Our Big Adventure

IS IT LONDONDERRY or DERRY?

We pass in Northern Ireland with no fuss at all. No signs of the checkpoints are evident, and apart from the highway signs now being back to miles per hour, and petrol prices in pounds, it looks the same as the area we just passed through the last 3 weeks here. The official name is now Derry, but you still hear it called Londonderry, I guess it all depends on which side of the wall you live. Derry itself is a historic walled city, and surprisingly after all “The Troubles” this city has gone through over the past 500 years looks intact now. Much of the city has been re-built since in the past 10 years, but if you look closely the battle scars are still evident of the years of fighting this city has gone through. We take a sightseeing bus tour and the guide points out various locations of interest, some of which we walk back to after the tour ends. We start in the Protestant area, touring the Orange Museum, our guide proudly told us about the marches still held here twice a year. Fanaticism is always scary. We saw the banners held during the march of the Apprentice Boys in 1969, that sparked off 3 days of intensive fighting known as ‘The Battle of the Bogside’, and the disturbance seen as the start of ‘The Troubles’ here. He even mentioned of a branch in Australia if we were interested. We then cross under the wall into the Catholic area called The Bogside, to see the murals painted depicting key events since the 1960’s. We also visit the Museum of Free Derry, established by the Bloody Sunday Trust which tells the story from the Catholic side of view of it’s civil rights movement and the creation of Free Derry in the 1960’s and 70’s. Actual footage of the Bloody Sunday demonstration, taken by a young photographer who was killed that day in the attack by the British Army is shown as well as many other photo’s, rubber bullets and milk bottles similar to those used as petrol bombs. Brian and I both have both come away from our visit to Derry with different feelings. Truly the violence on both sides was horrific, and so many innocent lives were lost from both sides and I think you can still feel an underlying tension, but I hope for all here that peace remains and this country continues to heal.

posted by Brian and Julie @ 8:51:00 PM