Bloody Sunday weekend to debate state violence
The programme for this year's Bloody Sunday weekend in Derry has been
announced.
State violence is the theme of this year's programme and the
weekend's events will start on Friday with the annual Bloody Sunday
lecture at Derry's Guildhall which will be given by Michael Farrell,
the veteran civil rights activist and author whose books, The Orange
State and Arming the Protestants are seminal works that describe the
establishment and defence of the Six Counties after Partition.
The lecture will be followed by a debate on `The march from civil to
human rights' with Sinn Fein's Dr Dara O'Hagan, leading Ulster
Unionist, Chris McGimpsey and Alex Attwood from the SDLP.
On Saturday, there will be a picture exhibition and screening of
documentaries on Bloody Sunday and state violence at Pilot's Row
community centre in Rossville Street, Bogside. Mary Nelis, Sinn Fein
Assembly member, will give an alternative guided tour of Derry at
10.30am while at lunchtime Don Mullan, author of Eyewitness Bloody
Sunday, will lead a tour of the Bogside and visit key landmarks of
the Bloody Sunday massacre.
A number of workshops will take place throughout the weekend and Msgr
Raymond Murray will sign copies of his new book, State Violence in
Northern Ireland. Of particular importance will be the update that
solicitors representing the relatives of the Bloody Sunday dead and
the wounded will give on the new Saville Inquiry. This will be at 8pm
in Pilot's Row.
On Sunday the weekend will finish with the annual Bloody Sunday
commemorative march which follows the original route from Creggan to
Free Derry Corner. Liam Wray, whose brother was one of the 14 killed,
will chair the rally, and speakers will include Tony Doherty and
Brendan MacCionnaith of the Garvaghy Road resident's group.
Kerry republican and Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member Martin Ferris
will deliver the main address.
Meanwhile, the Bloody Sunday Weekend Committee has received a huge
response to its invitation to bands requesting to attend the annual
commemorative march.
In a statement, they said: ``As expected, the allocated number of
bands agreed upon by the commmittee to attend this year's march has
been promptly filled. We regret this inconvenience to other bands but
this decision has been agreed upon by the committee and the Bloody
Sunday Families. We would like to take this opportunity to extend
thanks on behalf of the committee to those bands and individuals who
have taken an interest in commemorating the Bloody Sunday dead this
year.
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