Free Derry Corner

About

Free Derry Corner is a historical landmark in the Bogside neighbourhood of Derry, Northern Ireland, which lies in the intersection of the Lecky Road, Rossville Street and Fahan Street. A free-standing gable wall commemorates Free Derry, a self-declared autonomous nationalist area of Derry that existed between 1969 and 1972. On 5 January 1969, local activist Liam Hillen painted graffiti on a gable wall at the end of a housing terrace stating "You are now entering Free Derry".

Civil rights activist and writer Eamonn McCann stated: "That phrase, 'You are now entering Free Derry', I take credit for that. It's not an original phrase but it was I who devised it on the night in question and had it put up on the wall, and that's the most enduring thing I've ever written: You are now entering Free Derry. That came from Berkeley in California in 1956 in a Berkeley Free Speech Movement...

And there was a student occupation of the University of California, Berkeley... In the entrance to the UC Berkeley campus there was a big sign that said 'You are now entering Free Berkeley' from the Free Speech Movement, and I said, Well that's cool, and then when we came to Derry, I had that put up on that...