Londonderry - The History (Londonderry)

Member Name: sweetpea01

Product:	Londonderry
Date:	15/01/09 (308 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Its a beautiful walled City

Disadvantages: Not for a romantic get away!

Back in February 2008 my boyfriend and I were looking around for a quick get away! Anywhere would do! We looked on Ryanair for some cheap flights and we found flights from Bristol to Derry for 1p with no taxes! That was it and it was booked! We were only going for two days and wanted to learn abit more about Northern Ireland and especially as I do have Irish blood and it would be nice to be cultured.

Londonderry or in Irish is Doire Cholm Chille, it is often called the Maiden City and it was the last City in the British Isles to be enclosed with defensive walls. It is one of the only cities in Europe never to have these fortifications breached. You can walk most of the way round the walls and they are incredibly impressive yet indimidating!

Londonderry lies on the west bank of the River Foyle with old Derry and is the second largest city in N.Ireland. The river is spanned by two bridges, one of which is incredibly hard to walk over and is a double storey. The City contains Londonderry Port and City of Derry Airport, the airport is served mainly by Ryanair which offers cheap flights. Taxis from Derry airport are actually set at a limit and cannot go over this, I think we paid £11.00 and that was from the airport and to the city.

**A bit about the Name**

According to the city's Royal Charter the official name is Londonderry and, as stated in a recent High Court decision in January 2007remains so. It usually appears as such on maps. The city is known by many as Derry, The name was changed from Derry in 1613 during the Plantation of Ulster to reflect the establishment of the city by the London guilds.

If you take a drive around the outskirts of Derry you will see alot of de-faced road signs where they have blanked out London so it leaves Derry. The name "Derry" is preferred by nationalists and it is broadly used throughout Northern Ireland's Catholic community, as well as those of the Republic of Ireland, whereas many unionists prefer "Londonderry"; however in everyday conversation Derry is also used frequently by Protestants. Apart from this local government decision, official use within the UK the city is usually known as Londonderry.

**History of Londonderry**

The city has long been a focal point for important events in Irish history, including the 1688-1689 siege of Derry and Bloody Sunday on 30 January 1972.

Derry is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in Ireland.[19] The earliest historical references date to the 6th century when a monastery was founded there by St. Columba (you will see the magnificent church St.Columb which is on the outskirts of the City right by part of the wall) or Colmcille, a famous saint from what is now County Donegal, but for thousands of years before that people had been living in the vicinity.

This Londonderry was the first planned city in Ireland: it was begun in 1613, with the walls being completed 5 years later in 1618. The central diamond (which is still seen to this day, right in the centre where it is now surrounded by shops) within a walled city with four gates was thought to be a good design for defence. The charter initially defined the city as extending three Irish miles (about 6.1 km) from the centre.

The modern city preserves the 17th century layout of four main streets radiating from a central Diamond to four gateways -- Bishop's Gate, Ferryquay Gate, Shipquay Gate and Butcher's Gate.

During the 1640s, the city suffered in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which began with the Irish Rebellion of 1641, when the Gaelic Irish insurgents made a failed attack on the city. In 1649 the city and its garrison, which supported the republican Parliament in London, were besieged by Scottish Presbyterian forces loyal to King Charles I.

During the Glorious Revolution, only Londonderry and nearby Enniskillen had a Protestant garrison by November 1688. When they arrived on 7 December 1688 the gates were closed against them and the Siege of Derry began. In April 1689, King James came to the city and summoned it to surrender. The King was rebuffed and the siege lasted until the end of July with the arrival of a relief ship.

The city was rebuilt in the 18th century with many of its fine Georgian style houses still surviving. The city's first bridge across the River Foyle in 1790. During the 18th and 19th centuries the port became an important embarkation point for Irish emigrants setting out for North America. Some of these founded the colonies of Derry and Londonderry in the state of New Hampshire.
Also during the 19th century, it became a destination for migrants fleeing areas more severely affected by the Irish Potato Famine.

During the Irish War of Independence, the area was rocked by sectarian violence, partly prompted by the guerilla war raging between the Irish Republican Army and British forces, but also influenced by economic and social pressures. In July 1920, several thousand unionist ex-British Army servicemen mobilised to try to drive Catholics out of jobs they had taken during the First World War. Severe rioting ensued and the loyalists launched an assault on St Columb's Cathedral, which was resisted by armed IRA members. Many lives were lost and in addition many Catholics and Protestants were expelled from their homes during this communal unrest.

In 1921, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the partition of Ireland, it unexpectedly became a border city, separated from much of its natural economic hinterland in County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland.

During the Second World War Londonderry played an important part in the Battle of the Atlantic. Ships from the Royal Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy, and other Allied navies were stationed in the city and the United States military established a base. The reason for such a high degree of military and naval activity was self-evident: Londonderry was the United Kingdom's westernmost port.

**Free Derry**

Catholics were discriminated against under Unionist government in Northern Ireland, both politically and economically. In the late 1960s the city became the flashpoint of disputes about institutional gerrymandering. Political scientist John Whyte explains that: Civil rights demonstrations led by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association were declared illegal and then suppressed by the Royal Ulster Constabulary and Ulster Special Constabulary. The events that followed the August 1969 Apprentice Boys parade resulted in the Battle of the Bogside, when Catholic rioters fought the police, leading to widespread civil disorder in Northern Ireland and is often dated as the starting point of the Troubles.

On Sunday January 30, 1972, 13 unarmed civilians were shot dead by British paratroopers during a civil rights march in the Bogside area. Another 13 were wounded and one further man later died of his wounds. This event came to be known as Bloody Sunday. The time I spent in Derry was actually the weekend remembering Bloody Sunday, after going to the Free Derry museum on the Saturday we decided to go to the memorial and watch the march in respect. It was a deeply saddening event, an event I will never forget and I will be grateful that I was able to be there.

For the memorial they had invited a wonderful Welsh choir to sing, alot of people gathered around the monument which was erected to remember the 13 who lost their lives. The roads were not blocked off but they were quiet out of respect. However there were police riot vans waiting nearby just incase any trouble kicked off.

Walking around Bogside you will see many many murials which depict peoples feelings, mainly anger and upset and they are beautifully created. Most of them face the road so you can see them clearly and they are on both sides of the road which leads to the Free Derry monument, which welcomes you into Free Derry.

**Shopping**

The city is the north west's major shopping district, housing two large shopping centres along with numerous shop packed streets serving much of the greater county, as well as Tyrone and Donegal. The city centre has two main shopping centres; the Foyleside Shopping Centre which has 45 stores and 1430 parking spaces, and the Richmond Centre, which has 39 retail units. The Quayside Shopping Centre also serves the city-side and there is also Lisnagelvin Shopping Centre in the Waterside. You can find stores such as New Look, Topshop, Primark, Superdrug, Mango etc.

The recently built Crescent Link Retail Park located in the Waterside and has many international chain stores, including Homebase, Curries, Carpet Right, PC World, Argos Extra, Toys R Us, Halfords, JJB, Pets at Home, MFI, Tesco Express, M&S Simply Food and Land of Leather. In the short space that this site has been built, it has rapidly grown to be the second largest retail park in Northern Ireland.

It is also home to the world's oldest independent department store; Austins. Established in 1830.The store's five-story Edwardian building is located in the city centre's Diamond. I have many pictures of this beautiful building, it's such a pleasure to see such a wonderful building still in use and adored by many people.

**Sights to See**

There is a distinct architectural quality compared with other Irish cities. This quality can be primarily ascribed to the formal planning of the historic walled city of Londonderry at the core of the modern city, or put simply the grid formation! This is centred on the Diamond with a collection of late Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian buildings maintaining the gridlines of the main thoroughfares.

Two of the most impressive buildings to see are Columb's Cathedral, it is a Church of Ireland Cathedral and was the first post-reformation cathedral built for an Anglican Church. Unfortunately when we visited Derry and went to see this it was having some building work done and we couldn't actually get up close, however we did walk around the wall to get some lovely views of it.

The second building would be the St.Eugene Catholic church which is in Bogside which was constructed in the 19th century, unfortunately it suffered bomb damaged in the 1970s and has gone under various restoration works.

In the three centuries since their construction, the city walls have been adapted to meet the needs of a changing city. The best example of this adaptation is the insertion of three additional gates -- Castle Gate, New Gate and Magazine Gate -- into the walls in the course of the nineteenth century. Today, the fortifications form a continuous promenade around the city centre, complete with cannon, avenues of mature trees and views across Derry.

Historic buildings within the city walls include St Augustine's Church, which sits on the city walls close to the site of the original monastic settlement; the copper-domed Austin's department store, which claims to the oldest such store in the world; and the imposing Greek Revival Courthouse on Bishop Street. The red-brick late-Victorian Guildhall, also crowned by a copper dome, stands just beyond Shipquay Gate and close to the river front.

There are some wonderful museums to visit which are in and around the city and are all easily reachable whether on foot or even a quick taxi ride away!

1. Foyle Valley Railway Centre
2. Amelia Earhart Centre
3. Free Derry Museum
4. The Workhouse Museum

There are many more to see and visit. Fortunately in Derry there are plenty of maps, brochures and guides which are free and easily accessible mainly from the front of any hotel.

**Transport**

The transport network is built out of a complex array of old and modern roads and railways throughout the city and county. The city's road network also makes use of two bridges to cross the River Foyle, the Craigavon Bridge and the Foyle Bridge, the longest bridge in Ireland.

In spite of it being the second city of Northern Ireland (and it being the second-largest city in all of Ulster), road and rail links to other cities are below par for its standing. There is no direct motorway link with Dublin or Belfast.

Most public transport in Northern Ireland is operated by the subsidiaries of Translink. Originally the city's internal bus network was run by Ulsterbus, which still provides the city's connections with other towns in Northern Ireland. Long distance buses depart from Foyle Street Bus Station to destinations throughout Ireland. Buses are operated by both Ulsterbus and Bus Éireann on cross-border routes and also by Lough Swilly buses to Co. Donegal. There is a half-hourly service to Belfast every day, called the Maiden City Flyer, which is the Goldline Express flagship route. There are hourly services to Strabane, Omagh, Coleraine, Letterkenny and Buncrana, and eleven services a day to bring people to Dublin. There is a daily service to Sligo, Galway, Shannon Airport and Limerick.

Northern Ireland Railways (N.I.R.) has a single route from Londonderry railway station (this is centred right by the Guildhall which is an ideal spot and easy to find from most directions) to Belfast via Bellarena, Castlerock, Coleraine, Ballymoney, Cullybackey, Ballymena, Antrim, Mossley West and Whiteabbey. The service, which had been allowed to deteriorate in the 1990s, has since been boosted by increased investment.

City of Derry Airport, the council-owned commercial airport near Eglinton, has been growing in recent years with new investment in a new runway and £10 million towards redeveloping the site. It is hoped that the new investment will add to the airport's limited array of domestic and international flights.
Flights depart mostly to airports in the UK and Ireland, such as Dublin, London Stansted, Liverpool, East Midlands, Glasgow Prestwick Airport, Glasgow International Airport, Birmingham International Airport, Luton and Bristol, though also serves some resorts on the southern coast of the Iberian peninsula and the Canary Islands during the summer.

Londonderry Port at Lisahally is the United Kingdom's most westerly port and has capacity for 30,000-ton vessels. The port played a vital part for the Allies in World War II during the war's longest running campaign, the Battle of the Atlantic, and saw the surrender of the German U-Boat fleet at Lisahally on 8 May 1945.

When we went to Derry it was bitterly cold and it had been snowing! However that didn't put us off whatsoever, it just made the City look incredibly beautiful! The hotel we stayed in was the Travelodge, the only one in Derry and was a short 10 minute walk into the main part of the city. A perfectly clean and presentable hotel is an ideal hotel which caters for all sorts of people whether it's for leisure or business.

Derry is not somewhere you go to have an absolutely amazing, fantastic time! It's a place to learn and take in what happened many years ago which is still at the heart of this welcoming City. Unfortunately you do feel like an outsider even if you are in part of the British kingdom, it still very much belongs to the Irish and you are reguarly made clear of that! Even the taxi driver we had when coming back from the airport told us that a few months back an English couple had abuse hurled at them by nationalists.

It is a place where you have to be respectful yet take in and learn as much as you can as it's somewhere you probably won't re-visit. It is now becoming popular with American and Japanese tourists during the summer months and the population of Polish, Lithuanians and Romanians is also increasing and making their presence also known.

I think on the whole I really enjoyed my weekend break I was fortunate enough to visit it with someone who appreciates the history of the City and we were able to learn the background and absorb it completely. I would recommend to all that is curious and interested.

Summary: A much needed break to take in some History