International Civil Rights Festival bound for Derry's Guildhall

Members of the 68' Civil Rights Commemoration Committee pictured at the launch of the Civil Rights Festival, from left, Councillor Marin Reilly, Councillor Shauna Cusack, Hugo McConnell, Vincent McCormack, Councillor Tim Attwood, Secretary, Professor Paul Arthur, Chairman, Aiden McKinney, Fionnbarra Ã® Dochartaigh, Gavin Patton, Marie Coyle, Margaret Quigg and Brenda Divin. DER3918-101KM

There is a strong platform of speakers including civil rights activists, Eamon McCann, Erskine Holmes, Marian Donnelly, Michael Mansfield QC, Gareth Pierce, Lord Alf Dubs, Baroness Nuala O’Loan and international human rights activists.A keynote address will be given by President Michael D Higgins at 2pm on Saturday 6 October 2018.

The John Hume Civil Rights lecture will be given by Fergal Keane and Lord Ken Magennis will give an address. To book go to: http://www.nicivilrights.org/

Professor Paul Arthur Chair of the Civil Rights Committee said: “We are delighted to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Duke Street march in Derry, a march that successfully challenged the status quo and led to a new political dispensation. The range of events over four days in October is an acknowledgement of the reflective and inclusive approach adopted by the Committee from its inaugural meeting in Belfast last November; and its formal launch by the distinguished poet, Michael Longley, in Rosemary Street Presbyterian Church in January. Longley’s poetry and prose captured the optimism of the moment but also reflected the pain and tragedy of subsequent years. We have not shied away from that darkness and we have attempted to engage with those who saw the initial civil rights’ movement as a conspiracy.”

“The Derry programme is the culmination of a series of meetings held throughout the North this year from the Skainos Centre in East Belfast to the NewGate Festival in the Fountain to the Hewitt School in Armagh and the McCluskey Summer School in Dungannon.

The meetings all engaged with human, civil, social and political rights .”