Derry City, ‘Where Hope and History Rhyme’
(April 2007).
Just a few short miles over the Donegal border lies a very different Irish City, Derry the Maiden City. It is a unique City, a city in transition, recovering from great traumas where today the mood is one of hope. Anything else is too despairing to contemplate. History and its legacy seeps, perhaps weeps, from its walls. My visit was supposed to be just ‘a break’ not a polemic, but immediately I was enveloped by history and the underlying shadows of mood and resonance. They are unavoidable, they are in the air. One needs to get some idea of this City’s story to get some understanding of what is in train.
The High Walls of Derry:
In other cities like York and Chester their walls are now elaborate, impressive features of a bygone age but in Derry they are an enveloping, perhaps smothering, tapestry of history.
Derry is a Plantation City from the early 1600s’ when it was enclosed by its Walls. During the War between William of Orange and King James the city declared for William and when a force for King James arrived to occupy it, a group of ‘Apprentices’ closed the gates declaring ‘No Surrender’, a term which echoes down the centuries. There followed the Siege of Derry from December 1688 to August 1689 which was broken when a number of supply ships managed to get through.
Derry became one of the great ports of emigration from the North West region through the 1900s’. As a consequence of the Treaty settlement of 1921, Derry, a predominantly Nationalist City, came to be ruled by Stormont and by a Unionist dominated City Council, through gerrymandering and manipulation of the voting system. This also led to strident discrimination on many levels. Some former students will remember Seamus Deane’s bleak portrayal of those decades in ‘Reading in the Dark’. During the Second World War, Derry played a significant part in ‘The Battle of the Atlantic’, against the German U Boat threat. It also acted as a base for thousands of Americans. With post-war education and the example of the American Civil Rights Movement the mood for change and the fight for equality emerged with the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement. However those in power were not willing to make concessions. More radical young people revived the near dormant I.R.A. This led to what is referred to as ‘The Troubles’ but what the radicals readily describe as a ‘War’ with the dominant Unionist majority backed up by the British authorities. While there are many sad markers since the late sixties, ‘Bloody Sunday’, on January 30th, 1972 stands out. On that day, in the Bogside area of Derry, 13 people were killed by the British Army.
On a plaque on The Walls overlooking the site of Bloody Sunday are inscribed telling lines by Seamus Heaney:
“My heart besieged by anger, my mind a gap of danger
I walked among their old haunts, the home ground where they bled
And in the dirt lay justice like an acorn in the winter
‘Til its oak would sprout in Derry, where the thirteen men lay dead”
Derry Today:
The Bogside:
This is an area outside and overlooked by The Walls. It is a Catholic area which through discrimination has been economically deprived.
With the current peace process firmly in place, outsiders are calling to Derry. I did the City bus tour with Australians and ‘The Walls’ with Canadians. In The City Cemetery, on the slopes of The Creggan Hill, I visited the burial place of the victims of Bloody Sunday. I had been at their funerals over thirty five years ago.
I walked the area of the atrocity in the Bogside, now marked with memorials, hoping I was not just a voyeur. A number of the surrounding walls are covered with Murals, by the Bogside Artists Group, relating the story and struggle of the people from this area. Here also is the iconic remaining gable of a building inscribed with, ‘You Are Now Entering Free Derry.” Nearby ‘The Museum of Free Derry’ endorses the theme. It is a pity that this tragic site is traversed by a busy motorway.
A Fine Museum of Contemporary History:
The new Tower Museum, underneath The Walls (everything is beneath The Walls) tells the city’s story in a concise and understandable way. A large section illustrates a history which is of our time and which has impacted on our lives and consciousness. The two trenchant strands of the City’s story are delicately balanced. Indeed balance and middle ground is a present and future challenge. This is most evocatively represented by a sculpture of two figures with outstretched hands almost touching. The hope is that those hands will, in the not too distant future, touch as a symbol of final and lasting reconciliation.
The Tower Museum, which I recommend strongly, was being ‘Officially’ opened when I was there. While waiting to enter I met Bishop Edward Daly the handkerchief- waving priest of Bloody Sunday. Also present was Mark Durkin, leader of the SDLP, an honourable Party of the centre, the Party of Hume and Mallon, now marginalised by the ungrateful and forgetful. The centre didn’t hold.
Distinguished Citizens:
Derry has a number of notable alumni through the years and especially in recent times. St. Columb’s College can uniquely boast two Nobel Laureates in Seamus Heaney, from Bellaghy, and John Hume whose name is entwined with the history of modern Derry.
In literature it can nominate Brian Friel and Seamus Deane though I saw no obvious reference to them.
It also has a proud musical heritage with a Eurovision winner from 1970 in Dana (Rosemary Browne) and a notable composer of songs such as ‘Ireland’s Call’, in Phil Coulter. The original script of his iconic song, ‘The Town I loved So Well’ adorns a Museum display. Outside The City Hotel, where I stayed, was a copper sculpture remembering Joseph Locke (or his real name Joseph McLaughlin) and Hear My Song. Some people might even remember a group called The Undertones’.
It has its sporting heroes too especially in boxing with the Kelly family, Charlie Nash and currently John Duddy.
Derry City is a successful soccer Club while nearby is the GAA’s Celtic Park both in the Brandywell.
A number of fine sculptures are by Maurice Harron who is responsible for ‘The Chieftain’ sculpture, between Boyle and Sligo, on The Curlew Hills which I see from my window. Mister Harron taught in Roscommon town for a number of years in the seventies and early eighties. His most significant piece is to be seen in the centre of a Derry City round-about. It is of the two figures, with outstretched hands nearly touching, representing the coming closer of the communities. Continuing this theme the Dove of Peace is to be seen in a Bogside Mural and in a small Waterside Peace Park. The Waterside is a staunchly Unionist area east of the river Foyle. Interestingly west of the river there is a small Unionist enclave, visible from The Walls, called The Fountain. It is readily identifiable from its Murals, Union Flag and the red, white and blue kerb stones. Oddly there was little or no flag-waving of either hue.
Competing Spires;
Towering over the west side of the city is the spire of St. Eugene’s while dominating the skyline from within The Walls is St. Columb’s Cathedral with its defensive features. In its grounds is a monument to ‘The Siege Heroes.’ There are many churches of various denominations. The angle-grinding dismantler of the last British army bastion graciously gave space to the Guide as he suggested that, ‘there are not many old buildings in the City due to the bombing campaign down the years. At one time over sixty percent of the buildings in the city were affected through bombing” mentioning one as, ‘the most bombed building in Europe’ and referring to some rioting activity as, ‘recreational rioting’ or ‘the standard Derry riot’ of times hopefully past. Words like hope emerge regularly. Then we continued along The Walls with their impressive array of canons and the tales of Walker and Lundy, Apprentice Boys, the burning of effigies, humiliation and provocation. The army is no longer ‘installed by that old gas yard wall’. The Guildhall seems empty now that the Saville Enquiry, into Bloody Sunday, has ended.
Reaching Out:
Like Maurice Harron’s reconciliation sculpture perhaps it is time for us too to reach out and by visiting communicate our tangible support for this new era and direction.
It will take a considerable length of time for Derry to recover and arrive at the bustling note of say, a giddy Galway. Many big employers are gone and investors have heretofore been wary. Unemployment is high at a reported fifteen per cent with some social employment acting as a safety net. Oddly housing prices are very high where there has been a dramatic increase in more recent years than ours. McGee College has finally been given the status of a University as a constituent of The University of Ulster a status long and controversially denied. There are a number of fine hotels including The City Hotel, which was opened in 2002 by Sir Reg Empey of the then ‘Power-Sharing Executive’. It was developed, I was informed, by a group of city business-men with the opening plaque denoting grant aid from a variety of agencies National, E.U and U.S. While the street shops have yet to blossom there is the fine Foyleside Shopping Centre. There is an impressive entertainment venue in The Millennium Forum. Twin bars Peadar O’Donnell’s and The Gweedore Bar offer regular, if loud, music. I was told there are plenty of fine restaurants but some, like The Exchange, are shy and may be missed in a short visit. While the City has a number of generous open areas such as The Diamond, Guildhall Square and Waterloo Place there is no defined heart as such. Finding the Tourist Information Centre is a worthwhile challenge. The Bus Tour was not as fulfilling as The Walking Tour.
The people are welcoming and pleased to see visitors. I am certain that the tourist industry will be one of considerable growth. I left Derry, driving across the lower deck of Craigavon Bridge. If one stretched metaphors perhaps this acted as a contrast to the clear perspective from the new Foyle Bridge. In any event I was pleased I’d come back and I departed with a much to reflect on;
Towering over the west side of the city is the spire of St. Eugene’s while dominating the skyline from within The Walls is St. Columb’s Cathedral with its defensive features. In its grounds is a monument to ‘The Siege Heroes.’ There are many churches of various denominations. The angle-grinding dismantler of the last British army bastion graciously gave space to the Guide as he suggested that, ‘there are not many old buildings in the City due to the bombing campaign down the years. At one time over sixty percent of the buildings in the city were affected through bombing” mentioning one as, ‘the most bombed building in Europe’ and referring to some rioting activity as, ‘recreational rioting’ or ‘the standard Derry riot’ of times hopefully past. Words like hope emerge regularly. Then we continued along The Walls with their impressive array of canons and the tales of Walker and Lundy, Apprentice Boys, the burning of effigies, humiliation and provocation. The army is no longer ‘installed by that old gas yard wall’. The Guildhall seems empty now that the Saville Enquiry, into Bloody Sunday, has ended.
Reaching Out:
Like Maurice Harron’s reconciliation sculpture perhaps it is time for us too to reach out and by visiting communicate our tangible support for this new era and direction.
It will take a considerable length of time for Derry to recover and arrive at the bustling note of say, a giddy Galway. Many big employers are gone and investors have heretofore been wary. Unemployment is high at a reported fifteen per cent with some social employment acting as a safety net. Oddly housing prices are very high where there has been a dramatic increase in more recent years than ours. McGee College has finally been given the status of a University as a constituent of The University of Ulster a status long and controversially denied. There are a number of fine hotels including The City Hotel, which was opened in 2002 by Sir Reg Empey of the then ‘Power-Sharing Executive’. It was developed, I was informed, by a group of city business-men with the opening plaque denoting grant aid from a variety of agencies National, E.U and U.S. While the street shops have yet to blossom there is the fine Foyleside Shopping Centre. There is an impressive entertainment venue in The Millennium Forum. Twin bars Peadar O’Donnell’s and The Gweedore Bar offer regular, if loud, music. I was told there are plenty of fine restaurants but some, like The Exchange, are shy and may be missed in a short visit. While the City has a number of generous open areas such as The Diamond, Guildhall Square and Waterloo Place there is no defined heart as such. Finding the Tourist Information Centre is a worthwhile challenge. The Bus Tour was not as fulfilling as The Walking Tour.
The people are welcoming and pleased to see visitors. I am certain that the tourist industry will be one of considerable growth. I left Derry, driving across the lower deck of Craigavon Bridge. If one stretched metaphors perhaps this acted as a contrast to the clear perspective from the new Foyle Bridge. In any event I was pleased I’d come back and I departed with a much to reflect on;
“History says, don’t hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme”
(Seamus Heaney, Doubletake from The Cure at Troy)
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme”
(Seamus Heaney, Doubletake from The Cure at Troy)
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