|
Derry |
|
| Derry City Council |  on the city walls So as not to waste our time in Ireland just by going shopping and watching movies, we took a guided tour around the city, which was really interesting. Our tour guide was a nice young girl with lots of fake tan and makeup on :) It was incredibly easy to listen to her talk because their accent is just so mesmerising! So we were told about the building of the city walls (Derry has the oldest remaining city walls in Europe) which were built to keep the Catholics out, and the battle between William of Orange and King James (I think!). We also saw the spot where the Bloody Sunday shootings took place and evidence of "the troubles" in paint bombs that had been thrown on monuments and graffiti.
 looking through to the protestant housing area From the city walls we could see the main Protestant housing area on this side of the river (which is a predominantly Catholic area... as our tour guide said it "the sad movement of the Protestants to the other side of the river") which was pretty easy to spot, because they were building a massive bonfire for Thursday's celebrations and we were shown a graffiti sign that said 'Taiks Beware' (meaning Catholics). The area is decorated with huge flags of St George's Cross, red white and blue stripes on the guttering and all that kind of thing. Our tour guide told us that a Catholic girl moved into that area and had a pipe bomb put in the front of her house, she was lucky to get out with her life. At the end of the estate area there is a huge fence, then on the other side of the road the Catholic/republican area starts and there is an Irish flag atop one of the buildings. On the Catholic side there are some really nice/moving murals representing Bloody Sunday and Free Derry,
 one of the murals and also a young girl who was shot by British Soldiers on her way home from school. (Apologies by the way if I've remembered any of these stories incorrectly).
 the girl who died
 the divide Seeing these parts of town certainly makes you think about everything that has happened, and is still happening in Northern Ireland. Even the cemetery is segregated on the hill! It's so weird though, because when you just walk around the shops and social areas, it doesn't seem like people are so bothered about other people's religion/politics, but obviously from the segregation, there is still underlying tension which sometimes boils over in the marches. I think, just from my short impressions, that most people would just like to get on with their lives! After our tour (which was occasionally interrupted by outbursts of rain) we looked in some more shops, then called the owner of our B&B. We were moving to his other, main house (long story) and he was going to come and pick us up and drive us over. Arkle House is the name of their main business and it is a really beautiful house.
Well dinner was lovely and I had a pint of Guinness as well of course. The food we ordered came in huge servings so neither of us could make it to the end. The restaurant is all nicely decked out in candles and cushions and all of that… it kind of looks like a Church actually but it’s a pub and a restaurant! There were lots of families there as well and more cute kids with gorgeous accents! I was keen to go out that night, (despite the pouring rain) but Jane wasn’t really up for it, everyone we met thought she was 18 so she could have really come to a pub with me, but we went and saw “Shrek” instead, which was excellent, and really funny. Our final day in Derry we spent souvenir shopping.. I think we managed to look inside every single shop in that town! Eventually when we tired ourselves out we got a cab back to the house and picked up our stuff and went off to the airport. We were so early for our plane it was ridiculous, there was no one there! We spent all our coins on playing one of those motorbike racing games and eating the food we had bought at the supermarket. I think Jane and I had a wee bit of a fight but I can’t really remember ;) Anyway apart from an incredibly bumpy ride back on the airport coach everything went fine! I would so love to go back and spend some real time around Ireland, that will have to happen while I’m in this part of the world!
|
Derry Diary Page 1
|
||||
