A FLORAL model of Free Derry Corner was placed on the altar during the funeral Mass for Johnny McKane, the last person to live at the Bogside house which became the iconic civil rights monument.
Mr McKane (82) passed away at his current home at Lisfannon Park in the Bogside close to the house at 33 Lecky Road which had been his family home for three generations.
Mr McKane’s former home became known to millions of people throughout the world after the words “You Are Now Entering Free Derry” were painted on its gable in 1969. On the night of January 4 1969, B Specials were forced to flee from the Bogside as a group of Catholic ex-servicemen arrived to defend the area.
In the immediate aftermath, at the prompting of activist Eamonn McCann, local man Liam Hillen wrote the legendary slogan on the wall. From 1969 until Operation Motorman in 1972, it marked the start of Derry’s “no-go area” where British control did not operate.
Now known as Free Derry Corner, the gable of Mr McKane’s former home is visited by thousands of tourists annually as a world monument to civil rights.
In an interview in 2019 with The Irish News marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Free Derry Corner, Mr McKane said he was bemused that his former home had become such an attraction to so many people. He said that no matter what people thought, to him Free Derry Corner was “just home".
Mourners at his Requiem Mass yesterday at St Columba’s Church, Long Tower were told that Mr McKane was always committed to the struggle for civil rights. Fr Gerard Mongan said that he was always fully aware of the social injustices faced by the people of Derry. He took part in the 1965 cavalcade from Derry to Stormont to demand that the University of Ulster be sited in Derry. He also was “beaten off the streets” with his sisters during the October 5 1968 civil rights’ march which many people believe marked the start of the Troubles.
“On Bloody Sunday, Johnny had the foresight to recover the blood-covered banner (civil rights’ banner) from the march and stored it safely for future generations, now pride of place at the Museum of Free Derry,” Fr Mongan said.
He said the gable wall of Mr McKane’s home became famous all over the world.
“Number 33 Lecky Road where three generations of a family had lived and Johnny was the last man to live in it. He moved out just before iconic words ‘You Are Now Entering Free Derry’ were scrawled on the gable wall of his home,” he said.
Following Requiem Mass, Mr McKane was laid to rest at Derry city cemetery.
