Bloody Sunday

Listening to Jon talk about the civil rights issues surrounding housing in Derry in the '70s.

The Bogside from Derry's city walls.

Today provided our most intense glimpse into the conflict in Northern Ireland. We followed Jon McCourt as he retraced his footsteps during the eighteen fateful minutes on January 30, 1972, when fourteen of his neighbors and friends were fatally shot by British troops during a civil rights march in the Bogside, Derry's historically Catholic neighborhood. This was a highly emotional experience as Jon shared both his sense of loss and his sense of optimism for the future, while remind us that the potential for conflict exists wherever basic rights are denied to a portion of the population.

In addition, we visited the memorial hall of the Apprentice Boys of Derry Association which commemorates the actions of thirteen young men in preventing the capture of Derry by King James II in 1688, and walked Derry's city walls, among the best-preserved in all of northwest Europe.