Voices


Voices

Under-representation, voicelessness and inequality are the frustrations that bubbled up to the surface for the Catholics/Nationalists/Republicans in Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 1969. Years of frustrations tied to religion and politics were no longer going to be tolerated - "an oppressed people were demanding a different world where justice, equality and freedom were the entitlement of all" (Museum of Free Derry, 2018). After marches and riots by Nationalists, police (mostly tied to loyalists) attacked the Nationalists, their families and innocent citizens on the bogside of Derry, mostly populated by Nationalists. This caused an uproar from the community that inspired more violence and war. 

This picture represents the voices that were heard during the terror that killed 14 people on Bloody Sunday and sparked more violence in Northern Ireland (2018). I chose this picture because to me it is a representation of the voices of the Nationalists that were not heard, represented and treated unfairly and the voices that were heard in Derry when they were attacked. Although no violence is right and both parties should be held accountable for their actions, I realized here why the conflict started, how some tried non-violence to gain equality and why this conflict was engulfed in violence.

Bloody Sunday (2018). Museum of Free Derry. Derry, Northern Ireland. 

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