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www.celtic-connection.com
OCTOBER 2002
'We're Never Going to Accept Second-Class Citizenship Again'
HE LONG awaited movie Bloody Sunday o, will finally open on this side of the Atlan->v tic at theatres across North America ^ throughout the month of October. The film
is based on the events of January 30, 1972, when British soldiers opened fire on a peaceful civil rights march, killing 13 civilians and wounding 14 others. Nine of the dead were less than 23 years old when they perished.
Don Mullan is co-producer of the film and author of the acclaimed bestseller Eyewitness Bloody Sunday.
His book played a crucial role in British Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision in 1998 to establish a new inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday along with the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
Mullan is a native of Derry and in his own words, "was born into history." He witnessed the massacre on Bloody Sunday at the age of 15, and the events of that pivotal point in Irish history have had a profound and lasting effect on his life.
He was educated at St. Joseph's Secondary School in Creggan and studied at the Development Studies Department at Holy Ghost College in Kimmage, Dublin, and at Iona College in New York.
His involvement with the civil rights movement has led him to work on civil and human rights issues around the world. In 1980, at the age of 24, he became director of AFRI (Action From Ireland), a Dublin-based justice, peace and human rights organization.
In 1983 he worked as a volunteer in Recife, Brazil. In 1994, he attended the inauguration of President Nelson Mandela, as the guest of Archbishop Tutu. He worked with Concern Worldwide for almost two years, from July 1994, during which time he visited Rwanda and Zaire.
He now works as a freelance journalist, writer and broadcaster and has just written his third book -A Gift of Roses. Memories of the Visit to Ireland of St Therese - to critical acclaim.
Don Mullan recently spoke to The Celtic Connection about his role in producing the movie Bloody Sunday.
CATHOLINE BUTLER: With the tremendous success of your book Eyewitness Bloody Sunday and the powerful movie Bloody Sunday bringing international attention to these events once again after 30 years, what kind of feelings do you have knowing that your painstaking research could finally help bring some sense of justice and peace to the families of the victims?
DON MULLAN: That's a good question, because really if the families had given up in their efforts to have the innocence of their loved ones declared before the world, there would not be any books or any movies.
Really, I couldn't have done my work without their full cooperation and support.
Interview by CATHOLINE BUTLER
I am conscious of the fact that my book was built on the important work of people like Eamonn McCann, Nell McCafferty and other journalists, so I would be very slow to take credit.
I am delighted that my book has had such an impact, but the book is really a community book. It is the oral history of the people of Derry who were witness to Bloody Sunday. All I did was handle the material and analyse it in a way that helped to challenge, undermine and mortally wound Lord Widgery.
I'm pretty proud of that, but the bottom line is the real heroes in all of this are the families. I think they are an incredible inspiration to people all over the world who are struggling for human rights. They took on an impossible task and they never gave up.
I wrote another book as well, that has also become a best seller in Ireland called The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings.
It was about the biggest unsolved mass murder case in the history of the Republic. It took place on May 17, 1974, when four bombs exploded - three in Dublin and one in Monaghan - killing 33 people.
I was giving a talk in a school and a kid asked me, 'Mr. Mullen, you've done a book on Bloody Sunday and a book on the Dublin, Monaghan bombings, would think of your next book being on the Omagh bombings?'
And I said to her, 'I completely understand your question and I know where you're coming from, but when you deal with the tragedies of both those books, it really effects you very, very deeply, particularly when you know the people'. I mean, at times my children saw me crying at my typewriter.
I told her I just couldn't cope with it emotionally when you go through the harrowing stories of innocent people who lost loved ones. If I was to write another book now, it would have to be a comedy. I don't mean that in any way disrespectfully, it's just a recognition that I know myself as a limited vulnerable human being and I was very, very affected by both those books.
CB: What kind of censorship or intimidation have you encountered since you wrote the book and now that it's been made into a movie?
DM: When the book first came out, I was told to take care travelling up North. I remember going through a fear barrier one night
DON MULLAN
Photo: Tony Quinn Irish Connections Magazine New York
A PAINTED MURAL depicts a young and fiery Bernadette Devlin standing in front of the "Free Derry" wall.
Photo: Norah Johnson Prussin
But after coming through that night, it was like a liberation and the realization came that somebody has to speak up, we can't just simply walk away because of fear. Whereas our parents and grandparents were intimidated by the models of unionism and indeed the British Government, it took the likes of the generation of Bernadette Devlin and Eamonn McCann to speak out.
I'm part of the next generation, and we're not afraid of them anymore. We're quite prepared to stand up to them and look them in the eye and show them we're not afraid. We're never going to accept second-class citizenship again, nor discrimination or intimidation.
It's like in any abusive relationship, the abuse will continue until the abused say stop. And once they say stop, the dynamics change and that's what Bernadette Devlin did. That's what Eamonn McCann did and Ivan Cooper and all the people involved in the civil rights movement.
They were the inspirational leaders and things have not only changed, they have changed utterly and will continue to change until we have an Ireland in which all its citizens, Protestant, Catholic and the center are equally valued and cherished.
CB: You were present at the civil rights march on Bloody Sunday and apparently you were standing two feet away from 17-year old Michael Kelly when he was shot dead. What kind of impact has that had on your life and did you at any time see any evidence of guns among the civil rights marchers?
DM: Absolutely no guns among the marchers, absolutely none whatsoever. I know that Michael Kelly was a young lad standing to my left, we were all looking towards the paratroopers as they advanced into Roswell Street.
And the next thing I remember, and I still hear it in my mind, the sort of gasp as the bullet hit Michael Kelly in the abdomen.
I remember his cry filling the air with despair and disbelief, and then he simply just crumpled in front of me. In fact it took me and the other people awhile to just understand what was happening.
when I was handling the material. I often found it best to work on the book from about 11 PM to around 5 AM, in those silent hours when there are no phones and no one is interrupting you.
On this one night in particular, when all the little pieces of the jigsaw seemed to support my developing theory that three of the Bloody Sunday dead were shot by a sniper firing from the walls of Derry.
I can remember just sitting for about an hour and it was an absolutely terrifying experience. Because, number one I realized that there were two psychopaths in operation on that day and in all likelihood still alive and not wanting this story to be told, nor the case reopened.
I mean, that was a scary thought and then, of course, you are dealing with a very powerful monolith and devious people. There was always the possibility that you could be monitored. We've all seen what happened to Rosemary Nelson and Pat Finnucane.
CB: British Prime Minister Tony Blair has assured the people of Derry that the truth will be forthcoming at the present inquiry headed by Lord Saville.
Yet, General Frank Kitson who was the commander of the parachute regiment which shot and killed the 13 civilians, has defended his regiment and insisted that his men had a fearsome reputation for efficiency and effectiveness in carrying out the operations in Derry. Do you think this man can be trusted to tell the truth at this new inquiry?
DM: Absolutely not. Kitson was obviously telling lies. Well, sure that shouldn't surprise us. I think that many of the paratroopers will try to suggest again that there was a fuselage of bombs and bullets and that they were defending themselves.
CB: Since Bernadette Devlin had been so involved in the civil rights movement from its inception and she was present at the Bloody Sunday massacre, why does she not figure more prominently in the film?
DM: Well, there are a number of reasons. Firstly, I had never made a movie before and while it's a very powerful medium, it's also a very limited medium. You only have 100 to maybe 110 minutes to tell a story.
We looked at all sorts of presentations including the possibility of Bernadette. Paul Greengrass, the producer even considered the possibility of telling Bloody Sunday through me.
You know, the boy at the barricades who later became a man haunted by what happened and began to research and finally published a book that became a major catalyst in forcing the reopening of the case.
But in the end, we decided that we would try to tell it through four main characters. Two on the British side in terms of the radio operations and so on, and then on the Irish civilian side such as Gerry Donaghy, who had a Protestant girlfriend. Then there was the Protestant politician who had a Catholic girlfriend.
We also wanted to bring out the fact that the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association was perceived by members of Unionist communities as being Republican, enemy, sectarian and so on.
In fact, we tried to be all inclusive and Ivan Cooper in a sense allowed us to do that as he was a Protestant and a civil rights leader at the time.
But, what I am really delighted about of course, is that the character that plays Bernadette gets the final word in the movie. In a sense that captures the essence, the defiance and the strength and fearlessness of Bernadette Devlin from that period. Her attitude of "we will not rest until justice is done."
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Don Mullen began touring the United States in September and will continue to speak about the issues covered in his research. To schedule him as a speaker on your campus or at your event, call Kathleen Russell at (415) 459-8055 or e-mail: kathleen @pyramidcom.com.