July 2022 - Review of the Year

In July we chatted to Derry graffiti artist, known by the alias Razer, who has been producing immense murals across the city as part of Gasyard's Féile project, Graffiti on the Walls.

Razer had already created the spectacular mural on Great James Street that pays homage to a young John Hume on the side of a gable wall with the words ‘PEACE' as well as working separately on the famous Derry Girls mural three years ago.

Razer, who also works as a youth worker within the city said the whole project is about giving back to the community with a focus on the new generations within the community.

He is currently producing work across Derry as part of the Peaball art collective; a group of street art, graffiti and mural specialists with the same passion for graffiti art as Razer. You can see Razer's, Peaball's and the Gasyard's Féile projects across the city.

July was also the month that Derry man, Michael Poole, and his friend Gavin Webb from Essex, completed their trek from Mizen Head to Malin Head in memory of Micheal's sister, Aisling Poole, and their good friend, Christopher Doherty from Derry. 

The pair began their 428 mile trek of the length of Ireland on June 18 and completed their journey on July 21. Micheal sadly lost his sister, Aisling, in 2014, due to the rare condition, vasculitis. Then last September, their good friend, Chris, sadly passed away in hospital. However, due to NI Air Ambulance, he got to the hospital and got to say goodbye to his family and friends.

The trip was self funded and all the money raised was donated to the charities, NI Air Ambulance and Vasculitis Awareness Ireland.  

July also saw our medical professionals' hard work be recognised on a national level. Western Trust Lead Radiographer, received an accolade for inspirational leadership in the CHKS Award 2022 for his work in the Radiotherapy Department at the NWCC, Altnagelvin Hospital, Derry. 

Nicola Doherty, Senior Nursing Assistant at the North West Cancer Centre was also named joint winner in the RCN, Nurse of the Year, Health Care Support Worker Award category at the RCN Northern Ireland Nurse of the Year Award 2022.  

July 2022 was also, sadly, the 50th anniversary of both the Claudy bombings and Operation Motorman; two events which still affect the people of the city today.

Operation Motorman was the largest British military operation since the Suez Crisis, sparked when President of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, nationalised the Suez Canal on July 26, 1956.

Its aim was the removal of the 'no go areas' established in nationalist areas of Derry, Belfast and other urban centres in the North, in August 1969.

Known as 'Free Derry' here in the city, the RUC and British soldiers were prohibited from entering these areas, which meant the IRA had free rein.

Operation Motorman and its Derry component, Operation Carcan, took place in the early hours of Monday morning, July 31, 1972. 

'Carcan' meant a blunt instrument of death, which indeed it was for two Derry people, Daniel Hegarty (15) and Seamus Bradley (19), who were shot dead by British soldiers that day.

Five days later, on the morning of July 31 1972 – a Monday - at the height of what would become known as one of the deadliest years of the Troubles, three car bombs exploded in the village.

Nine-year-old Kathryn Eakin was cleaning the windows of the family's nearby grocery shop when the first bomb – planted in a stolen Ford Cortina - exploded outside McElhinney's Bar at around 10.15am.

Kathryn died a week later in hospital from her injuries. Joseph McCloskey, a 39-year-old factory worker was killed instantly by the bomb while bringing his four-year-old son to buy a newspaper.

Pub owner Elizabeth McElhinney (59) also died instantly, killed in the blast as she served a customer at the bar outside which the bomb was planted.

15-year-old Patrick Connolly was struck by flying metal as he stood in a shop on Main Street, dying eight days later from his injuries.

During the ensuing panic, police became aware of a second vehicle – a stolen Mini Traveller – parked outside the post office on Main Street.

After a suspicious device was located in the rear of the car, police began to clear the area, with much of the crowd heading for Church Street.

“At approximately 10.30am, two further explosions occurred almost simultaneously,” read the 2010 Ombudsman's Report into the bombing.

As well as the device in the Mini Traveller on Main Street, a further bomb had been placed in a stolen green Morris Minor van outside the Beaufort Hotel on Church Street.

The final blast killed street cleaners James McClelland (65) and David Miller (60), as well as sixteen-year-old William Temple, who had been accompanying the local milkman on his round.

Insurance salesman Arthur Hone (38) died a fortnight after the bombing, while mother-of-eight and cafe owner Rose McLaughlin (52) died in hospital four days later.

For fifty years, the effect of that devastating half hour in the north Derry village has haunted the survivors and victims, with the false dawns of promise exacerbating that hurt.

No one ever claimed responsibility, nor has anyone ever been charged. A 1973 inquest recorded an 'open verdict' in respect of the nine deaths.

In 2002, the PSNI commenced a review of the original RUC investigation with a view to identifying new evidence, and with it came arrests - three men and a woman – in November 2005.

July 31 2022, saw the 50th Anniversary of the tragedy as the country mourned those who lost their lives and as the families continue to fight for justice.