Derry, Ireland, May 15, 2023: For IMEMC News, Niall Ó Brolcháin: Large crowds gathered throughout Ireland over the past few days to mark the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, or ‘catastrophe’ when in 1948 over three quarters of a million Palestinians were illegally displaced from their homes in order to make way for the creation of the state of Israel and to stand in solidarity with their Palestinian brothers and sisters.
On Saturday, May 13, the Derry branch of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) gathered at the world-famous Free Derry Wall for a rally to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Chairing the protest, Máire Ní Dhuarcáin spoke of the importance of such events to give hope to the Palestinians and let them know that we all stand together in their struggle for the right to return to their homeland after 75 years and the ending of the apartheid regime that they continue to endure to the present day.
Other speakers at the event were 17-year-old Aoibhe O’Reilly of St Cecilia’s College, Derry, a Palestinian refugee now living in Ireland, Fadl Mustapha, Sameh Hassan of the North West Islamic Association (NWIA), Niall McCarroll, Chairperson of Derry Trades Union Council (TUC) and well renowned civil rights campaigner, Eamonn McCann.
A day of events at the Museum of Free Derry was held on Monday, May 15. The Palestinian flag was flown from the front of the Museum, which commemorates the events of Bloody Sunday in Derry when British paratroopers opened fire on a peaceful protest killing 14 unarmed protestors on January 30, 1972.
Following a screening of the film ‘Gaza’, Radio Free Derry broadcast messages of support from the Bloody Sunday families, Senator Frances Black of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Campaign (IAAC), and Mustafa Barghouti, General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI).
Poems for Palestine were read by Paul McLaughlin and Anne Crilly and Palestinian food and wine was served.
Other IPSC events took place in towns and cities across Ireland including Belfast, Clare, Celbridge, Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Newbridge, Waterford, and Wexford.
