Anger over Derry’s tribute to its oppressors

Posted by Jim on June 5, 2017

A protest was held on Friday afternoon, June 2, over the inclusion of
the names of British soldiers and RUC members killed during the conflict
in an installation at the Museum of Free Derry.

Margaret Wray, whose brother Jim Wray was one of the teenagers shot dead
on Bloody Sunday, has said she is demanding artefacts currently housed
at the museum be returned to her family, including the jacket with the
bullet holes he was wearing that day.

The furore is over a new installation which includes a video to list the
victims of the conflict between 1969-1972, including the names of the
British occupying forces.

Scores of protesters gathered at the entrance to the museum on Friday
afternoon to call for the names and details of British soldiers and RUC
personnel to be removed. A small number also gathered to support their
inclusion.

The attempt to create a single narrative of the conflict mirrors efforts
by the Dublin government to pay tribute to British soldiers who died
during Ireland’s freedom struggle alongside those Irish heroes who died
or were executed by British forces.

A petition with 1,000 names was handed into the Derry museum earlier
this week over their installation.

Speaking during the protest, Margaret Wray said: “Nobody wants peace as
much as me and wants the true history recorded, but there is a place for
everything, and policemen’s names and British soldiers’ names – that
museum is not the place for it, where my grandmother’s windows were shot
in that day in that very building, and my brother was just up there.”

She added; “I belong to no organisation or group. I want peace, I’m
delighted with peace and I respect all cultures but this is not the
place for the list of soldiers and RUC members here. Why are they doing
that in here?”

She said if the list is not removed she will have the jacket her brother
was wearing when he was killed returned to the family.

The organisers of the protest Brian Boyle, who has set up a ‘Not In Free
Derry’ Facebook page, said he had received huge support for his stance,
and said there would be more protests if the names are not removed.

“What we want is to be able to remember our dead without a reminder of
those who occupied, tortured, maimed or murdered our friends and loved
ones,” he said.

Kate Nash, whose 19-year-old brother William was among those shot dead
on Bloody Sunday, called on the museum to remove the names immediately.

“It disgusts me that they are remembering British soldiers and police
officers when my brother was murdered by British soldiers right outside
their front door. I would ask the Bloody Sunday Trust to take these
names down,” she said.

Jean Hegarty, who works for the Bloody Sunday Trust which owns the
museum, said there were British Army personnel who had died in the same
place in the same period. Ms Hegarty said: “It is something we cannot,
in telling the truth of the events, ignore. We just cannot do that.”

The Museum of Free Derry said it is “totally unrepentant” about
including those names, which it says it had always displayed. The museum
received half a million pounds in state funds last year.

A spokesperson for the Bloody Sunday Trust said they would consider the
petition, but insisted:

“It is clear from the displays within the Museum that we are highly
critical of the role of the British Army and RUC in Derry. It is what
the Museum is about telling the story of the Free Derry from the
perspective on those who lived through it.

“This display of the names of the dead had been part of the museum for
the past ten years. We have never received one single complaint until
now.”