Synopsis:

On 12 August 1969, the disaffected Catholic population of the Bogside in Derry, Northern Ireland took to the streets in the wake of a Protestant Apprentice Boys parade in the City. The riots continued for three days and ended when British troops were deployed, a decision that was to shape the future of Northern Ireland for over thirty years. This film takes us ‘behind the barricades’ on both sides to reveal the inside stories surrounding the battle.

Vinny Cunningham started out as a cameraman in December 1983. He began work for Derry-based Northland Films in February 1989. When this company decided to split in December 1996, the Sound Recordist there (Billy Gallagher) and Vinny formed their own company, Northland Broadcast.

Since then, he has crewed on a vast amount of documentaries, news items and features for broadcasters and independent production companies from around the globe, as well as expanding into the production of several TV documentaries and features. Perfect Cousin Productions was formed in order to produce some of these documentaries.

Vinny won the ‘GUILD OF TELEVISION CAMERAMEN’ award in October 2000.

FOR ANYONE WHO IS LOOKING FOR AN INSIGHT INTO THE EVENTS OF THAT TIME AND HOW THEY CONSPIRED TO SHAPE THE POLITICS OF THE DECADES TO FOLLOW SHOULD INCLUDE THIS FILM IN THEIR LIBRARY OF MUST HAVES. THIS IS HOW DOCUMENTARIES SHOULD BE MADE AND HOW STORIES SHOULD BE TOLD- Martin Bradley, BBC Film Critic (May 2004)

‘Battle of the Bogside’ is a film that I have wanted to make for about 10 years or so. Back then a man from Creggan in Derry City gave me old audio recordings that he’d made of ‘Radio Free Derry’, the guerrilla radio station set up in Derry’s Bogside in 1969.

I had the idea of a film built up around these audio recordings and set about raising the finance to produce such a film. In 2002, I got the Irish Film Board and the Northern Ireland Film and Television Commission onboard as well as Northland Broadcast and Raw Nerve Productions in Derry. All I needed now was a broadcaster and it was in late 2002 that BBC4, the digital channel, commissioned the film.

John Peto (Assistant Producer/ Writer) and I started work on it in early 2003 and having interviewed over 29 people from ‘both sides of the barricades’, we began editing in October 2003. 15 weeks later, Kevin Murray (editor) and I had what we believed was an accurate account of those incredible 3 days in August 1969, which came to be known as the ‘Battle of the Bogside’.

It is by no means the definitive guide to the ‘Battle of the Bogside’, interview a different set of people and you will get different memories and so on; it is the account as told by the individuals that we interviewed for the film. The documentary features previously unseen archive of the events as well as clips of the Radio Free Derry broadcasts, which haven’t been heard since their original transmission.

I was three years old in August 1969 and living in the Bogside, so for me it was an exploration as well of what was going on my front doorstep.

Producer/ Director

Friday 2 April 2004

On 12 August 1969, the disaffected Catholic and Nationalist population in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland took to the streets to confront the Royal Ulster Constabulary, in the wake of a protestant Apprentice Boys parade in the City.

The riots, which came to be known as the ‘Battle of the Bogside’, continued for almost 3 days and saw over 1,000 people injured. They were not a sudden unforeseen event as the pot had been simmering for some time before August.

The ‘Battle’ ended when, in an unprecedented step, British troops were deployed into Derry. This decision, by the British Government at Westminster, was to shape the future of Northern Ireland for over thirty years.

Through the use of previously unseen archive footage, ‘Battle of the Bogside’ takes us behind the barricades, into Stormont and Westminster, to reveal the inside stories surrounding the Battle and the political response to it. Interviews with key figures from within the Bogside, the RUC and the Northern Irish and British Governments recreate the drama as events unfold. Many of the contributors are speaking for the first time about those 3 days in August 1969.

The film also features exclusive broadcast clips of ‘RADIO FREE DERRY’, a pirate radio station established by the Bogsiders in 1969.

Contributors include: Lord James Callaghan, Martin McGuinness, Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, Bernadette McAliskey, Nell McCafferty, Eamonn McCann and many others.