WATCH: Mitchel McLaughlin discusses 'Free Derry'
50th Anniversary of Operation Motorman
On the 50th anniversary of Operation Motorman, former Sinn Féin national party chairperson and Derry City councillor, Mitchel McLaughlin, discussed the concept of 'Free Derry'.
Mitchel spoke to Derry Now about possible reasons why other areas in the North did not embrace the spirit of 'Free Derry' the way they had in the city, in terms of the 'no go areas'.
He said: "Free Derry was a constant topic in the local media, and obviously it would appear when you read the biographies and the memoires of different political figures from that era, they all knew about it. It was international news.
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"It was also a very onerous task to manage such an area.
"I think the geography and the demography of particular areas just didn't suit the development.
"There must have been three or four, possibly five manifestations of 'Free Derry' if you go through the years from the early civil rights, through the Bloody Sunday period, into the prison struggles."