brutality was
captured on film.
The official report
put the number of
casualties as 4 RUC
officers and 77
civilians
The Battle of the
Bogside,
August 12-14 1969
A full-scale riot erupted when the Apprentice Boys
jeered and taunted Catholics at the Bogside during
their march to commemorate the siege of Derry
Barricades were built to keep the RUC out of
Catholic enclaves
Catholics used petrol bombs, rocks and
various debris to defend “Free Derry”
Bernadette Devlin:
Youngest female
MP ever elected
Imprisoned for
resistance in Battle
of the Bogside
14 August 1969:
British troops deployed in Northern Ireland
British army barricade at the city walls…
“Recreation”: Catholic children regularly
pelted British military vehicles with stones
The IRA declared the Bogside a “no go”
zone for security forces
The IRA set up checkpoints throughout “Free
Derry” as Protestants demanded action from the
British Army
4,000 extra British troops
were brought into Northern
Ireland to take part in the
dismantling of barricades
on the boundaries of 'nogo' areas
Present day Loyalist enclave just
outside the Derry city wall …
Entrance to the West Bank loyalist estate from
further down the city wall…
<----Maroon flag of Derry
Surveillance
Cameras

Notice the red, white and blue curbs…
Loyalists build
the bonfire to
celebrate the
Siege of Derry
in 1689
Apprentice Boys bonfire
Observation barracks overlooking the
Bogside due to be removed
Paint
Bombs 
PSNI making an arrest
“Bad”
U2