Introduction

On august twelfth, protestant marchers held their annual parade near the walls of northern ireland's second city, an derry. Every year they marched to commemorate the end, 300 years earlier, of a siege of the city by catholic armies. That year, however, 19 69, as the parade made its way through derry streets us from the nearby catholic district, the bogside began throwing missiles. And for three days and two nights, the bog side rioted. Michael sullivan was a young corporal in the british army. His regiment had been sent to northern ireland a few months earlier to guard key water and electricity sights. He remembers