Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
50 yards of this spot. Take a look at the map pedestal by the monument, which shows how
a rubble barricade was erected to block the street. A 10-story housing project called Ross-
ville Flats stood here in those days. After peaceful protests failed (with Bloody Sunday be-
ing the watershed event), Nationalist youths became more aggressive. British troops were
wary of being hit by Molotov cocktails thrown from the rooftop of the housing project.
Cross back again, this time over to the grassy median strip that runs down the middle
of Rossville Street. At this end stands a granite letter
H
inscribed with the names of the
10 IRA hunger strikers who died in the H-block of Maze Prison in 1981. The prison was
closed after the release of all prisoners (both Unionist and Nationalist) in 2000.
From here, as you look across at the corner of Fahan Street, you get a good view of two
murals. In
The Runners
(right), three rioting youths flee tear gas from canisters used
by the British Army to disperse hostile crowds. More than 1,000 canisters were used dur-
ing the Battle of the Bogside; “nonlethal” rubber bullets killed 17 people over the course
of the Troubles. Meanwhile, in
Operation Motorman
(left), a soldier wields a sledge-
hammer to break through a house door, depicting the massive push by the British Army to
open up the Bogside's barricaded “no-go” areas that the IRA had controlled for three years
(1969-1972).
Walk down to the other end of the median strip where the white wall of
Free Derry
Corner
announces“YouarenowenteringFreeDerry”(imitatingasimilarlydefiantslogan
ofthe time in once-isolated West Berlin). This was the gabled end ofa string ofhouses that
stood here over 40 years ago. During the Troubles, it became a traditional meeting place
for speakers to address crowds.
