The Fourteen Stations

The area from William Street through Rossville Street and Glenfada Park to Abbey Park in Derry, where 14 people were shot dead on Bloody Sunday, 30th January 1972, has been extensively redeveloped – a common issue with ‘sites of memory’ in Northern Ireland – but as close as I could manage it, these fourteen images document the places where the fourteen dead of Bloody Sunday fell. I made these fourteen images when I visited Derry to install Fourteen Silenced Bells for Derry at the Museum of Free Derry. Until you have walked around these streets it’s difficult to grasp how condensed a space the events unfolded across. In their account of the events the Museum of Free Derry succinctly describe it as a space the size of a football pitch. ‘Sites of memory’ in Northern Ireland have often been erased as a conscious political decision. Weaver Street in Belfast where four children playing were killed by a blast bomb, the R14 checkpoint on the Belfast to Dublin road, emblematic of British coercion and control, for example, no longer exist. The UDA drinking den at Hunter Street in Belfast where Ann Ogilby was beaten to death no longer exists. These are just a few examples from a long list. In Derry, the streetscape has been altered for a number of reasons. In the case of Rossville Street flats they were demolished as they were unfit as housing. The obelisk commemorating Bloody Sunday stands on the site. I felt it was important though to try and find a locator for these memories, for this communal grief. By the time the centenary of Bloody Sunday comes around, no-one with a living connection to the events will be here to give an account. Now, at the half-centenary, it’s imperative that we try. Although fourteen people were fatally wounded that day, as the list below shows, the scale of the rampage by 1 PARA was much wider.

John Johnston (died 16th June 1972)

Damian Donaghy (injured)

Jackie Duddy (died 30th January 1972)

Peggy Deery (injured)

Patrick McDaid (injured)

Patrick Campbell (injured)

Michael Bradley (injured)

Mickey Bridge (injured)

Patrick Brolly (injured)

Daniel McGowan (injured)

Hugh Gilmour (died 30th January 1972)

Michael Kelly (died 30th January 1972)

Michael McDaid (died 30th January 1972)

John Young (died 30th January 1972)

William Nash (died 30th January 1972)

Alex Nash (injured)

Kevin McElhinney (died 30th January 1972)

Joseph Friel (injured)

Daniel Gillespie (injured)

Michael Quinn (injured)

Joseph Mahon (injured)

William McKinney (died 30th January 1972)

Patrick O’Donnell (injured)

Jim Wray (died 30th January 1972)

Gerald Donaghey (died 30th January 1972)

Gerard McKinney (died 30th January 1972)