Bloody Sunday March Committee urges people to support 2024 march and programme with strong focus on Palestine

The committee has confirmed Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, will be the main speaker at the march on Sunday, January 28.

The Bloody Sunday March Committee has taken the ongoing slaughter in Palestine as the central focus of a packed programme of events.

The culmination of the commemorations will be the annual march that will depart Central Drive for Free Derry Corner on Sunday at 2.30pm.

The main speaker will be Huda Ammori, co-founder of the direct-action network, Palestine Action.

“We invite people to come along to this year’s march send a massive message of solidarity to the Palestinian people,” a spokesperson said.

Huda is a Palestinian/Iraqi who has campaigned against what she describes as British complicity with Israeli apartheid with a particular focus on the arms industry.

A BSMC spokesperson likened her campaigning to that of the Raytheon 9 in Derry, who occupied the US software manufacturer’s Springton offices in 2006. Raytheon Systems Limited (RSL) left Derry in 2010.

"So often it is women who have been the vanguard of resistance and justice campaigns. Now it is no different. Joining Huda on this year’s platform will be Geraldine Doherty, niece of Gerald Donaghey who was murdered by the Parachute Regiment on Bloody Sunday and Kate Nash whose brother William was also murdered on Bloody Sunday and whose father Alex was shot and seriously wounded,” the spokesperson said.

The BSMC has accused Western governments of ‘supporting genocide in Gaza’ claiming they had ‘gotten away with it...time and time again’ with Bloody Sunday ‘just one example’.

“There is a vast difference in scale between the atrocities in the Bogside and in Gaza. What happened around Rossville Street seems microcosmic when placed alongside Gaza City or Khan Younis. But the same principles are in play.

"Both the Parachute Regiment in Derry and Israeli forces in Palestine have acted as if those who strayed into their line of fire are subhuman with no entitlement to dignity or rights,” the committee stated.

BSMC remarked that ‘everywhere terror comes overwhelmingly from the guns of oppressive governments’.

“We don’t have to be lookers-on at genocide. It is for these reasons that the banner of the Bloody Sunday March Committee is raised at every show of solidarity with Palestine.

"It’s for the same reason that the issue of Palestine will again be front-and-centre at the annual Bloody Sunday march on January 28,” the committee added.

Several events are planned over the next three days.

Thursday, January 25

7.30pm: Stephen Gargan: There & Back Again

On November 27, 2022, Bloody Sunday March Committee member Stephen Gargan passed away. A grandfather, father, brother, son, partner, friend, and activist, he is missed every day. Born in Dublin, Stephen was involved in community activism in Derry for many years.

A founding member and former festival director of Gasyard Wall Féile, he also was a co-founder and director of Gaslight Media Trust. A leading campaigner for the Bloody Sunday families for many years, he co-produced the drama-documentary film ‘SUNDAY’. Until his untimely passing, he was a key member of the Bloody Sunday March Committee. Féile have co-produced a film celebrating Stephen with his family, friends, and comrades.

Venue: Nerve Centre.

Friday, January 26

3pm-4.30pm: Hostages: Mansoor Adayfi and Tommy McKearney in Conversation

Mansoor Adayfi is writer, artist, activist, and a former Guantánamo prisoner held by the United States for over 14 years without charge, spending 8 of those years in solitary confinement. A Yemeni national he was released to Serbia in 2016. His memoir, 'Don’t Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantánamo' was released in August 2021. Tommy McKearney, a native of Moy, Co. Tyrone, is a former Hunger Striker, who undertook 53 days of Hunger Strike in 1980. He is the author of ‘The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament’.

Venue: Central Library.

7pm-9pm: Radical 'Question Time'

Panel includes Eamonn McCann (Bloody Sunday campaigner), Joe Brolly (Sportsman, Barrister, Pundit & Campaigner), Nazia Latif (Director of Right Practice, formerly of the NI Human Rights Commission), Shane O’Curry (Director of Irish Network Against Racism), Mel Bradley (Artist, Playwright, Poet & current chair of Foyle Pride) and Grainne Griffin (Founder of Abortion Rights Campaign in Ireland).

Chair: Anna McAree (Journalist)

Venue: St. Columb's Hall Orchard Cinema

9pm: Free Derry - Free Palestine Music Gig

The Bonnevilles, Hypnic Jerk, Tessio, Tomcat, Square Bear and Molly Duffy. All proceeds will go to Medical Aid for Palestinians. £10 entry tickets via Eventbrite. Limited amount on the door.

Venue: Sandinos

Saturday, January 27

12pm-1.30pm: Defying the Lies: Tactics for Truth and Justice

As the means by which the state and authorities lie about their actions proliferate, campaigners for truth and justice must develop new ways to challenge and defy them. Chaired by Mary Durkan.

Venue: Pilots Row.

2.30pm-4.30pm: Forensic Architecture-Tools for Truth and Justice

Showcase of new ways to investigate human rights violations. Chaired by Trevor Birney, who with his colleague Barry McCaffrey, was arrested by the PSNI following their documentary 'No Stone Unturned' into the 1994 massacre in Loughinisland.

Venue: Pilots Row.

12-5pm: Derry Radical Bookfair

The Bookfair will host a broad range of stalls from a local or national interest, on feminism or queer politics, to republicanism, Marxism and of course anarchism.

Venue: Pilots Row.

12-5pm: Ceardlann Phlaiceard i nGaelige/Placard Making workshop in Irish.

Beidh an grúpa feimineach Gaelach Leathbhádóirí ag eagrú ceardlann i rith an lae ag an Aonach Leabhar Radacach i nDoire. Buailigí isteach agus bainigí triail as! Gaeilge más féidir, Béarla más gá. Feminist Gaeilge group Leathbhádóirí will be running this placard-making workshop.

All day Saturday and Sunday: Free Derry Wall – Art Installation by ‘Spicebag’

‘Spicebag’ is Adam Doyle, from Bray, who uses political satire and social commentary to interrogate issues within Irish society.

Sunday, January 28

2.30pm: Annual March & Rally - Main speaker, Huda Ammori, co-founder of the direct-action network, Palestine Action.

2.30pm: The Art of Protest

Free Derry Collective will provide art & visuals along march route.

Bloody Sunday 50: The first draft of the history of one of Derry’s darkest ever days