Tag Archives: Derry

Mar 10 2024
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Derry, from Ebrington

Saturday 9th March 2024, 3.35pm (day 4,580)

Derry from Ebrington, 9/3/24

Ebrington is a former British Army barracks sited above Derry: the big flat space you see here would presumably have been the parade ground. Not so much a case of swords into ploughshares, but more, swords into luxury hotels-with-spas, artisan craft beer shops and restaurants. But it does retain a good (strategic) view of the city. And it’s a good spot to learn to ride a bike. (The ‘X’ is the Peace Bridge, which featured, along with the also-prominent Guildhall, back in August ’22.)

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Aug 14 2022
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Apprentice Boys’ parade

Saturday 13th August 2022, 9.55am (day 4,006)

Apprentice Boys' parade, 13/8/22

In 1689 there was civil war across Britain and Ireland as the Catholic King James II and the Protestant William of Orange vied for the throne. Derry was besieged for months before the forces of William finally prevailed, there and in the later Battle of the Boyne. And that victory has basically defined British politics ever since, and certainly Northern Irish politics.

The annual commemoration of the siege of Derry, the Apprentice Boys’ parade, is not as politically charged as once it was — in 1969 this event effectively set off the whole Troubles — but one might as well still see it as a political demonstration, conducted by a large number of middle-aged white men affecting a military style of dress. It made for good photo opportunities, but I document without sympathising.

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Aug 12 2022
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Daily Post, Interior

In the Museum of Free Derry

Thursday 11th August 2022, 11.20am (day 4,004)

On 30th January 1972, not more than a hundred yards from the Bed & Breakfast where we are staying in Derry, the British Army killed 14 citizens of its own country, and wounded 14 more. It took decades, but in 2010 it finally came out how the Estalishment massacred these innocent people, as this quote from a radio conversation between a soldier and his officer reveals: “This chap is clearly unarmed, but can I shoot him anyway?” (The answer was yes.)

The Museum of Free Derry now stands more-or-less on the spot where this atrocity took place, and I’m glad it’s there, and doesn’t depend on state funding. The present bunch of ruling morons are as likely to encourage moves towards a united Ireland as they are anything else. Sadly, I’m English, and can’t secede with them.

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Aug 12 2022
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Guildhall and Peace Bridge, Derry

Wednesday 10th August 2022, 7.50pm (day 4,003)

Guildhall and Peace Bridge, 10/8/22

Hey, I’m on holiday. Still in my own country — just about. But Derry, Northern Ireland, is the westernmost city in the UK and doesn’t really feel like the rest of the place for lots of different reasons. Of which more in tomorrow’s post. The Peace Bridge crosses the River Foyle, which is, essentially, the border between the UK and the Republic of Ireland — only not quite, at this point. It’s that uncertainty which defines this place, it seems to me.

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