Free Derry Wall: ‘I reject idea of somebody stepping in and saying, ‘We will dictate what goes on this wall’

Eamonn McCann, lifelong activist and author of the slogan ‘You Are Now Entering Free Derry’ said “no organisation had the right to step in and say, ‘We are going to change what is up on Free Derry Wall”.

“I am saying, as the person who first wrote ‘You Are Now Entering Free Derry’ on that gable, Free Derry Wall belongs to the people and if we are going to change what is on it, it is the people who should decide,” he added.

“The idea of somebody stepping in at this stage and saying, ‘We will dictate what goes on this wall’, I reject that entirely.

“The presumption is an insult to the history of the Civil Rights movement, by the people who weren’t around at the time or whose organisations played no part in the erection of Free Derry Wall. It is just wrong that they should claim the wall.

“As the person who wrote ‘You Are Now Entering Free Derry’ on that gable, I think I have some little right to express my opinion on this and I am not the only person to have the right, the people of Derry have got the right.  

“But, I have some right to express my opinion on this and I am saying, ‘Allow the wall to be replastered and let us have the simple slogan, ‘You Are Now Entering Free Derry’, nothing else,” said Mr McCann.

Eamonn McCann was speaking to The Derry News following the weekly ‘Defend the Right to Protest’ vigil in Derry’s Guildhall Square.

His remarks were prompted by contradictory social media posts by the Bloody Sunday Trust this week.

On Thursday, the Trust said Free Derry Wall had been “left in a terrible mess” and asked “those responsible to clean it up and restore it to a respectable condition”.

Local artist, Ray Bonner, responded by establishing a Free Derry Wall Crowdfunder (https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/free-derry-wall) to help restore the wall.

“In recent times the wall is showing its age, and I’m looking for community help to restore it,” said Mr Bonner.

“I am asking neighbours, local tradespeople, artists, labourers, and anyone who cares about protecting the spirit of Free Derry Wall to join a community-led restoration,” he added. 

“The graffiti that became known around the world was created in defiance of the state. It should be restored in that same spirit - by the community, not by state funding,” said Mr Bonner.

At the time of writing the Crowdfunder had almost reached 50% of its £5,000 target.

However, in a second social media post on Friday, Tony Doherty, Chair of the Bloody Sunday Trust, “appealed to builders and contractors not to respond to the recent online call for support to restore Free Derry Wall. 

“We are all concerned about the condition of the wall, but this is not the way to rectify it,” he added.

“The Trust engaged a local building contractor in November who carried out a survey of the wall and have recommended an extensive programme of works which will restore the wall and keep it in good order against the elements for a long time to come. 

“This work, some of it specialist, is due to start as soon as we turn from winter to spring when the weather will be more favourable,” said Mr Doherty. 

Speaking to The Derry News, Donegal artist Ciarán Dunlevy, whose powerful Civil Rights installation graced Free Derry Wall over this year’s Bloody Sunday weekend, said there were “huge big water bubbles on the wall” before his installation went up.

Artist Ciarán Dunlevy with his Civil Rights installation on Free Derry Wall.

“I explained to the Bloody Sunday March Committee (BSMC) which had commissioned the piece, my concerns about the wall - bubbling paint and flaking plaster - because rain water is landing on top of the gable, running down in between the wall itself and pushing out at the back of the plaster and the paint, about 30 layers at least, is starting to peel off,” said Mr Dunleavy.

“Unfortunately there was a storm and the left-hand piece of the installation came off the wall. I was going to paste it up again as we were hoping it would have lasted until April but when I came up to Derry last Friday, another two or three strips had come off. What had remained on the wall I couldn’t remove because I didn’t have the necessary scaffolding and I did say to the BSMC we need to do a proper job on the wall,” he added. “Then all of a sudden there was post giving out about the way the wall was left. 

Water coming out of Free Derry Wall when Mr Dunleavy was putting up his Civil Rights installation in January.

“I was also extremely disappointed that a Belfast newspaper carried a piece about the ‘damage’ to the wall. It would have been nice if the journalist had contacted me for a proper explanation,” said Mr Dunleavy

“When the slogan ‘You Are Now Entering Free Derry’ was first put up there very early in the morning of January 5, 1969, we intended it as an international statement,” recalled Eamonn McCann. 

“It was based upon a mural at Berkeley College in California which said, ‘You Are Now Entering Free Berkeley,’” he added. “The students there were involved in a free speech campaign. They said the college was denying them the right to speak out. They had it written up on a wall at the entrance to the college.

“That’s where it comes from. It comes from California. It is not an Irish nationalist slogan, nor a socialist slogan, nor a republican slogan. It is an internationalist slogan. It was  to do with what was happening at the time, in Portuguese colonies in Africa, and the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. That is what we had in mind when we placed the slogan on the wall. 

“Personally, I would say it is the most enduring and important thing that I have ever written in almost 50 years of scribbling and scrawling and writing on walls and all the rest of it. 

‘You Are Now Entering Free Derry’ is something I am very, very proud of and I don’t want to see it become part of a squabble here in Derry at this late stage. That would be a disgrace. It would be a disgrace to Derry and to the cause of Civil Rights if there is now to be a squabble about who so to speak ‘owns’ it. 

“Nobody owns Free Derry Wall, at all. People put up the slogan which fell down a few weeks ago because of the weather. Many other things, trees fell down, telegraph poles fell down, and part of Free Derry Wall fell down,” said Mr McCann. 

“But even when it is replaced, we would like to see it replastered, and the slogan - just black words on a white background, exactly as it was, ‘You Are Now Entering Free Derry’, with no other slogans and no other comments on it, that is what I want to see and what an awful lot of other people want to see,” he added.

Storm damaged Free Derry Wall.

Recalling the origins of Free Derry Wall, local Republican Dixie Elliott said: “During a lull in the rioting [on January 5, 1969] a local lad, Liam Hillen, approached Eamonn McCann with a pot of paint he had come across and asked him for any suggestions for a good piece of Graffiti. He told Liam to write, ‘You Are Now Entering Free Derry’.

“Although Liam Hillen had been the first to put what is likely the most iconic piece of graffiti in the world on that gable wall, it was merely another piece of graffiti on an already graffiti covered wall,” added Mr Elliott.

“Then along came Caker Casey, who was a dab hand at the sign writing, and he improved it more or less in the same lettering as is still seen today.

“Then in 1975, the row of derelict houses which had been attached to Free Derry gable wall were due for demolition. A local building and demolition contractor, William Hegarty, who was born and raised less than 30 metres from the wall, told his men to leave it standing.

“So it remained standing to ‘Commemorate the Bogside Spirit and People.’”