Derry, Northern Ireland
Paul McLaughlin is an educator, historian, community leader, and lifelong resident of Derry, Northern Ireland. Growing up during the Troubles, Paul’s earliest memory is witnessing the day of Bloody Sunday as a six-year-old child, an experience that profoundly shaped his understanding of conflict, identity, and justice. Rather than following many of his peers into the violence that engulfed Northern Ireland, he found purpose through sport, education, and public service.
A passionate student of history, Paul devoted his career to helping young people understand the past while building a more hopeful future. As a teacher, youth football coach, and community advocate, he has worked to create opportunities for cross-community engagement and reconciliation. Having lived through decades of division, military occupation, and political turmoil, Paul witnessed firsthand the transformative power of the Good Friday Agreement and remains committed to fostering peace, understanding, and dialogue.
Today, he shares his story as a reminder that even in societies marked by deep conflict, hope, education, and human connection can help create lasting change.
Derry, Northern Ireland
“We still hurt. We still remember. It’s implanted. But we’re willing to move.”
On his earliest childhood memory:
“I would like you to know that my earliest memories of growing up in the city would have been about six years old. And it was a parade that I thought was a parade at six. Bottom of my street, it’s a big march passing by.
My parents had gone out so I thought they must be on this march or parade. And we stood at the bottom of our street and watched this parade pass us by, me and my older brother. And people were singing and smiling and we thought this is fantastic, you know.
Later that day, parents came home and as a child, you’d sense immediately something weird. Something’s weird, you know. They went out singing and smiling. Now they come home in their silence. And I didn’t understand it.
And it was years later before I understood what actually happened. It was actually Bloody Sunday.
And then the scars were left for the rest of the city. I remember my parents talking about an area, and I live in the Creggan, so all the coffins would have been laid out in my church. And it was bizarre to see 13 coffins laid out, and some of them were so young, and people that you knew of, and knew their families.
Chilling is a word, I think, best describes it. To see that in front of you as a young child. As a six-year-old. Oh, the imprint that leaves in your memory is incredible. And you think, what is this about? Why is this happening?”
On the British government’s apology for Bloody Sunday:
“Even when you asked me that question back, I get this feeling of, this, you know, your body’s going, this is something amazing that’s happening. You know, this could be a start of something new that I have never experienced as a young person growing up in the city. I’m thinking, is there a possibility that we could have a new dispensation? Is this a positive city? You know, we do have this positive image, we’re the most friendly people you’ll ever encounter, and still we have these stories and this history, but we do not let that define us. So this is a defining moment we can move forward. The British government have acknowledged something, so that gives us a chance to think, right, there’s hope, and that’s all we look for, is a bit of hope to move forward and think, right, I’m at an age where I’m getting married, I have young children, this is what I hope for them, that they do not have to encounter the same kind of violence that was my history.”
On the signing of the Good Friday Agreement:
“Peace is required. We need to move forward in some manner because this can’t continue. And that was my first idea of peace, because I never thought that was possible in my lifetime.
John Hume and the other political parties took a chance. The people were holding a collective breath. You could sense the tension. You know, is this something, is this going to be a reality? Can we actually achieve this?
And they brought the American president Bill Clinton at the time, a lot of other Irish-Americans also. We got international people involved. We got Europe involved. We got the Republic of Ireland involved. So it was like all this gathering was coming back into the island.
And that’s a seminal moment in anybody’s life. In any country’s existence. Thinking, peace.
Good Friday Agreement. It was a no-brainer. A simple vote. To the people. Both north and south of the island. Because it was an international agreement. So that gave it more legs.
Ceasefires have been called. They were called someone’s terrorists or someone else’s freedom fighter. So the groups that were involved in this conflict in their communities decided we’re having a ceasefire.
And so that to me was something out of the Wild West. Ceasefire means no shooting. No killings. I thought that can only be good. There’s something good is happening.
There was a stirring of hope. YWe could achieve something that we thought was intangible. Was untouchable. Unreachable. It was now in our grasp as young people.
And I remember vividly seeing Bono, John Hume, David Trimble on a stage in Belfast. And holding their hands up high saying, these men, we’ve got it. We’ve got peace. Peace in our time.
On moving forward together:
“And now the last 25, 30 years of my other life, my older life, and having kids and getting married and ending up teaching in my city, giving back to the youth, giving back to the community, getting involved in sport, running a football club for youth, a cross-community football team…I thought, I would never see this in my lifetime.
Going into integrated schools, Catholics and Protestants, non-denominations, coming together to educate. To me, that was always—I take that from my parents—this is the way forward. Let’s educate people together so we can learn from each other and hopefully be an example to other places around the world.
This is what peace can look like. If you have the courage to take that leap, and it is a leap of faith. You’re looking to the heavens thinking, we’ve arrived. Surely this is what we deserve.
Our young people—I wasn’t thinking about myself at that stage—I was thinking about the next generation behind me. Look what we have for you now. This is a better society. Not ideal, by no means, but it’s better than loss. Good things are happening.”
On what that progress looks like:
“Look at what we’ve achieved. Okay, we still have peace walls rather than barricades. So it’s just a change in language. Don’t call it a barricade anymore, even though it still stops things. It’s a peace wall. It’s softer. We don’t have military soldiers on our streets anymore.
If you could imagine back in Minnesota where you’re from, John, if you had American soldiers in full battle gear on your streets, stopping you and searching you whenever they wanted to. That’s a different world for you. That’s our world. We didn’t want that for our kids. Future generations. Who would?
We want that normalized policing… So we had to encourage young Catholics to try and join the police in greater numbers in order to get a sense of policing because policemen couldn’t live in their communities because of the nature of the place we lived in and the violence… So that was one of the intentional movements, to get Catholics to become a part of the police force so that it represented more of the community.
So we try to get movement in all aspects of society. What does society look like? What’s it supposed to look like? How can we manage this change? Let’s do it together. Can’t do it on our own.
To read the introduction to this series, follow this link.
The Troubles: Finding a Path Toward Healing in Northern Ireland
To listen to our podcast, follow this link or find us on the platform of your choice.
A Peace of My Mind on Buzzsprout
Credits:
Interview and photos: John Noltner
Field production: summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
Audio engineering: Razik Saifullah