The Museum of Free Derry, at 55 Glenfada Park in the Bogside, documents the civil rights movement in Derry and the events of Bloody Sunday on 30 January 1972, when British paratroopers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a civil rights march. Fourteen died immediately; two more died later from their wounds.
The museum opened in 1997, initially in a small building, and has expanded considerably since. The exhibition traces the context: the civil rights movement that began in the late 1960s, the early confrontations with the police, the establishment of Free Derry as a no-go area, the Battle of the Bogside in 1969, and then the events of Bloody Sunday itself, documented in harrowing detail through photographs, film footage, and survivor testimony. The Saville Inquiry (1998–2010) finally confirmed what the community had always maintained: that the shootings were unjustified, and that the victims were innocent civilians. The British Prime Minister apologised formally in 2010.
The museum is run by the Bloody Sunday Trust. Admission charged; small and worth every moment of your time.