Derry/Londonderry

We took the train to Derry and spent a very wet, rainy day doing a taxi tour and slipping and sliding along the walls of the city. Our taxi tour guide was Adrian Callan. He actually grew up in the Bogside of Derry, where most of the Catholics lived, and his father and sister were in the march on Bloody Sunday, but he had been younger and hadn't participated. He told us about the shooting and death of Annette McGavigan, a fourteen year old girl who is remembered in the mural, "The Death of Innocence".

He was very emotional in his telling of some of the incidents during "The Troubles" and it made it much mor real. He told us how, as a young boy, he and his friends would try to collect the rubber bullets fired by the British soldiers and how they would rush to find the cartridges after the soldiers had left the area. Once they would have the bullet an the cartridge they would take it to school and there shop teacher would help them build a wooden stand/ cradle.They would take it home to their mother where she would put it on the mantle. A great tour that makes you want to learn more.
Today we checked out and wandered around Belfast before catching the train to Dublin for our final week in Ireland. I really encourage people to get to Belfast, it's a beautiful city.

I'm going to include a picture from our Belfast taxi tour that I had forgot to add. This is a picture of one of the areas that the Unionists are going touse for their bonfires on July 11. They should be quite the fires considering they still have just less then a month to prepare.

Take care.
K & M





These are now shots from Derry/Londonderry.

Location:Lower Gardiner Road, Dublin