McCann to relaunch his updated civil rights book
EAMONN McCann’s book on the civil rights campaign has been relaunched on the 50th anniversary of the historic event.
First published in 1974, the new version to be launched in Londonderry today has been updated slightly, but the main text remains as it was.
Mr McCann said: “I was genuinely pressed by a number of people to have the book relaunched to mark the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement this year because so much of it is about the origins of the civil rights campaign in Derry, the Housing Action Committee and what happened up to 1973.
“There is a new introduction which has pieces covering the IRA and a piece about the Bloody Sunday Inquiry and a piece about what was happening in the wider world in 1968, but other than that I didn’t change anything at all.
“I had thought about rewriting the substance of the book, but decided that would be a bit dishonest, so I decided to leave it as it is because it is how I saw things back then.”
He added: “Anybody who still believes exactly what they believe and feels exactly what they felt 50 years ago certainly hasn’t advanced.
“I would be interested to see what a generation that knows nothing about the origins of the Civil Rights Movement thinks.”
The launch is at the Central Library in Derry today at 2pm.