The March on the Rosemount Tower

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Details

Location

Bogside, County Derry, Derry City, Derry/Londonderry

Year

1994

Date

Production 01/09/1994

Length

05min 20sec

Audio

sound

Format

Betacam SP

colour

Source

Vinny Cunningham

Courtesy

Northland Broadcast, OpenReel Productions, Tower Museum, Vinny Cunningham

Rights Holder

Vinny Cunningham

It is illegal to download, copy, print or otherwise utilise in any other form this material, without written consent from the copyright holder.

Description

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.

Notes

Vinny Cunningham is a filmmaker based in Derry.

Credits

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

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