Museum of Free Derry

Museum of Free Derry Review

At Free Derry Corner stands the white gable wall where Catholics defiantly painted the slogan "You are now entering Free Derry" as a declaration of a zone from which police and the British Army were banned until 1972, when the army broke down the barricades. That year, on January 30, 13 civil-rights marchers were shot and killed by British soldiers. Thirty-eight years later, in June 2010, the British government released its official report on the shootings from Lord Saville, which resulted in an official apology from Prime Minister David Cameron saying that he was "deeply sorry" for what happened on Bloody Sunday and that it "had been unjustified and unjustifiable." Historical homage to this tragic moment in time is rendered by the Museum of Free Derry, which has become one of the major tourist attractions in Derry. It opened in 2007 in a derelict block of flats right on the spot where Bloody Sunday happened; the building still retains bullet scars and was conserved to preserve the "line of sight" that fateful day. Inside, visitors will find a real-time recording of the event as well as a gallery with newspaper reports, photographs, and posters about the "Battle of the Bogside." The British government's apology—hailed by Time magazine in 2010 as the Top National Apology in history—has been seen as liberating for the people of the city.