Derry woman Caroline O’Donnell’s Bloody Sunday trauma bringing passion to her depiction of Kay Duddy in ‘4 Days in Derry - A Woman’s Story’

Derry woman Caroline O’Donnell’s life was profoundly impacted by the shooting of her father Patsy O’Donnell on Bloody Sunday.

Caroline contrasted the joyous atmosphere as the anti-internment rally set off from Creggan that sunny Sunday afternoon with wondering if any of the blood on the trousers of Fr Tom O’Gara who visited her Creggan home that night belonged to her father.

In a moving interview with The Derry News, Caroline reflected on how she has poured the passion born of the trauma of Bloody Sunday into her role as Kay Duddy in Bernadette McFarland’s play ‘4 Days in Derry - A Woman’s Story’.

Kay’s brother, Jackie Duddy (17) was the first of the fourteen victims of Bloody Sunday murdered in Derry’s Bogside on January 30, 1972.

‘4 Days in Derry - A Woman’s Story’ depicts the tragic events of Bloody Sunday through the eyes of the female relatives of the thirteen innocent victims shot dead by British troops that day.

'4 Days in Derry' contimuing its tour.

Having had brilliantly received performances in An Coire Arts Centre, Maghera; St Mary’s Hall, Buncrana, and Market Place Theatre, Armagh, earlier this year, ‘4 Days in Derry’ is on in St Columb’s Hall in the city on Friday, April 24 and Saturday, April 25, and An Grianán Theatre, Letterkenny, on Thursday, April 23.

It is also going to performed at Belfast's Féile an Phobail in St Comgall's - Ionad Eileen Howell, Belfast, BT12 4AQ, on Saturday,  August 8, 2026.

“When Bernadette asked me to take on the role of Kay Duddy I was initially reluctant because I had never performed on a stage before,” said Caroline.

“But, I kept putting myself back to that day and remembering how it was for me getting the news as a 14-year-old my father had been shot, and that is where my passion came from, " she added.

“I constantly think how blessed we were my father got to come home because he was 41 and had six children, the youngest was only three. I just keep thinking how our lives would have been completely different if he had been killed.

“At that time we lived in Rathowen Park in Creggan, just round the corner from where Kathleen Thompson was murdered.

“It is only in recent years you sit down and think, ‘What if my daddy hadn’t got to come home? What would have happened if he had been murdered?’”

Caroline’s mammy, Kathleen, went to the march with her sisters. Her daddy went with his friends.

She had wanted to go too but her parents left her in charge of her younger sister, Linda, and brother, Philip.

“The march came down Southway and I took the two of them by the hand to the bottom of Southway, so officially I was on the march. Everybody was singing. It was just so joyful. I was raging I had to go back up home. In hindsight now maybe I was blessed to come home,” said Caroline.

“It got to around teatime and my mammy kept saying, ‘Caroline, look out that window. Can you see your daddy coming?’

“I stood vigil at the window, then a wee mini car with two fellas in it pulled up outside our house and one of the fellas ran in to tell my mammy my daddy had been shot. He had been taken to the first aid post in Creggan and then to Altnagelvin by Dr Fallon.

“They shot my father and then they kicked his head in.

“My father had been shot in the shoulder in Glenfada Park and he knew he couldn’t let on he had been shot. The soldiers came in and were arresting everybody. They kept saying to my daddy. ‘Put your arm up’ but he couldn’t because he had been shot. They then beat him with their rifle butts and kicked him in the head with their steel capped boots. After that he went unconscious,” said Caroline, whose Uncle Ule drove her mammy to Altnagelvin as soon as they got the news.

“I always remember that night, the door never stopped knocking wee toots saying, ‘My mammy sent me up to see if your daddy is still alive’. Imagine.

“Mammy came home and there was a big coal fire blazing in the hearth and Fr O’Gara came up to the house. I remember his trousers were all blood and I kept thinking, ‘I wonder if there’s any of that there my daddy’s blood?’

“At this stage my father had gone to theatre but I didn’t know until a lot later they thought there was a possibility my Daddy could have died from his head injuries.

“I went over to see him the next day in WARD 3. Michael Quinn who had been shot in the face and Danny McGowan were in the ward too. There were soldiers and RUC everywhere,” said Caroline.

The next trauma the Bloody Sunday families faced was the Widgery Tribunal.

“They had to go to Coleraine for that,” said Caroline, “and it was only 6 weeks later. My father was still traumatised as you can imagine.

“At Widgery they had a model of the Bogside model. My daddy told me it was in the middle of this room and they used a big snooker cue to point where they were standing and where my daddy was when they shot him.

“My daddy told them, ‘I was shot here’. I can’t remember now if it was a wall or a fence but my daddy told them the model was wrong because there was no wall or fence where he was shot and the model was wrong. He told them that three times and they threatened to arrest him for contempt of court because he was trying to tell the truth.

“I remember my daddy coming home and he was just traumatised. He kept a lot of it from us but he was completely changed. He became very withdrawn and very quiet and he couldn’t go into crowds any more. He died in 2006.”

‘4 Days in Derry’ performances:

St Columb’s Hall, Derry, on Friday, April 24, 2026 and Saturday, April 25, 2025, at 8.00pm. Tickets are available HERE.

An Grianán Theatre, Letterkenny, on Thursday, April 23, 2025, at 8.00pm. Tickets are available HERE.

St Comgall's - Ionad Eileen Howell, Belfast, BT12 4AQ, on Saturday,  August 8, 2026, at 8.00pm. Tickets available HERE.