Reading day...

I'm currently reading a book called Northern Ireland Stereotypes by E.E.O'Donnell...and turns out it was his Doctoral Thesis. What he offered to his committee to establish himself as a PhD. So far it's pretty dry, and the introduction is never-ending, but it may help me get into the heads of the people in Derry more.

I'm also going to reread Bernadette Devlin's The Price of My Soul and Russell Stetler's The Battle of Bogside, but these are more for logistics and historical details. Devlin's book seems a bit dialed back but it's interesting what she has to say about the August 14th fight. Stetler's is like reading a news report, very immediate.

I found some notes I took from the first time I read Strong About It All, dealing with a number of Derry women being arrested, so I'm not as upset as I was over losing the book. It's out of print and I cannot find a copy that isn't hundreds of dollars. Ridiculous. If I can ever make it back to Derry, I'll check with the library to see if they have a copy and make photocopies. They were very helpful when I was seeking out maps of the city in the mid-60s.

I also did that after a fashion in Belfast. I was at the Linen Hall Library across from the city hall, and they had books that were filled with information...but you can't check them out and no copier. So...I used my phone to snap some photos of what I needed. Not exactly kosher, but I'm not reusing any of it; just wanted the info to be accessible without me making expansive notes in my illegible handwriting.

I've also got the CAIN site that I can dig through, as well as shelves worth of other books and papers, so I'm not exactly wanting for info. It's just working this so the people in the story read like Derry people. That's going to be the hard part. Damned hard.