Bloody Sunday 50th anniversary: Derry man recalls a ‘carnival atmosphere’ that turned to horror and devastation

Sean McGlinchey (at back, wearing a glove) and his then girlfriend and later wife, Marietta, battling the effects of CS gas. The picture was printed in the Derry Journal in the days after Bloody Sunday.

Sean McGlinchey, who was originally from Tamnaherin, was 22-years-old and had just been discharged from hospital that day after having had surgery on his arm.

He was accompanied on the march by his cousin, Denis Harkin, and his then girlfriend Marietta McDaid, who later became his wife.

A photograph published in the Journal on February 1 shows Sean and Marietta grappling with the effects of the CS gas that was launched on the crowd, with handkerchiefs over their faces.

Sean is wearing a glove in the picture due to his surgery and said the CS gas was like ‘having pepper and everything thrown in your face - it was awful’.

He told the Journal he remembers the events of Bloody Sunday like they were yesterday.

He explained how, after the CS gas was fired, he told Marietta, who lived in the Brandywell, to make her way home. He and Denis then became aware of shooting and, unable to ascertain where it was coming from, ran into St Joseph’s Place and hid. They then made their way from there, passing Free Derry Corner, where he saw a ‘man with blood running out of him’. Both men decided to try and make their way to Marietta’s house and were heading towards St Columb’s Wells when a man shouted to them to stop.

“He shouted: ‘Stop, stay where you are, they’re shooting from the walls! There was a gap then between the rows of houses and we were scared to pass the gap. We stayed there for about an hour when we decided to make a run for it.”

The men made it to Marietta’s house, where news began to filter through about the atrocity. “You’d hear that seven were dead or eight. Two of my sisters were on the march too and made their way to Marietta’s. Everyone was just in shock, It was terrible.” Sean said he doesn’t remember much about that evening, possibly due to shock. He knew many of those who had been killed or injured and said the memory of the day and those terrible days afterwards will never leave him. “It started off with like a carnival atmosphere. We were just there for our rights.People had brought their children with them. I remember all that happened and all we did that day, but I don’t remember if we went home or how we got home, if we did.” Sean and Marietta, who has since sadly passed away, married the following year and their first son, Sean, was born in 1975, on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday.