We are here in the city of Derry, if you’re an Irish nationalist, or Londonderry if you’re a unionist. The history of this city is filled with violence, and is credited as the starting point of the Troubles, the deadly clashes between those who supported British control and those who wanted a free Ireland.

The Walls of Derry

One of Derry’s most iconic features is the only complete and unblemished city walls in all of Ireland, and are one of the most well preserved city walls in all of Europe. Unfortunately we don’t have a picture of the walls, but the image above is a panorama of the Bogside section of the city from the city walls, which can be reached by one of several sets of stairs around the walls.

The walls themselves were built between 1613 and 1619 by the Irish Society. The unfortunate reason was not to protect Derry from invaders, but from it’s own citizens. In an attempt to shore up control over Ireland, King James I confiscated Irish land and sent British citizens over to establish “plantations”. Ulster, which contains all of the counties of Northern Ireland, was the largest plantation. The initial colony was destroyed by Irish chieftain Cahir O’Doherty during O’Doherty’s rebellion, and the walls were a direct result intended to protect the British transplants from the local Irish.

Around Town

While we spent more time walking around Derry than we did any other location thus far, we didn’t get to cover a lot of ground. We first headed to our B&B so we could drop off our luggage and get established.

This is a proper B&B, complete with the second “B”, but it seems that all of Derry has some historical attachment. The current owner has done an amazing job of creating a very unique and opulent atmosphere throughout the entire space, and the staff has been extremely friendly and accommodating. We haven’t had breakfast yet, obviously, but we’ll report back in tomorrow’s post.

We then went out in search of food, since we hadn’t eaten since dinner the previous day. After patronizing a local sandwich shop we headed for the walls and started to work our way around, but the weather was taking a turn for the worst.

We ducked into the Guildhall, the meeting place of the Derry and Strabane City Council. When not in session, the building is freely open to the public and features an exhibit on the history of the city going back to its founding.

Update

On Tuesday, we did a few things elsewhere but returned to Derry at about 5PM local time (12PM your time, maybe) and set out to do the things we didn’t get to do the day before.

The Peace Bridge

With a different set of directions, we managed to get to the Peace Bridge. This was constructed in 2011. It is intended to improve relations between the largely unionist Waterside on the east bank with the largely nationalist Cityside on the west bank, by improving access between these areas. We only went about 1/2 way across because we had miscalculated the order of our itinerary.

Derry Girls Mural

The other thing we wanted to see was the Derry Girls mural. We had watched this show (and it’s cousin “How to Get to Heavy from Belfast” a few months back in preparation for the trip, not because we expected it to be educational or anything, but because was it set in a place we were going to, and was shot in places we could visit. After the show ran, this mural was added to the city. The show’s creator, Lisa McGee, is from Derry, and while the episodes aren’t “factually correct”, they are inspired by McGee’s time growing up in Derry during the 90’s.