dots more colorfully than Derry. From a leafy monastic hamlet to a Viking-pillaged port, from a cannonball-battered siege survivor to an Industrial Revolution sweatshop, from an essential WWII naval base to a wrenching flashpoint of sectarian Troubles....Derry has seen it all."
The town is a mecca of Ulster Unionism. When Ireland was being divided up, the River Foyle was the logical border between the North and the Republic. But for sentimental and economic reasons, the North kept Derry, which is on the Republic's side of the river. Consequently, the predominantly Catholic city has been contested throughout the Troubles. ( according to Rick Steves). Today, the Manned Armed British surveillance towers are gone since 2006, and British troops have been gone since 2007, after being on guard for 38 years.
We were able to walk the walls of Derry built in1613-1618. In 1688 the Protestants defended the town from siege by Catholic deposed King James II who was eventually defeated by William of Orange at the Battle,of the Boyne.
The beautiful town has been embattled for so many years, fighting about much the same as Belfast. It was so sad to hear from a native the modern tragedy that has just recently been resolved and to know that this has all been going on for hundreds of years.
Some of us on the bus looked at each other as the guide was talking and asked ourselves, where were we when all this was going on and why does this seem like new news to us. Rest assured, we will never listen to another story of modern Ireland in the same way.
Along the Antrim coastline on the way to the Giant's Causeway
Symbolic statues of the peaceful Derry
Gates through the wall around the city....to keep the Catholics out.
Austin's Department store, in Derry.....celebrating 186 years.
Countryside between Derry and Letterkenny
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