Martin

Martin was a young reporter with a local newspaper and attended the march. He describes the atmosphere in the city and what happened next.

’68 is a new BBC Radio Foyle series marking the 50th anniversary of the start of the Troubles.

Most historians agree that if the start of the Troubles can be traced to one time and place, it is the civil rights march on Duke Street in Londonderry on the 5th October 1968. The demonstration had been banned by the government and when it went ahead police turned water cannon on the protestors and beat them with batons. Footage was beamed around the world – and in the space of a few hours life in Northern Ireland changed utterly.

To mark its 50th anniversary, BBC Radio Foyle captures eyewitness accounts from people who were on the march, those who were opposed, and those who remember conditions and the atmosphere in Derry in the weeks beforehand.

Each episode tells a different story from a different perspective, providing an invaluable oral history archive of this key moment in our shared history.