New book gives voice to female relatives of Bloody Sunday dead

Precious recorded testimonies by the mothers, sisters, daughters and wives whose lives were devastated by the atrocity - and which formed the basis of the acclaimed play ‘4 Days in Derry’, by Creggan-born playwright Bernadette MacFarland - have been committed to print.

The tapes were transcribed and edited by journalist Mary-Anne McNulty and have now been published as ‘The Women of Bloody Sunday: the Tapes - Their Stories in Their Words’ in a book which also contains a transcript of the play.

Explaining how the project came about, Mary-Anne said: “I went along with three friends to see 4 Days in Derry in the Alley Theatre in Strabane last year. That night, after the performance, the four of us walked the hundred or so yards back to my car in virtual silence. 

“We eventually started talking about it on the drive home, but it was hard for any of us to put into words the emotions the play had provoked. 

“Watching these women, one by one, bear witness to the loss of a son, a brother, a father, a husband, felt like a punch to the guts. The rawness of it. And the authenticity: although you knew they were actors playing a part, it really felt like Margaret McGuigan, and Kay Duddy, and Mary Nash - all of them - were up there on that stage. 

“I knew, there and then, that what I had witnessed was a precious and unique piece of oral history which I felt should be preserved.”

Derry native Mary-Anne - former sports editor of the Inish Times newspaper in Donegal - got in contact with Bernadette to ask if she could publish the recorded interviews she had conducted prior to writing her play.

With the blessing of the participants, Bernadette handed over the tapes to Mary-Anne and she went about transforming them into written narratives. The two women worked closely together to ensure that the authenticity of the material was preserved and that the narratives met with the approval of the relatives who had sat down with Bernadette and spoken courageously about the horrific impact the loss of these beloved fathers, sons, brothers and husbands had on them and their families.

The tapes feature spoken testimonies relating to nine of the thirteen men shot dead on Bloody Sunday. Of the remaining four, two were written accounts, one interview wasn't recorded and one (Gerald Donaghey) was based largely on research due to lack of a living relative with memories of that time. 

ABOVE: Derry playwright Bernadette MacFarland (left) and journalist Mary-Anne McNulty.

Said Mary-Anne: “Listening to the voices of these women was an experience I will never forget. Every single one of them (and Liam Wray and Joe McKinney, too, representing their late mothers) spoke with unflinching honesty.

“The immediacy of their pain hit me hard; hearing Maura Young break down as she talked about the moment John's body was brought home, or Sarah Gilmour's voice catching as she described the howl of pain that came from her mother when Hugh's coffin left for the chapel, made me really understand, for the first time, the human cost of Bloody Sunday. 

“I had always thought of the murders in the collective sense; never seeing inside the houses that were left with an empty chair at the kitchen table or a guitar resting, unplayed, against the wall. 

“What we have in this book are these women's untold stories. They are stories of courage, resilience, rage, grief and love - fierce, immeasurable love.

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“They are an important part of the Bloody Sunday story and a key piece of oral history, and I feel privileged to have played a role in ensuring they have been preserved so that current and future generations can know them.”

‘4 Days in Derry & The Women of Bloody Sunday: the Tapes’ will be launched in Pilots Row community centre, Rossville Street, Derry, on Thursday, February 6, 2025, at 7.30pm. Everyone is very welcome.

The book is also currently available to purchase at the Museum of Free Derry.

It will also be on sale at the Radical Book Fair in Pilots' Row community centre on Saturday and in all local outlets and Amazon after the official launch.