| Description | Interview with a group of men and women from the Fountain Street area tenants association.
They discuss the arrival of troops and their interaction with the local Protestant community, their assumption that all Protestants are members of the Orange order, and the increased popularity of the Orange order as a reaction to the establishment of the civil rights movement. They emphasise their pride in the Union Jack and their links with Britain and discuss the lack of difficulty in getting a job if people are keen to work. They have no knowledge of Catholics being discriminated against in seeking employment. Mr Viccery talks about his job at the GPO, where there are several Catholic employees, his membership of the Union of Post Office Workers which is non-sectarian, and the unchanging relationship with his workmates since the disturbances of 5th October 1968. They express resentment that police do not patrol in the Bogside area which they walk through during the day. They think that the area feels more 'lawless' in the evenings and that parents have lost control of their families. Mrs Viccery talks about the contact she has with Catholics, noticing more Catholics wearing 'pioneer pins' since the beginnings of the civil rights movement, and identifying people as Catholic or Protestant by their names. They discuss the extent of marriage between Catholic and Protestants and their disapproval of the necessity of people marrying in the Catholic church in order to legitimise the union. Mrs Taylor talks about a relative who has become a Catholic through marriage, and remembers her parents' reaction. They talk about their lack of awareness of the Bogside as an area before the 1968 disturbances, and their feeling that the media have renamed a wider area 'Bogside' for the purposes of their reporting. They are concerned about the suffering of innocent people during the demonstrations, who do not want to get involved in the struggles, and express disapproval of civil disturbances and damage to property. Mrs Taylor talks about her job at a shirt factory working with girls from the Bogside and the Creggan estate, and getting on well with them. She goes on to talk about her family living in the street for the last hundred years and her feeling of belonging to the area. She gives her opinion about the murals in the area and whether they should be retained (tracks 1-13).
Interview with a group of young men in the Royal Bar, Londonderry.
They discuss the beginnings of the civil disturbances, and their feeling that Protestants were blamed for the violence at the 5th October 1968 demonstration. They give their opinion about the objectives of the Catholic community and express their cynicism about the civil rights movement. They discuss their beliefs and the reasons that they joined the Orange order, give their opinions about the political views of Rev. Ian Paisley, and their belief that the media are biased against him. They contrast the treatment of Bernadette Devlin with that of Ian Paisley, and think that Protestants arrested for fighting on the street or throwing stones are being discriminated against by being imprisoned while Catholics get away with a fine. They refute suggestions that Apprentice Boys parades were a contributory factor in the disturbances and talk about their concerns about Catholic families getting more social security benefits because their families are often larger. One of the men talks about his employment history and his apprenticeship as an upholsterer. Another man talks about the separation of Catholic and Protestant children at school and sees this separation as being due to the Catholic church. The men discuss their sense of the importance of the history of Derry and the different versions of this history written from different religious and political perspectives (tracks 14-19)
Total: 36.10 mins
Dubber's reference number: PLA KF571E0550780 |