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11 Oct 2025

Gasyard’s ‘Did Ye Hear About?’ Conversations Series ... ‘The Derry Model’

Maeve McLaughlin explained the workings of ‘The Derry Model’ which had brought about an agreement between the Apprentice Boys of Derry and the local community

Gasyard’s ‘Did Ye Hear About?’ Conversations Series ... ‘The Derry Model’

Event organiser Chris McDonagh with Pat McArt, chair, Maeve McLaughlin, speaker and local councillors Sandra Duffy and Aisling Hutton at Monday's event. (Photo: Jim McCafferty Photography)

The second in the series ‘Did Ye Hear About?’ . . . Mythbusting Conversations was held in the Gasyard Centre recently, where once again, a full house listened intently to Maeve McLaughlin, the director of the Bloody Sunday Trust, talk on bonfires, the work of the Bloody Sunday Trust, parading and how what has become known as the ‘Derry Model’ is now being used as a template for bringing about resolutions of contentious issues.

Under the chair of former Derry Journal Editor, Pat McArt, she began by explaining the workings of ‘The Derry Model’ which had brought about an agreement between the Apprentice Boys of Derry and the local community to ensure parades in the city passed off peacefully.

She stated: “What we learned is a basic point - the only way to get agreement is to engage with ‘the other side’. You need to have hard conversations, sometimes having to listen to things you fundamentally disagree with and don’t want to hear. You need to get people into the same room. You need all the stakeholders involved. And that’s what happened here in Derry. When everyone feels heard and listened to, real progress is possible.”

She continued: “Initially, there was a lot of resistance in our own community, many people resenting what they regarded as triumphalist, coat-trailing marches.

“In contrast, the Apprentice Boys saw it as their legitimate right to march on the west bank of the Foyle as that was where the Memorial Hall is, where St Columb’s Cathedral is, where the City Walls are. This is central to their history, their culture.

“But they knew they had to get an agreement from the residents, and we knew that we had to acknowledge our shared history.

“That was the basis of where we started out from.”

In a wide-ranging address Meave McLaughlin also discussed bonfires on the west bank – “they have little support” she said - and the growing support for the Bloody Sunday Museum pointing out that it had more than 44,000 visitors last year.

IN PICTURES: Myth-busting lecture series at the Gasyard ... ‘The Derry Model’

The work of the Bloody Sunday Trust was, she explained, also continuing, and it had achieved two of its three aims – a public inquiry and an apology from the British government. It’s third aim, prosecutions of those involved on January 30 1972 was still ongoing.

The first in a ‘Did Ye Hear About?’ . . . Mythbusting Lecture Series was held a fortnight ago where a member of the Orange Order gave a talk on what he described as ‘the misconceptions’ about the order.

Addressing the issue that the Order was inherently anti-Catholic, he suggested that was the wrong emphasis – it was not anti- Catholic, it was pro-Protestant. For him, the Order was, he said, evangelical, wanting people to join them ‘on the right path’.

The ‘Did Ye Hear About..?’ series is to continue over the coming months. The mythbuster lectures are part of the Connections – A Peace Barrier Project, organised by the Neighbourhood Management Team and funded by the International Fund For Ireland.

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