Almost 30 years ago I was still living in Termon and working in a German car factory in Letterkenny; Giggs and I were traversing the links at Dunfanaghy golf club and a few of us were over in Glasgow to see Celtic stop their rivals winning 10 in a row! At home the turf was brought in from Glenveagh for the winter fuel and Gran Canaria was the destination for a bit of winter sun. My family was in their late teens and I had one grandson, Mum and Dad were alive and well and living in the old cottage in Doon. 20 years previously, I had left Belfast for the peace and tranquillity of Donegal, it was a good move. In the Six One News on RTE nightly 28 years ago reports of the standoff at Drumcree and Garvaghy Road, the Orange Order wanted to march through a nationalist area whereas the residents said they weren’t welcome. So we had 3 years of protest and counter protest, initially the British Army and RUC forced the parade through, batoning residents who were making a peaceful sit down protest, this in reaction to loyalist violence. In ’98 the parade was banned leading to massive violence in Loyalist areas across the 6 counties organised by Loyalist Paramilitaries. Over the course of the protests 21 innocent Nationalists were murdered by UVF/UDA culminating in the murder of 3 children.
