BRIGHT SUNSHINE in Derry yesterday mirrored the prevailing mood.BRIGHT SUNSHINE in Derry yesterday mirrored the prevailing mood.
Just a day after the findings of the Bloody Sunday inquiry were published, locals were already remarking on how everyone seemed so much more positive. They commented that “a black cloud had lifted” from over the city now that the inquiry had acknowledged that the 14 civilians gunned down during a civil rights march on January 30th, 1972, were innocent victims.
Clare Miller, who was out shopping, observed a big difference in the atmosphere. The daughter of a woman who had been on the march, she noticed people were much more upbeat.
“We never thought in a million years that we would get the apology that the prime minister gave . . . it’s like a weight has been lifted and the black cloud’s gone,” she said.
“It’s brilliant. It’s fantastic for Derry and I think it has united everybody . . . It’s united a lot of people on both sides because the nationalist community knew what had happened but on the other side of the divide a lot of people thought what happened was the fault of the people and it’s great just to get that cleared up.
“I think it will make a difference. People are a hell of a lot more positive about things now,” she said.
Mary McDaid from the Shantallow area said “a beautiful calmness” had descended on the city. For years Bloody Sunday had cast a shadow over the city, she believed, and “there was this veil people could not push through. It seemed they were banging their heads off a brick wall . . . It’s almost as if there now has been light shed on what was a darkness for a long time.”
Her sister Ella McCallion, who was on the ill-fated march, said there was definitely a great weight lifted now. “It killed the demon . . . I didn’t sleep much last night I was so excited,” she admitted.
Brigid Harkin, a niece of John Johnston who died from injuries he sustained on Bloody Sunday a few months after the march, feels the whole city is on a high. “We never thought we’d see the day that they’d admit they were innocent . . . it’s such a relief.”
She hopes things will change now and that “everything will come together”.
The city’s mayor Colum Eastwood says it’s now time for Derry to look to the future. “I think a weight has definitely come off our shoulders. For the first time we’re able to really look beyond Bloody Sunday. We’ve hopefully dealt with that or largely dealt with Bloody Sunday now and it’s about moving forward. And I think there’s a real sense of relief and delight when you walk around this city.”
There will be even more delight if Derry wins its bid to be UK City of Culture 2013. Four cities are still in the running for the honour and Derry makes its final presentation in an effort to win the title in Liverpool this morning. The city is up against Birmingham, Norwich and Sheffield.
Mo Durkan, head of communications at Ilex, the regeneration company managing the bid alongside Derry City Council and the Strategic Investment Board, said there’s “one strong common theme” between what happened with the publication of the Saville inquiry report and the bid to become UK City of Culture for 2013.
“It’s the city coming to terms with its recent past and wanting to go forward in confidence for a better future,” she said.
In the days coming up the publication of the Saville report people were quite tense, she says, and concerned the truth would come out but now there was a real sense of relief.
If Derry becomes UK City of Culture 2013, it will not only bring huge tourism investment, it will also be an opportunity, says Ms Durkan, to debate the city’s identity and “what we call our Britishness, our Irishness and our otherness”. It would “certainly signal another very important step in the city’s journey forward”.
While many feel the Bloody Sunday inquiry findings will instantly bring healing to the city. Dr Raymond McClean, a retired GP in his 70s who tended to the wounded and dying on Bloody Sunday and to many of their family members in the years afterwards, says he believes “it will be a long, slow process”.
He says what happened led to an increase in aggression among people in the city. “Everybody suffered some degree of psychological damage apart from the physical damage and I think it will take quite some time for that to clear.”
Just one young woman of the many stopped at random on the streets of Derry yesterday expressed a negative view of the Saville inquiry and she wouldn’t give her name. The reason? She says her mother would kill her if she heard her saying the inquiry had been a waste of money but she believes the more than £190 million spent on the investigation would have been better spent on health services.
That’s because she claims she nearly died due to a blunder at Altnagelvin hospital three years ago and had to travel to Britain for subsequent treatment. “I was bitter about it and had to move on and the people now talking about Saville should do the same. Things happen and you just have to get over them.”