Jim Wray, Casualty of Bloody Sunday

Glenfada Park, Derry. 30th January 1972. Sometime after 4:10pm.

      As people sheltered in Glenfada Park, away from the carnage on Rossville Street, they were unaware that 4 Paramilitaries were approaching. When these soldiers came into view the crowd attempted to escape. Joe Friel, Daniel Gillespie, Paddy O'Donnell, Michael Quinn, and Joe Mahon were wounded. Four men were shot dead; James Wray, Gerald Donaghy, Gerald McKinney, and William McKinney. Witness accounts say Jim Wray, wounded and defenseless, lay just yards from his grandparents’ home when he was shot for a second time in the back at point blank range.

Photo from Newspaper located in the
Museum of Free Derry

      According to British Army evidence 21 soldiers fired their weapons on 'Bloody Sunday' and shot 108 rounds between them. Two soldiers were responsible for firing a total 35 bullets. In the area of Glenfada Park at the time of the shooting, Soldier F fired 13 shots and Soldier H fired 22 shots. It is known that two of those shots were what wounded and murdered James “Jim” Wray. Of the two soldiers, the one responsible for firing the second shot at Jim was highly criticized, as he must have known there was no justification of shooting a mortally wounded man unable to move.

       Jim Wray was 22 years old when he was killed on Bloody Sunday. He was the second oldest in a family of nine and had worked in England for some time, becoming engaged to an Israeli girl he had met there. Outgoing by nature, Jim went to the Castle Bar on a Friday night and the Embassy dance hall on a Saturday. Jim attended the civil rights marches in Derry and the entire family had gone to the march on 30 January after attending Mass together. Jim was shot and wounded in Glenfada Park before being executed as he lay on the ground, unable to move.

       In response to a letter sent to the Ulster Volunteer Force by the family of James Wray, the UVF sent a nasty, disheartening reply (pictured above). Showing no mercy for Jim, naming him a ‘terrorist along with his other twelve Rebel friends’ who died that day, the letter is a clear representation of the hatred that the ‘poor soldiers or policemen’ of the UVF felt during siege on Derry that day. Pledging allegiance to the Queen within the close of the letter, the author of this letter illustrates a direct threat to the family who lost their loved one, “get out of your home or be burned out.”

Museum of Free Derry

        Sitting in a classroom for two hours over the last four weeks listening to lectures on the Troubles of the North could never evoke the sorrow felt walking through the Museum of Free Derry. The artifacts preserved by the families show the very real and contemporary pain that continues to mar the city of Derry today. Without physically experiencing the depth of destruction of the town, there is no context or emotional connection to the words presented to us on screen during lecture. The educational excursion to Derry really allows one to appreciate the full history that is still very much present in Northern Ireland.