A Visit to Derry, the Walled City of Ulster

Following our tour of the northern coast of Ireland, we drove about and hour to the southwest to visit the walled city of Derry. The sunny blue skies of our weekend in Portstewart gave way to the more common drizzly rain so familiar from living in the Pacific Northwest of America. That in fact was fine, as the time in Derry was focused more to the buildings and pubs with less emphasis on the vistas.

We had a nice view of the city from our Bed and Breakfast at the Serendipity House. It was only a short walk down the hill to the edge of the city. After a visit to the city's tourist information center, we took their recommendation and walked the walls to get an overview.

The stunning Guild Hall next to the River Foyle.

A lot of the wall signage is dedicated to the 1630 Siege of Derry. The Jacobite forces supporting the deposed Catholic King James thought they would find allies in Ireland and tried to enter the city. The gates were closed by some "apprentices" and a siege was on. It lasted for more than a year but was broken by the English navy supporting the Protestant William of Orange. This set up the sectarian conflict that continued on an off until the current times. The most recent "troubles" ended in 2008 when British forces were withdrawn and the Irish Republican Army dis-armed and ended their armed resistance.

While the city looks completely peaceful today. We saw some dramatic photo's of how bad it was. The very beautiful and historic building below was restored. The picture on the right is what it looked like in 1969.

Today Derry remembers the past and hopes to never return to those terrible days of the troubles. Growing up in America, I was fed the propaganda that the IRA were terrorists that were attacking Belfast. I really wasn't aware that the atrocities were happening on both sides and that Derry was very much a center of the conflict. This beautiful walking bridge called the peace bridge was built to allow families separated by the conflict to be reunited.

There is a section of the city called the Free Derry Monument. During the troubles it was made famous by a partisan who painted a wall with the words "You Are Now Entering Free Derry". This became a rallying cry and began to change the world view of the IRA resistance. The IRA consider themselves to be the resistance against an invading army. Today it is painted with many murals and has many monuments to the fallen from the area.

I saw a man giving a walking tour to a group of high school age kids. I stood and listened to him and then talked to after he finished. Seamus gave a very impassioned talk that brought tears to my eyes. His basic message to the kids was that when he was their age he believed "this" was the answer. At that point he pulled out an AK47 bullet. The kids didn't know what it was which was encouraging on it's own.

He then told the story of how he was one of the prisoners in the notorious H Block. Kieran Nugent (no relationship to me) was the first to refuse to wear the prison uniform because he said he was a political prisoner not a common criminal. The prisoners first went naked and later wore blankets to keep warm. Later their leader, Bobby Sands, started a hunger strike to try to further bring attention to their struggles. They decided to run Bobby for election as an MP. Some of the IRA leadership were opposed because they'd been telling their people not to participate in elections and were afraid that they would be embarrassed by the results. However, Bobby won with 30,000 votes. This shocked the UK and Margret Thatcher quickly pushed through a new bill that was made law, prohibiting a prisoner from holding office. Before much more could come of it, Bobby died. However, according to Seamus it changed everything. He said from that point on he knew "this" was much more powerful that than the AK47 and at that point he pulled out a pen. He implored the kids to vote as they were just old enough to participate in the current election. He said he didn't care who they voted for "just vote". It was really very moving.

While we were in Northern Ireland they had an election and for the first time in history Sinn Féin won the leadership position for Northern Ireland. I was told that the Irish Catholic population is growing while the Protestant population is shrinking. The Sinn Féin party is hopeful for a reunification of Ireland within the next decade. Even today, with Brexit in place and the UK out of the EU, there is no physical border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It's an unresolved issue for the UK and an issue for the EU. It seems unlikely that the borders will be closed again. Another solution is needed. Reunification would be one but there are still plenty of "Orange" population that would find this unacceptable.

After walking the walls we were ready for a wee drop. We stopped at the oldest pub on Waterloo street called Tracy's Bar. There Barbara befriended a group of women who gave us a recommendation for dinner. In the picture below Barbara is having a lamb shank and I've ordered the Steak and Guinness pie. When they came and asked how it was, I was enthusiastic but Barbara found her lamb shank a little dry. They immediately whisked it away and brought her a steak pie. It was too much to eat but we took it with us and finished it later in the week.

That night, Barbara was worn out from the walking and elected to stay home. I was up for some live music and walked back to Waterloo street. I was hoping for traditional Irish music but found mostly bands playing 60's and 70's UK pop songs. After trying a few I settled in at Lizzie O'Farrell's where there was an exceptional singer and a nice vibe going on.

After a delicious and generous breakfast at the Serendipity house we were ready to drive down to South Armagh and explore the Nugent roots in Ireland.