| Description | Interview with an unidentified man from Derry. He discusses his views about the departure of the Christian church from the teachings and actions of Jesus and his belief that Christianity should have more in common with socialism. He discusses the tenets of Roman Catholicism, his views about the authority of priests and questioning the church's teachings. Another man joins the conversation to talk about the trend of anti-clericalism amongst Catholic radical leaders and contrasts this with the attitudes of Protestant radical leaders. He goes on to discuss the 2.1 ratio of Catholics to Protestants in Derry, the sectarian divisions within the city, the situation where only householders can vote and the rise of the civil rights movement. He talks about his own working class background, describes the difficulties he has had in getting a job due to a general lack of jobs and to religious discrimination. He explains that people's religion can be easily identified as soon as they give the name of the school they went to and that people on both sides of the sectarian divide can often find jobs through informal contacts (tracks 1-8).
Another man discusses the activities of a Nationalist party in Derry and his belief that they wanted to exploit the sectarian divide and campaign exclusively on the behalf of the Catholic working class population. He talks about the extent to which people want a united Ireland, the situation where people are paid more on the dole than in low paid employment and the cynicism of people about change. He goes on to talk about civil disturbances in Derry and the actions of the police on 5th October 1968, when a civil rights march was broken up. He discusses his own involvement and the violence he witnessed by the police towards the marchers and press reporters. He describes the shock that people felt at this violence, and his belief that people in the Bogside would now fight back against the police. He discusses his own political involvement from an early age, in the socialist movement at Queens University in Belfast, and in the Labour party in London and back in Derry, and talks about the differences between the political situation in the early 1960s and the late 1960s, the segregation of Catholics and Protestants in schools and the fact that he did not know any Protestants until he went to university (tracks 9-15).
Total: 32.41 mins
Dubber's reference number: PLA KF565D0080780 |