Trip to Derry in Ireland

Last weekend I travelled to Derry a town in Ireland with a history of conflict, violence, colonisation and reconciliation.

Derry has a walled 'city' in the centre but is much bigger now although it feels like a town and can be walked around easily (the place is a city technically as it has a cathedral). The fortifications were built by settlers from England and Scotland in the early 17th century in order to defend themselves against the indigenous population. There is much history there as can be researched at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derry,_Ireland so I won't go into it here. However there are parallels with Israel-Palestine conflict in the struggles in Derry and people look to the peace process in Ireland and progress for clues as to solving conflicts. In Derry here was the Anglo-Irish war or War of Independence between 1919 and 1921 where there was much sectarian violence before partition happened in 1921 and Ireland was divided into North and South.

In the sixties the Catholic community began a civil rights movement in order to address discrimination against the Catholic community and members of the Bogside community and demonstrations were violently attacked by Royal Ulster Constabulary, and ultimately by British Forces placed there, which resulted in the Bloody Sunday killings of 13 civilian demonstrators in 1972. Just last month the final verdict came out into that incident finding the actions of the military to have been unlawful and the quote 'unjustified and unjustifiable' used by David Cameron.

The killing of civilians in a demonstration by military forces is precisely what happened with the Freedom Flotilla. We hope it does not take 38 to get justice for the Mavi Marmara.