On 23 April, students in the Northern Ireland class took a day-long field trip to Derry to visit the Free Derry Museum and to take a walking tour of the Bogside, the site of the Bloody Sunday conflict which touched off the Troubles in the 1970s. The visit to the museum included a discussion with the brother of one of the teenagers shot to death during the Peace March that day when the British Army opened fire on the marchers. We also took a walking of the Bogside and viewed some of the many murals which now adorn this area of Derry. Even though the barricades of the Bogside are now gone and the high-rise apartment ghettos have been replaced by modern semi-detached houses and apartments, the Bogside retains much of its isolated nature.
It lies outside the Derry Walls which are visible from the many road which passes through the once Catholics-only area. The students were shocked to silence by many of the displays in the Free Derry Museum, including jackets with bullet holes in them, the line of coffins of the 13 dead, the films taken by one of those killed, the Derry Civil Rights Association banner which still has blood stains on it from one of those killed, and a baby’s onesie covered in the blood of a boy of 17 who died as a young mother tried to stop his bleeding with her child’s pajamas. It was a thought-provoking and humbling trip and one I hope to repeat many times with my Northern Ireland students.
Dr. Kelli Malone – Champlain College Dublin faculty
