Londonderry Continued...
Londonderry has had a very close relationship with what is now County Donegal for centuries. The person traditionally seen as the "founder" of Doire is St. Columba (also known as Colm Cille or St. Columb), a holy man and royal prince from Tír Chonaill, the old name for almost all of modern County Donegal (of which Derry was a part before 1600). The more recent history of the city is influenced most by its association with the Plantation of Ulster ordered by James I who succeeded to the throne of England following the death of Queen Elizabeth I.
According to the city’s Royal Charter the official name is Londonderry and, as stated in a recent High Court decision in January 2007, remains so. It usually appears as such on maps. The name was changed from Derry in 1613 during the Plantation of Ulster to reflect the establishment of the city by the London guilds.
The city has a nationalist majority, and the council voted to revert to the name Derry, which is used for official council business. Apart from this local government decision, official use within the UK the city is always known as Londonderry. The council changed the name of the local government district on May 7, 1984, consequently renaming itself Derry City Council.
This did not change the name of the city, although the city is coterminous with the district, and in law the city council is also the "Corporation of Londonderry" or, more formally, the "Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of the City of Londonderry". The form "Londonderry" is used for the post town by the Royal Mail.
The city is also nicknamed the Maiden City by virtue of the fact that its walls were never penetrated during the siege of Derry in the late 17th century. A recent addition to the city has been the erection of several large stone columns on main roads into the city welcoming drivers to "the walled city."
The city has long been a focal point for important events in British and Irish history, including the 1688-1689 siege of Derry , the Second World War and Bloody Sunday on 30 January 1972.
It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in Ireland. The earliest historical references date to the 6th century when a monastery was founded by St. Columba, a famous saint from what is now County Donegal.
Before leaving Ireland to spread Christianity elsewhere in the British Isles, Columba founded a monastery in the then Doire Calgaich, on the east side of the Foyle. In the year 546 the area was renamed Doire Cholm Cille in remembrance of Colmcille’s Oak Grove. At this stage, in the 6th century, the city was known primarily as a monastic settlement.
Planters organised by London livery companies through The Honourable The Irish Society arrived in the 1600s as part of the plantation of Ulster, and built the walled city of Londonderry.
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 within a walled city with four gates was thought to be a good design for defence. The grid pattern based on a european model was subsequently much copied for other plantation towns. 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 the Diamond to four gateways - Bishop’s Gate, Ferryquay Gate, Shipquay Gate and Butcher’s Gate. Historic buildings within the walls include the 1633 Gothic cathedral of St Columb. In the porch is an inscription:
The city suffered during 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. The Parliamentarians besieged in Derry were relieved by a strange alliance of Roundhead troops under George Monck and the Irish Catholic general Owen Roe O’Neill. These temporary allies were soon fighting each other again however, after the landing in Ireland of the New Model Army in 1649. The war in Ulster was finally brought to an end when the Parliamentarians crushed the Irish Catholic Ulster army at the battle of Scarrifholis in nearby Donegal in 1650.
During the Glorious Revolution an army of around 1,200 men, mostly catholic "Redshanks" (Highlanders), under Alexander Macdonnell, 3rd Earl of Antrim, arrived outside the city. On 7 December 1688 citizens fearful of a massacre closed the gates of the city 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 war memorial in the diamond, erected 1927.
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 was built 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. Emigrants were carried on the ships of the Cooke and McCorkell families.
Also during the 19th century, the city became the destination for migrants fleeing areas more severely affected by the Irish Potato Famine.
In the 19th century the city prospered as a centre for the shirt industry, Shirts manufactured in Londonderry were exported to other parts of the world.
During the First World War many young men left the city to serve on the Western Front.
Following the end of the war and the onset of the Anglo-Irish War the city experienced sectarian and communal violence, partly prompted by the war raging between the Irish Republican Army and the British Crown Forces.
In 1921, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the partition of Ireland, Londonderry became a border city.
During the Second World War the city played an important part in the Battle of the Atlantic. Allied airmen and sailors played a crucial role in protecting the Atlantic convoys which were carrying vital supplies from North America to Britain. Following the defeat of Germany Nazi U-boats of the German Kriegsmarine surrendered at Lisahally near the city.
In the late 1960s the city became the flashpoint of disputes about institutional discrimination and gerrymandering.
Civil rights demonstrations resulted in violence and took on a sectarian character. The events that followed the August 1969 Apprentice Boys parade when marchers came under attack from sectarian youths resulted in the Battle of the Bogside, when Catholic rioters fought the police, leading to widespread civil disorder in Northern Ireland .
On Sunday January 30, 1972, civilians were shot dead by British paratroopers during a civil rights march in the Bogside area. This event came to be known as Bloody Sunday. It has been the subject of a costly and lengthy tribunal.
The 1970’s and 1980’s were characterised by a bombing campaign by Provisional IRA which resulted in the destruction of much of the old city, political murders and an economic downturn.
During this period thousands of Unionists who lived on the west bank of the city moved to live on the Waterside were they felt safer from violence and intimidation. As the influence of extreme republicanism grew in the city the expression of Unionist culture came under threat and this helped to create and then deepen social and political division. By the early 20th century a number of churches and schools on the west bank which had hitherto catered for the Unionist population had closed or re-located to the Waterside.
Londonderry is in the Foyle constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and the Foyle constituency of the Northern Ireland Assembly. In European Parliament elections, it is part of the Northern Ireland constituency. The local district council is Derry City Council, which consists of five electoral areas: Cityside, Northland, Rural, Shantallow and Waterside. As of 2005, the council’s 30 members were composed of 14 Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) members, ten Sinn Féin, five Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), and one Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).
It is fair comment to say that many unionists feel disenfranchised in the city. Research points to a feeling of alienation and detachment within the Unionist community. Opposition to the free expression of the Unionist culture exemplified in traditional parades held to commemorate the Siege and the Battle of the Boyne ,the legacy of 30 years of communal violence resulting in the loss of innocent lives and the experience of those Unionists who live in the Fountain area of the old city has served to produce within the unionist community feelings of inequality and lack of esteem for the unionist viewpoint and culture.
Whilst the out - workings of the sometimes tortuous process flowing from the Good Friday Agreement have led to a reduction in the level of sectarian violence, Unionism does not enjoy in the city parity or equality with Irish Nationalism or Republicanism whose politics, values and culture dominate life in the city
