(Click here to jump to the present-day wall.)
(See also: the rear of Free Derry Corner.)

Location

In 1969, 33 Lecky Road, the last house in the row and recently abandoned by a family of three generations of McKanes had a gable wall overlooking a piece of vacant ground known then as “Kitty Kane’s Corner” after the mother McKane from the previous generation. (The last living resident of 33 Lecky Road, Johnny McKane, died in September, 2022.)

(The ground was possibly also known as Fox’s Corner – Irish Central | Derry City | Derry Journal).

Here is an aerial image of the Bogside (taken from the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, as presented here). The view is looking northeast; the river Foyle is visible at the top, the walls of the old city run from top to bottom just to the right of centre, and the steep grassy slope that sweeps down to the Bogside is in the bottom centre.

On the left of the image, Lecky Road runs from the bottom of the image up to the middle. The old houses of Lecky Road are still in place (they would be demolished in the mid-70s), with number 33 and the vacant ground at their top end. The vacant ground was created when the low odd numbers of Lecky Road were removed during the Bogside’s redevelopment.

(Details of the redevelopment. Moving clockwise from the left, from Free Derry Corner/the vacant ground: Lisfannon Park flats were built to the left (replacing the low even numbers of Lecky Road and Nelson and Wellington streets); Glenfada Park flats were built above Fahan Street; crossing Rossville St, Rossville flats replaced the cattle market; and St Joseph’s flats (the smaller flats below Rossville flats) were built where Fahan Street used to turn west. Fahan Street runs along the walls diagonally through the middle-right of the image above and then used to go directly north-west; in this image it wraps around the bottom of the flats in St Joseph’s Place before heading north-west (which appears as almost due west in the image above). The road that continues the southward direction of Fahan Street is St Columb’s Wells, parallel to Lecky Road.)

Here is another image from the period, taken from the west. Free Derry Corner is in the middle of the picture:

Although the wall (when first painted) was the gable of 33 Lecky Road, the very short street between Lecky Road and St Columb’s Wells, (with, in the image above, six chimneys to the right of Free Derry Corner) is St Columb’s Street. As there are no longer any houses here, Free Derry Corner is now generally described as being on Lecky Road.

Early History: The Slogan

The original, hand-written, January 5th, 1969, (Loftus 1982 p. 121 gives October 5th, 1968) version of “You are now entering Free Derry” was done by Liam Hillen. Hillen tells the story like this:

“We were standing around there, it must have been two or three in the morning, heating ourselves up, and I said to Eamonn McCann, “Jesus, I am fed up standing around here doing nothing.”
And Eamonn turned around and said, “Why don’t you go and paint a sign on that gable wall over there?” I asked what we should we paint up, and guys made suggestions like “We Demand Free Beer” and various other things. Then McCann turned round and said, “Why don’t you stick up “You are now entering Free Derry”?” I said, “That’s it, we’ll stick that up,” and turned round and said, “Anybody know where I can get some paint and a brush?” And this wee fella standing on the right-hand side of me said his aunt lived up the street a bit.
So we went and found a can of yellow paint and a can of blue paint, anything else didn’t have much in it. I remembered that yellow and blue made green, so I mixed them together. I got this old hard brush and me and the wee boy walked back down to the corner and up to the gable wall. Big Danny Begley was about six foot tall so he leaned up against the wall with his hands interlocked and gave me a lift up. Chris Armstrong held the paint and I dipped into it.”
(Derry Journal) (Hillen died on Christmas Day, 2018 – Derry Journal.)

Free Derry Corner was born.

Slogan with oak leaf (obscured on left); without “Vote McCann” or “Hume for Derry”.

Slogan with oak leaf on left, with “Vote McCann” above, and “Hume for Derry” on right.

Slogan with oak leaf on left, with “Vote McCann” above, and “Hume for Derry” on right.

According to the Derry Journal, War And An Irish Town, and The Bogside Artists, the inspiration for the slogan was the U.S. civil rights movement and student protests at the University Of California, Berkeley. McCann states that he had seen footage of the protests, including a placard stating “You Are Now Entering Free Berkeley” (Derry Now). There are no other references to such a placard and there do not appear to be any images on-line of the phrase in connection with the ‘Free Speech’ movement of the mid-60s. Here is an AP/Chris Kjobech photo of marchers walking through the Sather Gate holding a “Free Speech” sign on November 20th, 1964. (Here is a gallery of images from the various marches by Ron Enfield.)

(Another possible influence is “free” radio stations. On January 10th, at 7 pm, a transmitter that had been smuggled in from the Republic began broadcasting under the name “Radio Free Derry” (DigWithIt) with the words “This is the first free radio Derry has ever known …” “Free” in this context means “not state-controlled”, as was claimed for Radio Free Europe (begun in 1949) and Radio Free Asia (begun in 1951), both US-sponsored broadcasts to communist countries.)

(Culture Northern Ireland says the slogan is an imitation of signs at the East-West Berlin border, but does so without attribution or citation.)

Early History: First “Block” Lettering

John “Caker” Casey did the more professional version in August, 1969, ahead of a visit by UK Home Secretary James Callaghan on August 28th — black block letters on a white background.

Here is a still taken from video of Callaghan’s visit, from the BBC documentary No Go (at 7m 26s). RTÉ also has video of Callaghan; he is applauded in the Bogside at 9m 50s and the crowd is then shown singing the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome”. 

“Care-Free Derry” – July 9th, 1971

The word “care” was at one point papered over by a poster reading “Strike Now! Against Internment”

To this poster more were added: above ‘Strike now’ were two posters “Here comes the judge, jury, executioner” and “Don’t let them take any more – man your barricade” and above the “RY” of “Derry” “Don’t fraternise with the working class” and “Workers’ control – not army control”; there were also “Workers’ unity with McCann” stencils. (Barbey’s image shows the slogan being repainted. X05283)

Here is a 1971 shot of the gable wall at street level; “care” on the left has been painted over, as has other graffiti below the slogan. “Traitor” is still faintly visible, above.

Here is a shot of the wall from (later in?) 1972. The words “Free Derry” are now in white, on black squares, presumably in response to some damage or graffiti.

Early History: The Wall

The houses were demolished in 1975 but the gable wall was retained (Derry Journal: 1974 discussions | 1975 final decision) and repainted.

Howard Hegarty provides the following information about his father William and the demolition of Lecky Road: “My father, William Hegarty, was born and raised less than 30 metres from the wall, to the front and right of it, and my mother was born and raised beside the pump in the Wells less than 40 metres away to the back and left of the wall. So, this tiny area had a special meaning to them and an emotional attachment which lasted their whole lives. … My father was the Building And Demolition contractor that left the wall standing. He had the contract to demolish all those houses in the Wells and old Bogside area and the contract stated that he owned every brick, door, slate, window, tile etc. … everything, and it was his responsibility to remove everything in preparation for the new development. He told his men to leave that wall standing.”

[In 2023 a memorial stone was added at the left-hand side of Free Derry Corner, reading “William (Willie) Hegarty 1929-2021, born and raised near this spot, life-long republican, left this wall standing to commemorate the Bogside spirit and people.” ]

A Derry Journal article from 1976 reports a petition of 154 signatures claiming that the wall is unsafe.

Howard Hegarty notes: “Legally [the wall] was still his [William Hegarty’s] responsibility, which means he may have put the fence around it in the 70s, or carried out repairs on it at that time. … He was the one that would have maintained it as he lived in the vicinity and had the men and machinery to do it.”

1977 Peter Denton (X09183) shows the wall being repainted with this lettering.

An image from 1978 with the wall surrounded by fencing.

Homer Sykes (Alamy 2A5X1DD, 2A5X1DG, and 2A5X1DW) shows this wall paint-bombed in 1979; the fencing is still in place.

This Peter Marlow (WP) image shows this wall being repainted in 1979 by Barney McFadden (according to ÓSF (Xitter)), with the fencing (but not the fence-posts) removed.

The fence was removed and the slogan re-painted in chunky lettering.

John Hume at the repainted FDC, possibly in 1979, with improvements to the ground around it.

(There are also photographs c. February 1972 of John Hume sitting by a fire on the vacant ground. Hume’s grandparents and their children (including Hume’s mother, Anne Doherty) lived in the row of houses on Lecky Road (YouTube).)
(Watford/Getty X09241 | Christine Spengler X05444 | X05299 | colour photograph 1972 X05301 | X05313)

“A member of the British army drove an armoured personnel carrier into the wall in 1982 taking off one side of it.” (Woods Seeing Is Believing? p. 14)

This wall was repaired or rebuilt with an apex and buttresses, and a flagpole. (See Stones Speak 3m29s. It is not known who or what is responsible for the renovation of the wall – please get in touch if you know.)

(The first painting of the other side of the wall was in 1983. There is a separate Visual History page for the rear of FDC.)

Early History: “Sans-serif” lettering

The new gable was painted with a full-size slogan in sans-serif font. (The old maisonettes are still standing in the background of the photo below.)

Caker Casey in front of the sans-serif version of the slogan.

This version stood for a number of years though it was paint-bombed and repainted on various occasions (1989 one, 1990 two, 1990 three).

Some time between 1990 and 1994 the slogan (in sans-serif lettering) was first “augmented” in the sense that other elements were added to the wall, either painted or attached.

In 1991, a board with the words “Johnny Walker” was added to the apex, for the return of the Birmingham 6 prisoner.

A rainbow was painted by Arlene Wege for the 20th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in 1992.

Early History: “Skinny” lettering

The slogan is painted in a skinny serif font.

1993 “Sam [Maguire] You Are Now Entering Free Derry”

In 1994, around the time that The Petrol Bomber (the first mural by the Bogside Artists) and the 25th anniversary mural for the Battle of the Bogside were painted beside it, the gable was painted bright red and the slogan painted in yellow. According to Oona Woods in Seeing Is Believing (note to plate 14), the repaint was “A temporary transformation in 1994 by artist Colin Darke who painted the wall a socialist-related red and yellow to engender dialogue about its origins and current role in the community.” Darke’s press release is included on p. 16.

1995 “No RUC” added to a black-on-white wall (and also to The Petrol Bomber)

With a green ribbon for the ‘free the political prisoners’ campaign

Green ribbon and celebrating volunteer/’sniper at work’

199x Ribbon + sniper + Kurdish flag
(M05512)

1995? “Saoırse” with dripping blood
(Stones Speak 2m52s)

The mostly-restored wall after Saoırse:

1997-01: 14 small flag holders were added to the rear for a black-flag commemoration of Bloody Sunday.

Early History: “Uneven-Y” lettering

The new lettering still has serifs but is thicker than previously (1998)

Here with a black ribbon (for Bloody Sunday):

Perhaps in 2000, upon his death 2000-09-18: “Caker Casey Was Here January 5th 1969” graffiti. (The original was in fact by Liam Hillen.)

c. 2015 a memorial stone was added to Casey:

2001, again with a black ribbon

In the snow

Flying a Palestinian flag

Also with the uneven-Y lettering:

2003 “Bush Not Welcome” (M02042 M02043 pinterest)

200x “McCann’s Your Man – Vote no 1” graffiti (M05510)

200x with black ribbon and ?’Rosemary Nelson’? sash (Stones Speak 9m51s)

The wall was repaired (in 2004 – see X05958 | Stones Speak 3m09s, 3m13s, 3m23s) and the slogan repainted.

We will refer to the following font and size on the wall (as shown just below) as “normal appearance” in what follows, as this style of lettering has persisted, with slight variations, until the present day (2025).

The chronological history of the wall will resume after we take a break to discuss the wall’s influence around the world.

---

Influence

The name (“Free Derry Corner”), the slogan (“You are now entering free Derry”), and the shape and colour-scheme of the wall have been imitated in various parts of the world.

Elsewhere In Northern Ireland

“Freedom Corner” is a series of UDA murals in east Belfast comprising four (one-storey) gables and seven side-walls along the Newtownards Road; it went by “Freedom Corner” by 1994 (at the latest). It is not a corner (though the houses were originally built without the side walls) and so the “corner” in its name might have been inspired by Free Derry Corner.

The large gable at the bottom of Sandy Row (Belfast) bore the words “You are now entering loyalist Sandy Row” with the same line-breaks – You/Are Now/Entering – as on FDC

In Lisburn, the UDA marked its territory in the Old Warren area with “You are now entering loyalist Old Warren” in black letters on a white background (D01246).

A painted gable in Dungiven (Main St x Bóthar Bhaıle Uí Choınn) read “You are now in Derry Journal country”. The ‘Derry Journal’ is a newspaper (web).

In 2015, a miniature version of Free Derry Corner was burned in the children’s bonfire in the Fountain, Londonderry:

In Bangor, “You are now entering loyalist Kilcooley” greets people at the upper entrance to the estate (2022 X11142).

Around The World

The fame of FDC has spread beyond Northern Ireland, as the following images and links attest:

Free Dheisheh, West Bank (2010)

Free Garbatella, Rome (2010) See also Cestandrea.

Free Baiona, Galicia (Spain) (2016)

“You Are Now Entering Free Brooklyn”, Baltimore (2017) on the side of O’Flynn’s Crab & Cask House (Baltimore Sun)

Free Errekaleor, Basque Country (2018)

Free Deustu (in the Basque Country)

“You are now entering free Cap[itol] Hill” (2020 protests in Seattle in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.)

Free Liverpool in the upper courtyard of McCooleys bar on Temple Ct in the Cavern Quarter of Liverpool (England) 2021

---

Later History: “Normal appearance” lettering

200x “Iraq – troops out. Vote McCann” graffiti (NWPressPics date given is 2000-03 but the lettering is normal appearance)

2005-01 background of Palestine flag (BBC)

2005 normal appearance

2006 “Wear A Black Shamrock” stencil on buttress

2007-01 with Toussaint l’Ouverture on right buttress, Maıréad Farrell on the left (as you look at the wall)

2007-07 Pink background for the first time, for “Foyle Pride”

2007 normal appearance (T00412)

2007-08 with black ribbon

2007-12 with Christmas hat (pinterest)

2008-07-26 and 2008-07-27 “Vision of the Future” by “Non Stop” graffiti artists from Switzerland (BBC)

2008-08 with “Civil Rights” oak leaves (Tovey)

2009-01 “Free Gaza” – warplane bombs pram (indymedia)
2009-02 “You are now entering free Gaza” – remnants of previous (geograph)
2009-10 Derry To Gaza – blockade trip (indymedia)

2010-01 eyes (for ‘Set the truth free’ Bloody Sunday campaign) (Clare Courier)
2010-04 Set The Truth Free (Barnes)
2010-05 “One World 28 – 30 May” blue, pink, green, red hands (Flickr)
2010-06 No More Bloody Sundays

2010-08 “Not for sale” (indymedia)
2010-08 “Free Derry” in rainbow colours (Flickr)

2011-01/02 flying pride rainbow flag

2011-01/02 flying large Tricolour

(circa Easter)

2011-06 Ballymurphy Massacre flyer

2011-07 Release Brendan Lillis posters

2011-08 Nebula

2011-08 Nebula with “Support the POWs” graffiti

2011-08-17 normal appearance (with Mickey Devine 30th poster)

2012-03 Free Marian Price lime-green posters

2012-03 “International Women’s Day – interned and isolated” – Marian Price posters
(pommietravels X09187)

2012-04-03 Stan Petrov graffiti (Derry Journal)

2012-04 red and black background (Flickr)

2012-06 Free Political Prisoners (Latuff)

2012-09 RIP Alan Ryan
(pinterest)

2012-09 flying a Cuban flag to go with a “Free the Cuban 5” board on the back; “RIP Alan Ryan” graffiti painted over

2012-10 roughly “Never Again” Savita Halappanavar posters

[The area in front of the wall is done in pavers]

2013-03 “Two snakes too many – end internment” St Patrick – Theresa Villiers – David Ford

2013-04 Ding dong, the witch is dead (Thatcher) + “Two snakes too many – end internment” (Whorriskey)

2013-04 “Thatcher’s dead – let’s bury greed with her” “Ding dong, the witch is dead”

2013-05 flying a black flag

2013-06 “You are now entering the final stage of the Walled City Marathon 2013”

2013-06 “RUC not welcome in Bogside – BRY” (Menzies)

2013-06 flying a green, white and black flag

2013-06-07 or 08 “You are now entering Colmville” (BBC)

2013-06-21 flying AOH flag (Flickr)

2013-07-20 Kai Wiedenhöfer photo of Occupied Territories wall with Spanish Civil War flag; followed two days later by some trenchant republican commentary

2013-07 fleadhcheoil.ie

2013-08 pink background for Foyle Pride

2013-09 allianceforchoiceni.org (broadsheet.ie)
2013-09 Derry To Athens: No Pasarán (El Norte De Irlanda)

2013-10 “Remember Savita – abortion rights now!” graffiti

2013-12 Mandela (Whorriskey)

2014-04 the plaster on the wall is replaced (Whorriskey)

2014-05 DEED – Derry Engages and Empowers Dementia

2014-05 JFTC2 + RIP Oscar Knox (Whorriskey)

2014-06 “Gerry Conlon 1954-2014 fighting injustice until the end” (Checchi)

2014-07-12 “End Genocide In Gaza” – tears of blood

2014-07 “The forgotten cancer” paulscampaign.com sarcoma awareness 

2014-07-29 “End Genocide In Gaza” – Bakr children; with Palestinian flag flying
At first without names (2014-07-29)

then with names (2014-08-01)

2014-09 Free Scotland (broadsheet.ie)

2014-11 Hands Up Don’t Shoot – Derry – Palestine – Ferguson (Younge)

2015-01 Resist (Bloody Sunday) (Alamy)

2015-06 “Now The Craigavon 2”

2015-07 Paul’s Campaign – sarcoma awareness – “wear the colour yellow” poem; with Plough In The Stars flag

2015-?? three posters Maghaberry – brutality – isolation

2015-08-28 “Queer Icons – Foyle Gay Pride” – flying rainbow flag

2015-09 “Smash fortress Europe – no one is illegal” with ‘RIP Aylan’

2015-12 “Don’t Mourn – Organise” Joe Hill

2016-01-11 RIP Paddy Bogside (irishnews.com)

2016-01-31 flying ‘Irish Republic’ flag

2016-03 flyers for March 28th Easter commemoration

2016-05 “JFT96” (Hillsborough) (Cottrell-Boyce)

2016-05 and 06 James Connolly centenary quote

2016-08-04 “Paul’s Campaign – Sarcoma Cancer Awareness” (Hendrickson)

2016-08-11 Edward Daly posters

2016-08-27 “You are now entering – use a condom”

2016-11 “Fidel Castro 1926-2016” (tripadvisor)

2016-11 flying Cuban flag (An Phoblacht)

2017-01 Rojava Revolution (Derry Now)

2017-02 You are noT entering free Derry (Saoradh | Stones Speak 4m51s)

2017-03 Free AFA Prisoners

2017-04-01 Easter Commemoration Saoradh (Murney)

2017-04 Benefit Cuts Kill

2017-04 éıstígí sticker

2017-05 Solidarity With Palestine – Saoradh (Flickr)

2017-06 Relay For Life (Huffer)

2017-08 “We Have The Rainbow” – LGBTQ ransom note

2017-08 Take Our Wood? BRY (irishnews)

2017-09 Catalonia Resist (Flickr)

2017-10 lit up in Catalonian flag (Derry Journal)

2017-11 #worldwithoutwalls #BDS (McCaffery)

2018 Swedish flag (for World Cup match England v Sweden) (irp1916)

2018-05 Palestine flag

2018-07 With photos

2018-07 yellow for Paul’s Campaign (Derry Journal)

2018-09 Pink in preparation for organ donation campaign

2018-09 Derry Girls Against Borders

2018-10 Derry Girls Against Borders + Civil Rights For All

2019-01 Face à la répression (antifa)

2019-03 “Fairtrade Derry” (Telegraph)

2019-03 #Think32 (tw | Sky)

2019-03 “#Think32” + “No justice, no peace” graffiti (Alamy | BBC)

2019-04 “#NotInOurName – RIP Lyra“

2019-06 Heroes Of Stonewall (tw)

2019-07 Gaza Abú

2019-07 Sarcoma yellow (tw)

2019-07/08 Soldier F graffiti

2019-09 Is Deontóır Mé (organ donation) (Derry Journal)

2019-09 You Are Now Entering Extinction (tw)

2019-10 Solidarity With Catalunya (Alamy)

2019-10 You Are Now Entering Scary Derry (Sean & Nina)

2020-03 NHS ‘The people of Derry thank you” (tw)

2020-04 NHS “We support all our key workers”

2020 As 2020-04 above with yellow background

2020-08 Justice For Noah [Donohoe] with small John Hume memorial

2020-08 The 2020 Hunger Strikers (John Hume now on side)

2020-09 Yes I Donate

2021-02 Kathleen McGuire (Mother & Baby Homes)

2021-03 A Woman’s Place Is In The Revolution

2021-05-22 40th Anniversary of the 1981 Hunger Strike

2021-05 Mica in building concrete

2021-07 (Support for Italy vs England in the covid-delayed Euro “2020” final)

2021-07 Bench and flower boxes added, vandalised, and on the wall “This wall is for the people!!! We won’t be silenced!!!”
(Derry Now | Derry Journal – the latter includes an image of the launch of the bench and boxes X09252)

2021-08 Sarcoma yellow

2021-10-04 John Pat Cunningham

2021-11 Code Red (for COP26 conference in Glasgow)

2021-12 Green Ribbon

2022-01 “There is n0 British Justice” For the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday

2022-04 Stephen McConomy 40th anniversary

2022-07-16 Sarcoma yellow

2022-summer Alan Ryan (BelTel)

2022-08 Flying a Palestinian flag

2022-08 Jason Ceulemans (Alamy)

2023-01 Bloody Sunday March

2023-01-04 Braille + Bloody Sunday March

2023-02 Aidan McAnespie

2023-03 Used as a backdrop for Stop The Legacy Bill

youtube

2023-04 ‘GFA 25 Partition Is Injustice’

2023-05 Carlos Latuff visit/death of Khader Adnan

2023-07 Sarcoma yellow

2023-10 Ireland Supports Palestinian Resistance

2024-02 Words of Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, killed December 7th, 2023, for the annual Bloody Sunday march and Gaza solidarity.

2024-03 Black Shamrock

2024-07 Sean Walsh

2024-08 Motaz Azaiza

2025-02 Trump – Hands Off Gaza

2025-02 Show Israel The Red Card #LajeeCeltic

2025-10 One World, One Struggle

---

References in parentheses to mural collections:

M = Peter Moloney Collection – Murals
T = Paddy Duffy Collection
X = Seosamh Mac Coılle Collection

---

Back to the index of Visual History pages.

Written material copyright © 2017-2025 Extramural Activity. Images are copyright of their respective photographers.