The Bogside History Centre
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Proposal
Schools & Educational Tours
Exhibition Area
Research Area
Objectives

The Bloody Sunday Trust aims to establish the Bogside History Centre as an integral component of the Gasyard Development. This development, comprising an Urban Park and a Neighbourhood Education and Cultural Centre is currently under construction on the five and a half acre site of the former Londonderry Gaslight Company, in the heart of the Bogside. The Neighbourhood Centre will be completed in October 2000.

The History Centre will enable the collation and expression of the often turbulent history and experiences of the Bogside community and convey these experiences to the wider community, whether from home or abroad. It will afford distinct recognition to the history of the Bogside community and its often pivotal role within recent Irish history in a unique and innovative purpose built facility. It will contribute to the process of community regeneration through increased community confidence and esteem. It will contribute to the process of reconciliation and healing between our divided communities, by increasing knowledge and understanding of our troubled past, our perceptions in the present and our hopes for the future. Also given its unique nature within the Irish heritage sector as the only facility dealing at length with the recent Troubles, contribute to local economic regeneration in an area of multi deprivation by attracting and servicing special interest tourism. It will become an educational focus for those attempting to come to terms with our troubled past in an honest and forthright manner, and in so doing never being condemned to repeat it. The centre will cater to educational and research needs through the construction of a comprehensive computerised database and the establishment of strong links with schools and educational establishments at home and abroad.

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The Bogside History Centre - A Proposal

It is increasingly recognised that many disadvantaged areas throughout the world have turned to their cultural identity as a means with which to tackle social and economic marginalisation. By forging links between the cultural sector and the tourism sector the potential for economic and social regeneration, particularly in an area such as the Bogside with such a strong sense of history and community, can be greatly enhanced.

This Centre is an innovative and unique project that combines elements of community expression, education for mutual understanding and special interest tourism within an overall theme of Human and Civil Rights to maximise its impact, attractiveness and sustainability.

The local community will benefit from this project through the provision of formal and public recognition to the experiences of the local community and indeed the wider nationalist community of Derry and throughout the North of Ireland. The exploration, collation and expression of that community's history, experiences and sense of identity will contribute to the physical and cultural regeneration of the local community. This will increase the self confidence and self esteem of the community as a whole by providing the physical and intellectual space in which their identity and history can be explored, expressed and eventually shared with those who are at present at best ignorant and at worst hostile to the historical experience that this community has undergone.

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Schools and educational tours

The principal focus of the Bogside History Centre will be the Civil Rights era and the event of Bloody Sunday. This era and in particular this event are recognised as being amongst the primary causes of the conflict that has occurred in Ireland. As a result the Centre will be of great educational significance in that it will enable this period to be examined from the perspective of the people who were most intimately connected with it, the residents of the Bogside.

It is now 26 years since Bloody Sunday, and 30 years since the event most often described as the start of the Troubles, the 5th October Duke Street march. Sufficient time has passed to enable us to attempt to place these events and others like them into their historical and international context.

An entire generation has grown up largely unaware of the causes of the conflict that shaped their lives. The Bogside History Centre, by creating an exhibition area devoted to the period in which the causes of the conflict occurred and a research area that will explore these events and issues, will ensure that this mistake is not repeated. By establishing strong contacts with schools and colleges throughout Ireland, both on an outreach basis and organised visits to the Centre, the Bogside History Centre will strive to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to learn from and understand the experiences of a community that found itself at the centre of the rise and fall of the Civil Rights. The special interest tourism market. Many European and American tourists make their way to the City of Derry and the recent history of the city, particularly that of the Bogside area is a powerful attraction. Free Derry Corner and the surrounding murals, together with the Bloody Sunday monument already attract sizeable numbers of tourists to the Bogside area. These visitors, attracted by the history of the area are keen to learn about that history but there exists no facilities to meet this demand. The Bogside History Centre will address this imbalance and in so doing benefit not only the visitors to the city but the city itself. The Bogside History Centre will be a valuable addition to the existing tourist facilities in Derry.

The Centre itself will contain an exhibition area, research area, coffee bar, an office and access to an auditorium and training/teaching facilities.

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Exhibition Area

The exhibition area, which will comprise a multi-media representation of the recent history of the Bogside, will enable the expression of the experiences of the local community. This area will relate the political, social and cultural changes that the local community has experienced during the past 30 years of conflict. It will give recognition not only to the pivotal role that this locality has played in shaping the events and issues of the last 30 years, but also to the specific event of Bloody Sunday, the single most traumatic and historically significant event to have occurred in Derry City since the Jacobite siege of the 1680s. This space will be the main, but not only, point of interaction between the local communities expressing their experiences and the educational and tourist visitors who will visit the Centre.

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Research Area

For those visitors, or members of the local community, who desire a more detailed understanding of the area and the impact events here had on the nation as a whole the research area will be invaluable. This facility will enable users to access a computerised database that is currently being developed by the Trust via a bank of computer terminals. This space will be a valuable educational and research resource for the city of Derry and for schools, colleges, universities and students anywhere with an interest in the recent history of Ireland.

It is the intention of the Bloody Sunday Trust that the Bogside History Centre will adopt a proactive policy in relation to the creation, collation, and preservation of material and artifacts relating to the history of the Bogside area.

The research on and acquisition of this material will be carried out by the Trust, which has reached agreement with Derry City Council Museum Services to lodge this material in the Derry City Archives. This work would continue throughout the year and the Bloody Sunday Trust database would be updated as this process progressed.

It is also the intention of the Trust to engage in the video recording of the experiences and memories of people who have lived through, or were active in the shaping of the major events that have occurred in the city.

The Centre will also, when needed, have access to both an auditorium and a teaching room within the Neighbourhood Development. These areas will allow the History Centre to accommodate large groups of visitors, particularly school trips and tour parties. They will also enable the Centre to host lectures, seminars, debates and film screenings.

The History Centre is required not only as the vehicle that enables the local community, which has been for so long marginalised and isolated, give voice to its experiences, it will also provide recognition that the experiences and sufferings of that community are afforded equal respect with that of other communities. Through this the Centre will tell both the local community and the broader community that as we move forward we must acknowledge all the hurts of the past, not just those that are often seen as acceptable. There must no longer exist guilty victims.

The Centre will act as a focus in attracting, and a facility for servicing, the special interest tourists that visit Derry and will provide the local community with the opportunity to convey their experiences to these visitors. In the course of this process the Centre will place the events of the Civil Rights era within their international context and reference will of course be made to the international events that helped shape our own history. By placing the events in Derry into their wider international context recognition will be given to the impact that events and movements world wide, most notably the Civil Rights Movement in the Southern United States have had on events in the city and will enable events in Derry to be seen within a broader context than they normally receive.

Tourism, research has revealed, within the Derry City Council area is in a relatively healthy state. It is ranked in the top ten of Council districts in N. Ireland for revenue generation, tourist trips and nights spent.

In the wake of the first IRA cease fire inquiries to the Derry Tourist Information Centre increased from thirty thousand in 1994 to over fifty thousand in 1995 and in the present climate the potential of the tourism sector cannot be overstated.

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The specific objectives that have been set for the Bogside History Centre are;

1. The creation of an exhibition as a memorial to all those who have lost their lives or been injured during the conflict in the Derry area, with particular reference to the Bogside community.
2. To establish a comprehensive computerised database that will encompass the past thirty years of conflict, with particular reference to the Civil Rights era within the City of Derry and the impact events in the city had on the history of the island as a whole.
3. To afford formal and public recognition to the history of the Bogside as a distinct area within the city of Derry and to give recognition to the Civil Rights era and the specific event of Bloody Sunday.

The plans for this project have been advanced through a series of meetings of the consultative committee, in conjunction with consultations with the Gasyard Development Trust, the site architect, the Gasworks project and members of the local community and local community organisations and schools.

In conclusion the Bogside History Centre provides the opportunity for the creation of a unique community oriented, tourist friendly education and cultural facility in an area that has suffered disproportionately high levels of political violence and social and economic deprivation.

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