The marching bands formed high up in the Creggan estate and their rhythms filled the streets. Palestinian flags were everywhere on the march in solidarity with those in Gaza suffering the bombardment from Israel, and for a ceasefire. The wind and rain were determined to whip the march and the flags. but the effect was only to make them fly with more pride and passion. People joined the march from from the council estates on the long route downhill so by the time it reached Free Derry Corner it had doubled in size. It was a quiet march, no slogans or chants, either in deference to the wind and rain or the fact that it was the annual commemoration for the fourteen unarmed civilians killed by the British Army in 1972.
The suicide of a brother just over the river in Ebrington barracks was an additional reason for me to be on the march, while acknowledging the victims of the British Army I could pay respects to my brother. Anyone who has read my books will know the tortured relations between England and Ireland play a central role in the lives of my Liverpool Irish characters. So I was happy to take the opportunity to attend the Derry Radical Bookfair on the Saturday and the Bloody Sunday March the same weekend.
The book fair was in a community hall and there were just enough stalls to line the walls of the room. There were two bookshops represented, Connolly bookshop from Dublin, and Little Acorns from Derry. People Before Profit, Palestine Solidarity campaign, and anti-racist and union campaigners took up the rest of the space, with the addition of PM Press a radical American publisher and distributor.
Like an idiot I lost both my notebook and my phone. My notebook held the details of James from PM press who I had a brief chat with, Jenni from Little Acorns, Aaron a history student and Dublin IWW member who bought the whole Liverpool Mystery Trilogy, and John an organiser of the event, among others. The photos on the phone would have shown the swirling flags. Parents pushing prams, and young men walking dogs, that showed the intergenerational community nature of the march. They would also have shown a hesitant me in front of a table full of my books, and a chuffed me in front of the empty table as I sold out of every book I brought.
I can’t remember if I had any photo’s of Conte and Ten whose names I have no doubt misspelt because I am half deaf and they are French and Gaelic names. These Irish/French best friends are Man U/Liverpool supporters, despite these issues this devoted pair together with Aaron were great company for a night out in Sandino’s. Which was where we also met Ciara and shameless Maeve, shameless because she was a huge fan of the show. Ciara purposefully or not caused untold trauma to Ten who the next day realised he had the wrong number for Ciara. So if you have been mentioned, yeah I lost your email too, so give me a shout.
The final morning of my stay was spent traipsing around the shops I’d been in, asking if anyone had found a phone. They hadn’t.
The last thing I did in Derry was cross the Peace Bridge constructed with EU funds in 2011 the curving structure climbs up across the Foyle to Ebrington Square and barracks, the historic fortifications and ramparts are now topped by a renovated public square. This was supposed to be one of the first places I visited as Garret from the Belfast Telegraph wanted a photo of me outside the barracks on Saturday morning, no offence to Garrett but Martin the photographer and I agreed a picture in The Little Acorns bookshop would be much better. For me ideas and memories live in on in people and movements and the words of other authors not structures and buildings. The slate grey of Ebrington square matched the late morning sky, the slate turned to silver, as rays of sunlight bounced off the water as I crossed back over the bridge.
If you are in Derry pop in and say ‘Hello’ to Jenni who bailed me out by printing off my boarding pass for the flight back to Liverpool, leaving me with plenty of time to contemplate the nature of loss; after all the phone and notebook can be replaced.
Jack Byrne 
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