‘Butcher’s Dozen’
Derry Remembers 50 Years On
(Sunday, 30th January 2022)
This performance of Thomas Kinsella’s poem, ‘Butcher’s Dozen’ was produced for the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, similar to what was done with the poem 25 years ago. Back then it was performed in public as a live performance in Derry City’s Bogside, where these 13 men and boys were shot and killed by the British Army’s 1st Battalion the Parachute Regiment during a peaceful Civil Rights march and demonstration.
Thomas Kinsella, a Dublin poet, passed away on December 22nd, 2021. He wrote the poem following the publication of the British Government’s official report in April 1972, compiled by Lord Widgery, the lord chief justice of England. Effectively, the “Widgery Report” exonerated the British Army for the killings and blamed the organizers of the Civil Rights march.
The ten voices/contributors include three of those who attended the original march: Eamonn McCann, Liam Wray whose brother Jim was shot dead on Bloody Sunday, and Donnacha McFeeley, whose friend Gerald was also shot and killed that day.
People interested to learn more about these events and the situation as it is today in regard to the justice question should go to http://bloodysundaymarch.org/for_justice/ or to www.bloodysundaymarchcommittee.org
Butcher’s Dozen Poem Voices and Audio Recordings Arranged and Edited by Stephen Gargan.
Voices:
Dave Duggan (voice of the narrator), Liam Wray, Donnacha McFeeley, Darragh Gargan, Ronan Moyne, Eamonn McCann, Jim Keys, Stephen Gargan, Jim Collins, James King,
Audio Recordings:
Actuality Sound Recording, Derry, Sunday 30th January 1972 by Susan North.
British Army, 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment Radio Messages, Derry, Sunday 30th January 1972
In the featured photo, the victims: Patrick Doherty, Gerald Donaghey, John Duddy, Hugh Gilmour, Michael Kelly, Michael McDaid, Kevin McElhinney Bernard McGuigan, Gerard McKinney, William McKinney, William Nash, James Wray, and John Young
