Last orders for Bogside Inn as iconic pub is bulldozed for £11m redevelopment in Derry
The Bogside Inn in Londonderry formed the backdrop to some of the formative events of the Troubles. As it’s bulldozed as part of an £11m redevelopment, Donna Deeney hears what made the ‘Bog Inn’ so special
The demolition squad is poised and ready to pull the curtain down on Londonderry’s most iconic pub, the Bogside Inn, which has been central to some of the city’s most historic events over the past 60 years.
A new £11m project will occupy the site on which the former Bogside Inn sits that will include new social housing, shops and a community and youth facility.
The new project will, without a doubt, breath new life into Meenan Square, where the long-abandoned shops that sit alongside and behind the bar have become an eyesore.
When it was built in the mid-1960s, the Bogside Inn was just one more bar among many in Derry, but its location at a time when civil unrest was stirring put it right at the heart of the formative events that shaped the city into what it is today.
On August 12, 1969, an Apprentice Boys’ parade along Derry’s Walls, which overlook the Bogside, sparked a riot that would rage for three days.
Tensions that had been brewing for over a year between Catholics in Derry’s Creggan, Brandywell and Bogside over poor housing and job discrimination erupted on the streets and became known as the Battle of the Bogside.
Strategies were planned and casualties assessed within the walls of the Bogside Inn, while “out the back” petrol bombs were made, ready to take to the barricades where they were thrown at RUC officers.
Paul Doherty holding a photograph of his father Paddy, who was killed on Bloody Sunday. Credit: Maurice Thompson
It was also within the shadow of the Bogside Inn, just three years later, in 1972 , that 13 people, among hundreds taking part in a civil rights march, were gunned down by members of the Parachute Regiment on Bloody Sunday.
That same year, standing at the gable wall of the Bogside Inn, 15-year-old Manus Deery was celebrating his first pay packet by sharing a bag of chips with his friends when a soldier on the Walls fired a shot that claimed the teenager’s life.
Paul Doherty, who owns Bogside Tours, is well versed on the history of the Bogside and the pivotal role the Bogside Inn played.
He is also well placed to pass this history on to visitors to Derry — his father, Paddy Doherty, was among those killed on Bloody Sunday.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Mr Doherty said the Bogside Inn is to Derry what the Dead Rabbit pub is to New York.
“Visitors doing the tour, no matter where they are from, will know about the Bogside Inn and will invariably want to stop for a pint, so it was an integral part of my tour, because it is such an integral part of the history of Derry,” he says. “People come to Derry and come on the tour having heard about the Bogside Inn and they want to leave being able to say they have had a pint in it — it is as famous as any famous bar anywhere in the world.
Manus Deery, aged 15, was shot dead as he ate a bag of chips. Credit: Martin McKeown
“It is sad that it has closed and before long won’t even exist anymore. I do think not retaining a pub on this site as a tourist attraction is a lost opportunity.
“The walls inside the bar were covered in photographs that told the story of the Bogside, from the Battle of the Bogside, to Bloody Sunday, to the hunger strike and young Manus Deery’s death — that, along with all the regulars who would be only too happy to sit, yarn and have the craic with tourists, whether they were Italian, German, American, Australian, or from closer to home.”
He adds: “From my own perspective, the Bogside Inn has a special significance, because it was where my parents had agreed to meet up after the march that became Bloody Sunday. My mother was waiting on my father outside the bar when a man came up and said, ‘Paddy’s dead’ — just like that.”
Another man who will cherishes his memories of the Bogside Inn is Hugh Kearney, who described the Bogside Inn as the hub of the community during a time when the eyes of the world were looking in.
“During the days of the Battle of the Bogside, Free Derry and Bloody Sunday, journalists from all over the world were in the Bogside Inn and I remember, on one occasion, a journalist from an American newspaper sat at the bar beside a couple of us, wanting an interview,” he says.
“Trying to be Jack the Lad, we told her ‘three pints’ and she duly complied, but we didn’t tell her anything that the dogs in the street didn’t know about what was going on, but this was where they all congregated, looking to speak to so and so and wanting to know where such and such could be found.
“The Bogside Inn was like this wee community hub where you thought you were safe from everything that was going on around us — in those days, everyone watched who was coming in the door.
“One thing about the Bogside Inn: there never was any trouble. Nobody stepped out of line and, if there was trouble, you would have been taken to the back of the Bog Inn.
“Over the past few years, it hasn’t been the same — things change, but it will be sad to see it tumbled.”
Terry Crossan had two stints behind the bar of the Bogside Inn; once as bar manager in the 1980s and again for a few years as owner, but prior to both, he was a regular customer.
“The Bogside Inn was always an iconic venue, from the Battle of the Bogside, where you got a lot of journalists and photographers from around the world dropping in, because it was a meeting place in the very heart of where everything was happening,” he says.
“Right after the Battle of the Bogside, a fleadh cheoil was organised, as far as I remember by the Bogside Defence Association, to diffuse the tensions out of the air, but also as a celebratory event. The Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers were playing upstairs in the Bogside Inn, while outside a square was made where wee girls were doing Irish dancing. Because it was a no-go area for police, the sessions would have gone on into the early hours.
“The dynamics of the bar changed to a degree in more recent time, but its use as a venue for the Traveller community only added to its rich history.
“It was while I was manager there and Garvan O’Doherty was the owner that we were asked by the Travellers if they could hold a wedding there and we agreed. What we didn’t know was weddings and funerals for members of the Traveller community went on for three solid days.
“On the third day of one such occasion, when the staff were exhausted and looking forward to a bit of a rest, a call came through to one of those gathered to say someone had sadly died, so those three days were extended by another three.
“Many of the older ones from that time have passed on now, but I am still in contact with some of the younger ones.”
For all the celebrity status the Bogside Inn gained, for some, like Paul McShane, it was just their local bar and its absence will be missed.
“The Bogside Inn was like a home from home for so many people, not least my own father, who had his own particular place at the bar,” says Paul. “When my father passed away in 2015, they put a picture up where he used to sit, but I got that back when it closed.
“When it was first built, it was very basic — just a brick building with a flat roof. But when you walked in, you saw all the heads of people you knew.
“It is very, very sad that the building won’t be there. I always thought the Bogside Inn was like a heritage spot, because it was the backdrop to so much during the Troubles.
“Who knows what plans the new owners of the site have. Maybe they will build a new bar, but its walls will not have the same stories to tell.”