Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
• From Bishop's Gate, those short on time can descend from the walls and walk 15
minutes directly back through the heart of the old city, along Bishop Street Within and
Shipquay Street to Guildhall Square. With more time, consider visiting St. Columb's
Cathedral, the Long Tower Church, and the murals of the Bogside.
▲▲▲
Bogside Murals Walk
(See “Bogside Murals Walk” map,
here
.)
The Catholic Bogside area was the tinderbox of the modern Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Bloody Sunday, a terrible confrontation during a march that occurred more than 40 years
ago,sparkedasectarian inferno,andtheasheshavenotyetfullycooled.Today,themurals
of the Bogside give visitors an accessible glimpse of this community's passionate percep-
tion of those events.
The events are memorialized in 12
murals
painted on the ends of residential flats along
a 300-yard stretch of Rossville Street and Lecky Road, where the march took place. You
can reach them from Waterloo Place via William Street, from the old city walls at Butcher
Gate via the long set of stairs extending below Fahan Street on the grassy hillside, or by
the stairs leading down from the Long Tower Church. These days, this neighborhood is
gritty but quiet and safe, and the murals are even lit up at night.
Two brothers, Tom and William Kelly, and their childhood friend Kevin Hasson are
knownastheBogside Artists. TheygrewupintheBogside andwitnessed thetragic events
that took place there, which led them to begin painting the murals in 1994. One of the
brothers, Tom, gained a reputation as a “heritage mural” painter, specializing in scenes of
life in the old days. In a surprising and hopeful development, Tom was later invited into
Derry's Protestant Fountain neighborhood to work with a youth club there on three proud
heritage murals that were painted over paramilitary graffiti. For more about this unique
trio, visit their website—
www.bogsideartists.com
.
