Derry Diary #7
5 July 2004
Rosemount, Derry
No rain. What?

Off to work. "Brooke Park Youth Club wants all of ye!" Back to early morning rises for the week. Cold breakfast and then down the street to the club. Morning activities included "Bum" football where you sit on the floor moving around on your bum trying to kick a ball. (Try visualizing that for a moment) Tennis with Val along with soccer and a deadly game of dodge ball. Val, Nora and Andrew played "rounders" with the kids (baseball). Andrew also got people involved in a game of pool.

In the afternoon Andrew and Mel did arts and crafts, indoor soccer and Andrew drew fake tattoos of the kid's names in Japanese on their arms. He had quite a line of kids wanting to immortalize their names.

The glitter project of dumping glue on a piece of paper and dabbling glitter on it to make a pretty design turned into a glitter explosion. When I went back to the center in the evening to talk to the director the glitter was still there.

While the kids were away in the morning Cal and I went down to talk to the folks at the Bloody Sunday Trust. I had known many of them for years and wanted to hang out with for a bit. I think, Cal enjoyed herself. We spent most of our time with the sister of one of those killed that day in 1972. The Inquiry has heard all the evidence and witness statements for the last 5 years or so and is closed for the summer. Come the Fall the principle attorney's (one for the families of those killed and one for the British Army who opened fire). Then in about a years time, a rendering of a conclusion will be made by Lord Saville. It has been a long haul to get to the truth.

We got home in time to get out the lunch fixin's for the troops as they came back from Brooke Park and before their second (afternoon) session.

Patti and Janelle cooked the dinner tonite. The meal was hamburgers and french fries. It was welcomed. It also set off the fire alarm. I'd never heard the bell before so I wasn't quite sure what it was or how to turn it off. The old boys in the snooker room came out to see what the commotion was all about and someone went down to Sean Young's house to get the key to turn the alarm off. I was waiting for the Fire Brigade to show up but they didn't. A little excitement before dinner. Sean left the key with me...just in case.

Bobby gave a sort-of-kind-of prayer this evening and a kind-a-sort-a reflection to go with it. Hard to explain unless you lived in 1968...but that's a another story for another time.

Oh my God can I get any more boring? Well I'll try better tomorrow.

More later,

paul and Cal