which is part of the United Kingdom.
They use pounds as the currency there.
While it was cool to see a different type of money,
it was a hassle since we only had euros.
Derry’s history is a large part of the overall Irish history.
In 1597 the Queen of England considered
Derry to be the backdoor to London,
so she sent the London companies in 1600
to build a fortress wall around the city and name it Londonderry.
There is a lot of controversy surrounding the name of the city,
a controversy which is a crucial to understanding Irish history.
When the Catholics took over they tried to change the name to Derry.
Thus Protestants consider the name to be Londonderry,
while Catholics call it Derry.
I now understand why it was so important that
was first produced in Derry.
The play deals a lot with the naming of things
and the importance of a name to culture and history.
The people of Derry would definitely gain
from this theme since the name of their own city
is of cultural and historical significance.
The Catholic/Protestant divide has brought a lot of violence
to Northern Ireland and Derry in particular,
and even today the city is still technically separated
between Catholic and Protestant residences.
At first I found this religious division a little silly.
I mean aren’t Protestants and Catholics both Christian?
Don’t they essentially believe in the same thing?
Now, after visiting Derry and learning more about Bloody Sunday
I understand that it didn’t really have to do with religion at all;
it was more deeply rooted than that.
The religious upheavel was an even larger issue than simply in Ireland.
In 1689 William of Orange, a protestant,
took over rule of England in what is known as the Glorious Revolution,
displacing King James II, the last Catholic monarch.
Kind James II tried to become King of England again
and came to Derry, but the apprentice boys,
rather famously, closed the gates on him.
It is tradition for the apprentice boys to parade
around the city commemorating this act, especially throughout the Catholic neighborhoods.
. However, the most important event in Derry history
is probably bloody Sunday.
In 1969 the British Army came to Derry.
There were a lot of arrests and internments,
or jailing without trial.
In 1972 a peaceful civil rights protest was led by Ivan Cooper.
The route of the march was changed
due to barricades by the British Army,
but a small group of young people broke off from the main march
and started to become slightly violent,
throwing rocks and yelling.
The para troopers, then, opened fire on the crowd, killing 14 civilians.
It is unclear whether they were really shooting at targets,
but it was proved that they planted evidence on a body after the fact.
(The results of a recent investigation are supposed to be announced soon)
Overall it was a very horrible event and brought on a long period of violence in Derry.
While we were there we saw these murals
painted by local artists in memory of the violence,
as well as the actual wall demarcating Free Derry.
There was also a memorial for those who were killed during Bloody Sunday.
It is terrifying how young they were, pretty much the same age I am.
It was really interesting to visit Derry now while it is experiencing
the most peace it has in awhile.
It made me wonder what young people my age
who are growing up in Derry now think about this recent history.
I wonder what their views on violence are or
how they feel growing up in what until recently was such a dangerous place?
The events of Bloody Sunday inspired the song by U2, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”.
So after all this writing I will leave you with a video of their song
and a trailer for the move Bloody Sunday,
which is an excellent film showing the events of the day.
Highlight of Today:
On the way back we visited Yeats's grave at dusk.
His grave is surprisingly plain, though his
epitaph is fittingly epic
and the view of Ben Bulben was gorgeous.
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