Derry / Londonderry

Our History

Derry, officially Londonderry (/ˈlʌndəndɛri/),^[7] is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland^[8][9] and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland.^[10] The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name Daire (modern Irish: Doire [ˈd̪ˠɛɾʲə]) meaning ‘oak grove’.^[11][12] The old walled city lies on the west bank of the River Foyle, which is spanned by two road bridges and one footbridge. The city now covers both banks (Cityside on the west and Waterside on the east).

The population of the city was 83,652 at the 2001 Census, while the Derry Urban Area had a population of 90,736.^[13] The district administered by Derry City and Strabane District Council contains both Londonderry Port and City of Derry Airport. Derry is close to the border with County Donegal, with which it has had a close link for many centuries. The person traditionally seen as the founder of the original Derry is Saint Colmcille, a holy man from Tír Chonaill, the old name for almost all of modern County Donegal, of which the west bank of the Foyle was a part before 1610.^[14]

In 2013, Derry was the inaugural UK City of Culture, having been awarded the title in 2010.^[15][16]

Derry is renowned for its architecture. This can be primarily ascribed to the formal planning of the historic walled city of Derry at the core of the modern city. This is centred on the Diamond with a collection of late Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian buildings maintaining the gridlines of the main thoroughfares (Shipquay Street, Ferryquay Street, Butcher Street and Bishop Street) to the City Gates. St Columb’s Cathedral does not follow the grid pattern reinforcing its civic status. This Church of Ireland Cathedral was the first post-Reformation Cathedral built for an Anglican church. The construction of the Roman CatholicSt Eugene’s Cathedral in the Bogside in the 19th-century was another major architectural addition to the city. The Townscape Heritage Initiative has funded restoration works to key listed buildings and other older structures.

Artists and writers associated with the city and surrounding countryside include the Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney,^[163] poet Seamus Deane, playwright Brian Friel,^[164] writer and music critic Nik Cohn, artist Willie Doherty, socio-political commentator and activist Eamonn McCann^[165] and bands such as The Undertones. The large political gable-wall murals of Bogside Artists, Free Derry Corner, the Foyle Film Festival, the Derry Walls, St Eugene’s and St Columb’s Cathedrals and the annual Halloween street carnival^[166] are popular tourist attractions. In 2010, Derry was named the UK’s tenth ‘most musical’ city by PRS for Music.

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Tech Advocate

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