A’ simple People Who Want a Simple Memorial’

Abstract

About halfway down Rossville Street in Derry’s Bogside stands a memorial to the thirteen civilians shot dead on Bloody Sunday. The site of the memorial, known locally as “Speaker’s Corner”, was an obvious, logical and highly symbolic one,¹ given that the victims had died on the spot or close by, in Glenfada Park, and had used the already-existing concrete platform at the corner to take cover on the day of the tragic shootings. The event commemorated by this memorial was a highly contested event and stands as a good example of a “difficult past”² that gave rise to emotionally and politically charged and competing impulses to remember and to forget among both victims and perpetrators. At the time of its erection, it stood before the high Rossville flats and there was a curious congruence between the vertical memorial and the buildings behind it.

On 28 January 1973, the people of Derry will commemorate the Bloody Sunday massacre. They will be joined by people from all over Ireland, from Britain and from all over the world. The people of Derry will remember the thirteen as friends, neighbours or workmates. But they will also remember them as comrades in the struggle which has still to be completed, the struggle to end repression, introduce democracy and uproot sectarianism from our community.

NICRA leaflet for 1973 commemoration, NICRA Boxes, Northern Ireland Political Collection, Linenhall Library, Belfast.

This year’s programme hosts a series of events that scrutinize the context of ‘democracy’ here and explore how we can collectively deal with our past ... In addition there are exhibitions, films and panel discussion. ‘Their epitaph is the ongoing struggle for democracy’, so read the programme, come to events, join in the debate!

2008 Bloody Sunday commemoration programme.