Derry's Guildhall became the focus of many protests over generations, not least in the 1960s. It was once considered on a par with Tammany Hall in NYC for its 'faceless men,' machine politics, political graft, patronage and manipulation of housing allocation, voters and electoral boundaries. Now almost 40 years after Derry's first official civil rights march on October 5, 1968, much has changed. Now under its historic roof, those days of militant, yet non-violent, protest action and transformation can at long last be soberly reflected upon, without a Special Powers Act banning order from a Minister of Home Affairs upholding a one-party state. I pray that on October 4 and 5, the Guildhall can yet again be well and truly "occupied," not only by local Derry folk!
As a co-founder of NICRA in 1967, I remember well the initial marches in 1964 of the trail-blazing hut-dwellers of Springtown Camp. They are remembered with pride as part of the struggles for proper insulated homes and civil rights within the 1968-2008 commemorative website www.nicivilrights.org
So too are many others including the founders of the Campaign for Social Justice, Austin Currie, the Goodfellow and Gildernew families amid the 1967 Caledon eviction, our iconic chief marshal of stewards, the late 'Vinny' Coyle, the late Cathy Harkin, a socialist-feminist pioneer of Women's Aid, activists within the Derry Housing Action Committee and NICRA, in addition to many others, including the parents and other representatives of 11 families who squatted in the Guildhall's Council Chamber for seven weeks. Much more remains to be added to this website.
Surely some IT literate readers will consider taking on a challenge, for posterity's sake, to deepen and widen these recently-created archives?
As they say, like creating life itself, there can be no eventual joy without an initial degree of productive effort, therefore my appeal to your readership for positive feedback as we approach the 40th anniversary of October 5, 1968.
If I have aroused your interest and you feel you can assist in any way, please contact me via rights.civil@googlemail.com or the Derry Civil Rights Veterans' voice-mail on 028 71 286359. Your input is not only cordially invited but essential if we deem our individual and collective experiences worthy of any note.
Certain elements at home and abroad no doubt retain a hope that our voice boxes are very hoarse or we suffer from amnesia like most revisionist historians, so that we are either uncomfortable or unable to communicate effectively.
These October 4-5 events, as with all others on the 1968 programme, will be A/V recorded as part of an historical archive.
Such will be an educational and inspiration resource long after most of us have gone on our last march, hopefully still protesting, out of this 'Vale of Tears' into eternity, and even possibly into the historical records.
Fionnbarra O'Dochartaigh
