The story of the Bogside
The Bogside is a working-class neighbourhood below Derry's 17th-century walls, built on reclaimed marshland outside the original Plantation city laid out from 1613. By the 20th century it had become the heart of the city's Catholic and nationalist community, and the place where Northern Ireland's civil rights movement found its loudest voice. In January 1969 residents painted 'You Are Now Entering Free Derry' on a gable wall, declaring the area a self-governing no-go zone.
On 30 January 1972, a civil rights march against internment moved through the Bogside. British soldiers of the Parachute Regiment opened fire on unarmed demonstrators, killing thirteen people outright and wounding others, one of whom died later, for a death toll of fourteen. The day became known as Bloody Sunday and is one of the defining events of the Troubles. The 2010 Saville Inquiry concluded that none of those shot had been posing a threat, and the British Prime Minister issued a formal apology.
The events are commemorated across the Bogside today: the Bloody Sunday memorial, the surviving 'Free Derry Corner' wall, and the twelve large murals of the People's Gallery painted by the Bogside Artists between 1994 and 2008. The Museum of Free Derry preserves the original artefacts and testimony from the period.
Bogside History Tours is run by people from the affected families, including Paul Doherty, whose father Patrick was among those killed on Bloody Sunday. Walking the march route with a guide who lost a relative that day is what sets the tour apart from a standard history walk.