The Civil Rights Mural
The Beginning

The above photograph shows one of the latest murals by 'the Bogside Artists'. The completed mural was unveiled in the summer of 2004. The mural is situated on Rossville Street in the Bogside area of Derry.

"This mural commemorates the beginning of the struggle in Derry for democratic rights. It cannot be stressed too often that this struggle involved Protestants as well as Catholics. The 5th October 1968 march ended in bloodshed in Duke Street Derry when the RUC ran amok beating up on protesters with all the hostility and abandon of a group of Stormtroopers. The event was captured by television crews and sent shock waves throughout the civilized world. Our mural shows a typical march of the period. Our intention was to describe it as it was, a happy, almost festive occasion conducted by people who were content that they were standing up, at long last, against prolonged injustice. These early marches were inspired by the civil disobedience campaigns of Martin Luther King."
William Kelly, Bogside Artists