Following the announcement of the IRA ceasefire on 31st August 1994, a crowd carrying Irish flags and bin lids set off from the Bogside to the Rosemount Tower – an RUC watchtower that overlooked the Nationalist neighbourhood. Bin lids were often used in Nationalist areas to alert people to the presence of the police or army. A cavalcade of black taxis led the crowd from the Bogside, up William Street to the Tower. 

Once they arrived, they beat the walls of the station with their hands, rocks and feet. The security forces were conspicuously absent. Sinn Féin’s Dodie McGuinness addressed the crowd from atop a black taxi. She gave a defiant speech describing how the Troubles were not over, but “at the start of the end.” 

At one in the morning, the crowd’s dispersed peacefully. No arrests were made.

Vinny Cunningham is a filmmaker based in Derry.

Footage donated to the Tower Museum and the Digital Film Archive by Vinny Cunningham.

• Derry City & Strabane District Council