History Trip to Londonderry, the only county with 6 silent letters.

On the 10th February, my History class 5C went on a trip to Derry, in Northern Ireland. We spent two days there. 

On day one, we experienced the Unionist side of the city, We got a tour of the Apprentice Boy's Memorial Hall, one of their members was our guide. I didn't exactly "enjoy" this part of the trip, as our guide was a horrible, closed-minded sexist - I can't imagine he enjoyed giving a tour to a group of 21 Catholic teenage girls either. After that, we went to the Tower Museum. I liked this a lot more, but it was really long. It basically told a complete history of Ireland, North and South. The museum was huge, interactive and easy to follow, but after waking up at 6am, travelling for 3 hours and having to put up with "Jerry from Derry" the Apprentice Boy, we were all exhausted and began to get quite sleepy. 

We went back to the hotel at around half five, dinner was at eight, it was quite disappointing really - dry chicken and pasta with sauce straight out of the jar. Luckily there was enough bread and butter to go around. 

At nine, we went to Brunswick Moviebowl for bowling. We had about 45 minutes before the lanes would be free, so we played the arcade games and I spent £5 in 10p's to win tokens, which I traded for a lollypop that made my tongue bleed, and one of those slippery toy things that have glitter in them.. WORTH IT. Of course myself, my friends Aoife and Rachel got shafted and were left to be on a bowling team with the teachers. Myself and Ms. Potter drew for first. 

Day Two: Started off with a walking tour around Nationalist Derry. This was my favourite part of the trip. Our guide was an ex-IRA member, who was in prison for 14 years for his part in the Troubles. He showed us all the Murals in the area and told us what each meant, every one of them told a specific story, I'll put a few of them at the end of this post. It was really interesting getting the story from someone who was really affected by the Troubles. 

After that tour, we went to the Free Derry Museum, which had an amazing amount of information and first hand sources. For example, there were jackets of men who were shot on Bloody Sunday, with the bullet holes clearly shown, handkerchiefs with blood stains on them, and photos taken during the fights. This museum was a lot smaller than the Tower Museum, smaller than my school cafeteria, but they're hoping to extend it in the next few years.

After that we had about an hour to roam the streets of Derry, it wasn't long before we found a McDonalds and had a lovely nutritious lunch, before we packed ourselves back onto the bus and drove back to the Republic. 

This mural was painted from a photo taken during The Battle of the Bogside, of an 11 year old boy throwing a petrol bomb. This mural is called The Petrol Bomber.

 

The Free Derry wall is changed a lot to support political movements across the world. Nationalist Derry show their support through this. For example, for Gay Rights they painted the wall pink and to support the Palestinians, they changed the words to "You are now entering Free Gaza".