Entrance
to
Glenfada
Park
North
Shops
under
canopy
Southern
end of
Block 1
of the
Rossville
Flats
Gap
between
Blocks
2 and 3
Joseph Place
alleyway
Fahan Street
steps
CAR PARK
(redacted)
first house is
Joe McColgan
b-in-law.
LORRY FORMING
PLATFORM FOR
CIVIL RIGHTS
MEETING AFTER
MARCH
Walks up to alley heads
for town
CROWD HERE
small
rubble barricade
illegible soldier(?)
WRECKED CARS
hears first
shots
STEEP GRASS VERGE
shot just before
getting to illegible
looks over to
phone box
TELEPHONE
BOX
illegible soldiers (?)
ROSSVILLE ST
SMALL
RUBBLE BARRICADE
Daniel McGowan
identified this
person as himself
Bullet
Hole
I left the window after this
none of the men I saw had anything
in their hands
photographer
came from here
windows
FAHAN STREET
ALLEYWAY
Man
ran from
here and
he was shot
1st man shot here
(he was dragged away)
2nd man shot - dragged
himself towards the alley.
ROSSVILLE STREET
D
E
1
2
F
G
Maisonettes ALLEY Maisonettes
Rosville Flats
Flats
4
Flats
LANE
Car Park
S
T
E
P
S
1
3
2
1 & 2: The men shot running into the lane
3: The man shot while crawling for cover
4: The woman who shouted from the flats
Chamberlain
Street
Gap between
Blocks 1 and 2
Patrick Doherty
LOW WALL
rifle fire
CAR PARK
rifle fire
CONCRETE
LEGEND: "join
local IRA
x Doherty
x McGuigan
ROSSVILLE STREET
Posititon of
Patrick Doherty
when
photographed by
Gilles Peress and
Fulvio Grimaldi
Arc in which the
firer must have
been located
Joseph Place
alleyway
Fahan Street steps
Joseph Place
alleyway
Fahan Street steps
Joseph Place
alleyway
Fahan Street steps
Bernard
McGuigan
Body of
Bernard
McGuigan
Position of
Bernard
Mcguigan's
body
Southern
end of
eastern
block of
Glenfada
Park
North
Body of
Bernard McGuigan
Nevertheless he felt able to mark with the letter K the
appropriate position of the man on the map attached
to his written statement to this Inquiry
(verbatim, the casualties in sector 5)
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
Bebrowed's Blog 
Okay, John, some thoughts: I don’t know much about a Bloody Sunday, as it is called. Another chapter in man’s violent circumstance—that’s about it. Perspectives count here. What looks from a long way away as more senseless killing, up close mattered mortally to a number of people. The old philosophy chestnut—if you had to sacrifice an entire village in, day Mongolia, or your beloved pet Binky, which would you do? Be honest now—is relevant here. This poem is about perspective, yes? It reads like a police report; it reads like a map; it reads like a photograph (or a series thereof). When I read it, I started slowly. By the end I was reading like a surging crowd, helter-skelter, running, mad and afraid, listening to shouts of dead bodies. It reads like blood (or piss) running down the screen. Redacted. Best line: illegible soldiers.
Without some outside help, though (like the tags at the bottom, like comments you’ve made about wanting to write something about Bloody Sunday—why the interest, by the way) I wouldn’t have had a clue what this was all about. That is a problem, I think.
The title is perfection itself.
Jim
Jim,
Thanks for taking the time to respond so thoughtfully. This is a verbatim list of the ‘labels’ used on the maps in one particular chapter of the Saville report. The line indentations more or less match the way the labels are set out and are intended to explore the versification / attestation divide. I’m not that interested in Bloody Sunday as such but I am very keen on saying something about bearing witness and the nature of the official enquiry process. It is intended as part of a larger sequence some of which has been posted- I’m not sure if things need to be more explicit if it is placed in sequence with the other poems. The title is a verbatim quote from a label and was irresistible.
John
Think I also need to say that these labels are mostly imposed on top of existing maps and photographs although there are one or two heartbreaking sketch-maps that have been produced by witnesses. My current interest is in the absolute need to testify / bear witness to ‘difficult’ events and how this need is dealt with by institutions. I’m writing on a day when our Prime Minister has announced two public inquiries to (again) investigate and pronounce on the blindingly obvious as a means of drawing attention away from his own crass venality…