Hate Thy Brother

As one of the most significant events of “the Troubles” — an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland during the late 20th century — because a large number of civilian citizens were killed, by forces of the state, in full view of the public and the press, Bloody Sunday was celebrated from 1972 to today by artists like John Lennon, Paul McCartney, U2, Roy Harper, Black Sabbath, Thomas Kinsella and many others. It’s an event recalled every year through memorials and marches and that still has the potential to divide Northern Ireland’s fractious politicians. Even though many soldiers never fired a shot, the cloud of anxiety still hangs heavy on their lives. Someone has suffered depression and years of worry: “we served our country and have been abandoned”.

26 people were shot by the paratroopers, 13 died on the day and another died four months later. One of these was Patrick Doherty, photographed, moments before and after he died, by French journalist Gilles Peress in the forecourt of the Rossville flats.

After his studies at the Institute d’Etudes Politiques in Paris from 1966 to 1968 and then at the University of Vincennes until 1971, Gilles soon traveled to Northern Ireland to begin an ongoing 20-year project about the Irish civil rights struggle.

Power in the Blood, a book that synthesizes his years of work in Northern Ireland, is the third part of his ongoing project called Hate Thy Brother, a cycle of documentary stories that describe intolerance and the re-emergence of nationalism in the postwar years. Here, children have once again the power to make our adult issues so puerile and ridiculous.

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