First city of culture.
Martin Mc Guinness has confirmed former DUP leader Ian Paisley phoned him to congratulate the people of his city on being named the UK’s
‘first city of culture.’ A delighted Mr Mc Guinness said “this is a precious gift for the peacemakers.” Derry was the smallest of the cities to make a bid for the coveted distinction with Birmingham, Sheffield and Norwich losing out. East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell spoke of being “very proud of the city.” The North West should benefit economically from the build up to 2013. Eamonn Mallie
‘first city of culture.’ A delighted Mr Mc Guinness said “this is a precious gift for the peacemakers.” Derry was the smallest of the cities to make a bid for the coveted distinction with Birmingham, Sheffield and Norwich losing out. East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell spoke of being “very proud of the city.” The North West should benefit economically from the build up to 2013. Eamonn Mallie
Let’s hope people will really get behind this from both sides of the divide and not let any cynicism get in the way. Let’s all get together on one thing in this country ffs!
EM. The only thing left to do now is finally bury the name change farrago, by adopting formally the culture bid version with Derry at the front and merge the two so the official title will be too long for politicians to keep using and we can get on with something more productive. London is part of the city’s heritage and shouild remain in the charter, but just not as in your face as at present.
A good story all round. Amazing relationship the Doc and Marty have, I know that Ian in the past was very friendly with John Hume – NI is a funny place indeed.
All the best to LD and fair play to them..
I made a suggestion before = Call the place Elderry.
Good luck to them a beautiful city, well deserved. Is that that place where The Apprentice Boys commemorate thon battle ” The siege of Derry” When did it change to Londonderry and why.
Good luck to all the people of Derry/Londonderry.
Just seen on tv “Derry/Londonderry to get the “Brits” as part of it’s city of culture win, that on its own should bring in a few million pounds, I wonder where all the A list celebs will stay during their visit, Belfast prehaps.
” I wonder where all the A list celebs will stay during their visit, Belfast prehaps.”
It’s not Lisburn, they have hotels in the second city
lets hope your right Michael (as I dont want them in Belfast), But can Eglinton cope with all their private jets, Stroke city needs to get on the ball some of these people will not put up with the wrong colour M&Ms or ask for 1000 rose’s on their beds before they will enter their rooms, theres big money to be made out of this and its only fare the people of Derry/Londonderry get a piece of it.
fare/fair get it.
Very good Joe but I think Elderly might be better as a nod towards those old provos who now want the crown of peacemakers.
You could be on to something, sdelaneys. The biggest milk bottler there when I was a kid was the OLD City Dairy.
vanhelsing
N I is a funny place indeed.
Or perhaps its just that people dont hate each other, they just hate the government/s different people choose!
I saw on one of the local news programmes it was suggested the Brit awards would probably have to be staged in Belfast Odyssy or Waterfront hall. They might as well have it in London in that case since it wouldn;t be worth their while coming all the way here to stage it somewhere other than the city it’s being staged here to mark the 2013 event.
‘Or perhaps its just that people dont hate each other,’
Not quite .
Some of our people hate some of their people some of the time and some of their people hate some of our people some of the time . A few of their people hate all of our people all of the time and a few of our people hate all of their people all of the time .
But all of their people and all of our people have to live and work and exist in a political dispensation imposed by others because their people’s people and our people’s people could not agree .
You can fool some of the people some of the time and a few of the people all of the time but fooling all of the people all of the time is to say the least a considerable though temporary achievement at least up to now
Congrats to Derry/Londonderry . Now if Dublin or Cork or Galway were in the UK -yiz would have been placed second or fourth
Londongreg must have had a knock on the head. He said on Talkback yesterday that he was ‘very proud of the city’.
It’s the first time I’ve heard him say that.
What a golden opportunity to deal once and for all with the ‘name’ issue of the maiden city.
To the protestant loyalist Apprentice Boys it will always be Derry
To other Protestant Loyalists it will always be LondonDerry,
To the nationalist or republicans it will always be Derry
To the ordinary non sectarian non partisan man in the street it will always be Derry
Lets forget about Stroke city
Lets forget about Derry Stroke LondonDerry
Lets just hit the nail on the head once and for all and call the city from its historical sequencing DerryLondonDerry
If enough of us just start using it any reference to the city it will catch on
I think it makes sense.
‘I think it makes sense.’
Historically and politically maybe but for your average five-eights it’s too long -and too many syllables -I make it six syllables (Der -ry-Lon-don -der- ry . English speaking peoples tend not to use words of more than 4 syllables at most and prefer words of two or one or in spoken English three is about the limit which is why most non Derry NI locals will try to mangle the London prefix to something like Luhn Derry ,
The people of the maiden city are in any case predominantly Irish or British or Norn Irish or Ulster Scots or whatever other other moniker suits . They are not Germans . If they were they would probably enjoy making tourists try to pronounce
LondonischesEichenstadt an der Foyle
Stroke City sounds just right -One syllable and the job is oxo -n’est ce pas
?
Can any one name a city in the UK or Ireland which has 6 or more syllables in it’s name ?
Excluding of course those in the Welsh and the multi word combos such as Sutton on the Wold or Ashby de la Zouche etc etc ?
Liverpool , Southhampton , Manchester , Huddersfield and Sunderland are all three syllabers ? Does any city have a four syllable moniker much less a 6 syllable one ?
Greenflag
If Galway Dublin etc had been in the running – the world as we know it would have ended!
“Liverpool , Southhampton , Manchester , Huddersfield and Sunderland are all three syllabers ? Does any city have a four syllable moniker much less a 6 syllable one ?”
Magherafelt can never become a city then?
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne for starters!
Derry-Londonderry isn’t a problem for anyone who likes compromise. And, after all, that’s the name that won the bid!
Well done to Derry, hi!
‘Newcastle-Upon-Tyne for starters!’
Nice try Gavin but its a multi word combo and thus not a starter
Well we have Newcastle-Gateshead and Manchester-Salford. Why not call the city on one side of the Foyle Derry and the other city Londonderry?
Procrasnow. I’ve already posted elsewhere that the charter should be amended to formalise the Culture bid version. That way, it will be too long for politicians to keep using it for pointscoring purposes because they would only look silly repeating it every time. It has the added advantage that Londongreg couldn’t any longer claim that nationalists want to erase the British element in the city’s heritage.
IWillis ,
Why not ? Well why not – I’m not fussed either way truth to tell . I’d leave it entirely to the locals after all they are the ones who live in the place
Good luck to them all anyway -Derry or Londonderry
)).
.
pigeon toes ,
I would’nt say never . Becoming a city iirc requires or used to having a cathedral and being the recognised centre of a distinct region . Population is also a factor . There are many large towns in the UK with populations 20 times those of Magherafelt which still await ‘city ‘ status .
Maybe if they shorten the name it might help
?
Maghera City sounds easier on the ears than Magherafelt City
willis. That’s what they did in New Hampshire in the US. One side of the river is Derry, on the other side the neighbouring town is Londonderry, but Staphen King set one or two of his novels in ‘Derry’ so he wasn’t having any of that London prefix.
As far as I’m concerned it is the nationalist/republicans that have made an issue out of the name for the maiden city. As loyalists haven’t an issue with Derry being used in the words of the sash and the previously mentioned Apprentice boys of derry. We appreciate the proper name is Londonderry but in normal frequent use can call it Derry. Its a bit like I’m fron Newtownstewart but in normal covnersation mentioned only as Newton.
So Martin McGuiness lets us know that Ian Paisley called and congratulated him….I wonder how many Republicans called martin….maybe not as many republicans as unionist.
Interesting Kathy- what are you saying….
Stillhalterposition…
Great. Thanks for sharing!!!…