A Visit to Derry

If you are in Northern Ireland, you would be remiss if you did not visit Derry. Most people know Derry as Londonderry, however, the process is in place to officially change the name back to Derry.

Derry is a pretty city. The violence that was there twenty years ago is almost a thing of the past. The people are working hard to overcome the feelings that caused the violence and they are doing a good job of it. They are not completely finished the process yet, but they are getting there.

Derry was a city that was divided along religious lines. It was the Catholics against the Protestants but as the younger generation grew to become adults, they did not understand why there were such problems. As most people are aware, many of the younger generation do not go to Church and even those that do have no idea why the fighting went on for so long.

The people of Derry are working out their differences and both sides of the conflict want the violence to end. Housing for the working class is becoming equalized for both Protestants and Catholics. Job opportunities no longer specify religious preference. Stores cater to all.

The people are also being cautious. There is a wall in one of the areas of Derry that separates homes of the Protestants from homes of the Catholics. The people on both sides of the wall were asked if they wanted the wall to come down. People on both sides said no because they don’t want to chance an outbreak of violence. This wall is not the only wall that is in Derry.

The location of the barracks for the military also has a wall that was meant to help protect the British Army. Some of the guns are still in position but these are older cannons that do not get fired. We had the opportunity to walk along the top of the wall in Derry and you can see that it was strategically placed. It also provides a pleasant walk on a nice spring evening.

When you look over the city of Derry, you can see where the churches are and the amount of land that Derry occupies. One of the pictures that I took looked like the fog had rolled in and that it was quite dense. About ten minutes later, we looked out the window and the view was sharp except for one area in the distance. Ten minutes after that, you could see rain falling nearby but the whole view was clear. It was the rain that caused the view to look like it was affected by fog.

The Irish have a saying, “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change.”

Day Ten – Field Trip, April 2016

Saying good bye to Belfast, we travelled across Northern Ireland. Because we had a late night last night, I fell asleep on the bus. I do know that we had a quick stop at our hotel and then travelled to Lagcurry in County Donegal to visit the Doagh Famine Village and Visitors Center.

While there, I received some education about the area. It is a very remote area and the people did not have much access to education until approximately the 1980s. I may be out a few years (a decade or two). The people there did not have much money at all. They did with what they had which wasn’t very much at all.

The famine from 1845 to 1848 hit the area very hard. We learned that six years previously, there was a very bad storm go through the area. It was so bad that it destroyed the boats that the local people had for fishing. They had not been able to replace the boats prior to 1845 and, hence, were not able to provide food for themselves in the way of fish.

The guide went on to tell us that the date of the storm was very important in another respect. The government brought in old age pension with the required age for enrolment being 70 years old. There was no civil registration prior to 1864 and it took the government officials to figure out how to determine who qualified for the pension. They realized that if someone was alive and could remember the storm, they qualified.

We then wandered around the displays that they had which included more than information regarding the famine. There was also a display about the making of peace between the Republicans and the Loyalists. I enjoyed the haunted house that they had put together. There were a few things that would scare someone, but I don’t think that it is as good as Nightmares Fear Factory in Niagara Falls. I will have to go back to Nightmares soon to determine this.

A tea was provided for us consisting of bread, butter, jam, biscuits, with tea or coffee (or, in my case, milk). This was just a light snack for us at lunch time. We could have done with more. I know that I would have liked more.

Back to Derry we went. We met our guide for our tour and the bus dropped us off at the part way up one of the hills. We were close to the entrance for the top of the old city wall. This wall was built in the 17^th century and was quite wide. To me, it felt like a street, but no vehicles are allowed on it. We passed a couple of the gates and then descended from the wall. We walked through a shopping area which was closed because it is Sunday. Then we headed towards the Guild Hall where we ended our tour and met up with our driver.

Tonight, we will be having dinner in our hotel and I am sure that all of us are looking forward to it. It may be another late evening as we don’t go to dinner until 7:00 pm.