On this day in 1843, Joseph F. Sparrow of Chatham, Mass., USA died aged 18. See this and other gravestone inscriptions from Derry Cathedral in the Journals: https://tinyurl.com/spar1843
On this day in 1795, Clotworthy Soden became the rector of Maghera, Co. Derry/Londonderry. Find out more about this parish in the Journals: https://tinyurl.com/soden1795
"An estimated 90,000 Kenyans were slaughtered in the Kikuyu uprising while just over a thousand were hanged on a portable gibbet. Some 160,000 were detained in internment camps where torture was routine.
"One of Britain’s victims was US President Barack Obama’s paternal grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, who was arrested in 1949, and tortured by having pins inserted under his fingernails."
Kitson brought to Belfast his experiences in Kenya, fighting the Kikuyu Land and Freedom Army (exotically dubbed the “Mau Mau” by the British) in the early 1950s where he honed a practice of using “turned” or “converted” rebels into “counter-gangs”.
"The battle of the Bogside was an important catalyst for change, triggering a determined British government intervention that ended the unionist monopoly on power. But it also marked the beginning of 30 years of violent conflict that would claim the lives of more than 3,600 people and bring untold suffering."
Today in Labor History January 30, 1972: Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland occurred when British soldiers gunned down 14 Roman Catholic civil-rights marchers in Derry. The victims were all unarmed and running away from the soldiers when they were shot. Many more were injured by shrapnel, rubber bullets or batons. The soldiers who killed them were members of the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment, which had committed the Ballymurphy Massacre several months prior. Two days after Bloody Sunday, Paul McCartney recorded, “Give Ireland Back to the Irish.” It was one of the only songs banned by the BBC. John Lennon later recorded “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” In 1973, Black Sabbath recorded a song about the incident, “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.” And, of course, there is the 1983 U2 song, “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0izN111lXUg