We got on a bus to Derry after confusingly realizing that the train line between Belfast and Derry was being repaired. Derry is this marvelous walled city on the banks of the River Foyle.
It was rocked by decades of violent conflict between Catholic residents and the protestant police/military personnel. We visited the Free Derry museum which commemorates the Catholic struggle in Derry and the Bloody Sunday massacre where British Paratroopers opened fire with live rounds on civilians.
The sign above is from when the Catholics erected barricades in an area known as the bogside and effectively seperated themselves from British government control for months on end.
A number of murals (one above) were done to commemorate the Free Derry movement. After walking around this area we also went on a much happier historical tour of the walled inner city and talked about the history of the founding of Derry and the 108 day siege that took place there during the English Civil War.
We ended the evening in a pub chatting with this old guy who told us he'd been in the IRA and promptly started pointing out other people in the pub who had been in prison for killing people during the Troubles. He was quite the interesting fellow and actually bought us beers while we were talking to him. The pub was lively and it was a very nice evening though we went back to the hostel to sleep earlier than usual because we were planning on catching a 7:15 bus the next morning.
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