Few cities in Ireland have a more central place in the modern republican story than Derry. From the Battle of the Bogside in 1969 through Bloody Sunday, the hunger strikes, and the long decades of conflict, Derry was both a frontline of resistance and a community that bore a disproportionate share of the conflict’s human cost. This section brings together over 175 documents spanning nearly a century of republican activity in the city and county — from a 1933 election manifesto and a 1940 internment order through to commemorations and community publications from the 2010s.
The collection encompasses newspapers and bulletins produced by republican organisations in the city, hunger strike material, Bloody Sunday documentation, election literature, commemoration booklets, brigade dinner programmes, and the ephemera of everyday political life in a community that remained steadfast in its republicanism across generations. Together these documents offer an unparalleled ground-level view of how republicanism was lived, organised, and sustained in Derry across the course of the twentieth century.
Volunteer
Volunteer was the newspaper of the Derry Brigade of the Provisional IRA, produced locally and circulated within the city’s republican community during the most intense years of the conflict. Running from 1972 through to the mid-1970s, it provides an invaluable primary source for understanding how the Derry republican movement communicated with its own base — covering operations, prisoner welfare, political analysis, and community news at a time when the city was at the centre of the conflict.
The Starry Plough
The Starry Plough was produced by Official Sinn Féin in the city during the early 1970s, reflecting the distinct political position of the Official republican movement in the aftermath of the 1969–70 split. These issues offer a counterpoint to the Provisional material elsewhere in the section, documenting how the Official movement engaged with the civil rights legacy and the rapidly changing political situation in the North from its own perspective.
 The Starry Plough No 3 (2) |  Vol 2, No 2 (3) |  Vol 2, No 4 (3) |
 Vol 2, No 8 (3) |  1972 (3) |  No 7, 1972 (3) |
 No 9, 1972 (3) |
Pre 1960
1969
1970
1971
1972
 Derry Brigade Memorial (1972) (2) |  Bloody Sunday Memorial Card (1972) (2) |  Butcher’s Dozen (1972) (1) |
 What Happened in Derry (1972) |  Christmas Card from Derry Provisional IRA to British Army in the City |
1973
1974
 Doire Nua (27 September 1974) (2) |  Doire Nua (11 October 1974) (2) |  Doire Nua (04 October 1974) (2) |
 26 April 1974 |  08 May 1974 |
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
 Waterside Sinn Féin Bulletin (13 March 1982) (2) |  Creggan News (26 March 1982) (2) |  Deaths on the Streets of Derry (1982) |
1983
 Bernadette Devlin McAliskey on the Irish Freedom Struggle (1983) (1) |  Patsy O’Hara Anniversary March (1983) |  7 Stars (1983) |
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
 Easter Rising Commemoration Poster (1990) (2) |  Derry Brigade Irish Republican Dinner Programme (1990)(1) |  Derry Irish Republican Christmas Card (1990) |
1991
1992
1993
1994
1996
1997
2000
 Derry Brigade Irish Republican Dinner Programme (2000) (1) |  Derry Volunteers Commemoration Leaflet (2000) |  Free Derry Wall (2000) |
2001
2002
2004
2005
2006
 Pól Kinsella Cumann Annual Function (2006) (2) |  Derry Brigade Irish Republican Dinner Programme (2006) |
2007
2008
2009
2010s
Misc
(1) Donated by @irish_republican_archive
(2) Donated by the J and L Sweeney Collection
(3) Donated by Brian Hanley
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