Derry – Page 4 – Slugger O'Toole

Cyclist beats “embarrassing” train in race from Derry to Belfast

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on June 24, 2014, 1:47 pm

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An SDLP press release issued today reveals the results of a “bicycle versus train” challenge on Sunday, travelling between Derry and Belfast. John Madden and Peter Jack set off from Derry’s General Post Office at 9.15am. John threw his leg over his bicycle and broke the Derry to Belfast record (held by Morris ‘Big Mo’ Foster) as he pedalled down to Belfast Albert Memorial Clock (avoiding motorways) in 2 hours 27 minutes. Meanwhile Peter caught the 09:42 train from Londonderry …

For what is Northern Ireland going to be known in 2013?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on November 29, 2012, 3:32 pm

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As NI2012 Our Place Our Time comes to a halt, does Northern Ireland Tourist Board have a fight on its hands to maintain this year’s impetus? Competition comes from Tourism Ireland’s The Gathering (which Tourism Minister Arlene Foster made no mention of in her party conference speech at the weekend) not to mention VisitScotland’s three month Winter Festivals promotion. On top of a series of high profile events, The Gathering’s website has a call to action, encouraging Irish families and …

Just three per cent of businesses are registered in NI’s second city…

Mick Fealty on May 25, 2012, 8:51 am

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The Londonderry Sentinel has some fascinating figures released by the DFP minister Sammy Wilson: New figures detailing the number of registered businesses in each constituency show there were only 2,205 in Londonderry in January. Only West Belfast (1,430) and North Belfast (2,185) had fewer whilst East Londonderry (3,900) and West Tyrone (5,095) had roughly twice as many as the Foyle constituency. And it notes: It follows the revelation in March that over 800 business premises in Londonderry lie desolate. There …

Would the legalisation of cannibis help reduce the drug problem in Derry (and elsewhere)?

Mick Fealty on May 15, 2012, 1:43 pm

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Right, I have no personal interest in pushing this line (‘if you’ll forgive the pun’). In other words I don’t do illegal drugs. That may be a result of the happy accident of never having really smoked and on the few occasions I’ve been offered canibis (a long long long time ago), it made only me splutter… A second deterrent was the connection it implies to a vast underworld that survives and gets by in an unregulated and brutal criminal …

City of Culture: badge of authority around which people can gather to work collectively?

Mick Fealty on May 1, 2012, 1:23 pm

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I’ve always assumed there was more than a passing similarity between Liverpool and Derry. Neither is quite what they were, both have a long history as a major deep water port, with propensity to look outwards rather than inwards. As I passed through my old haunts in the English city the other day, I came across this piece by Phil Redmond on Liverpool, Derry and the evolution of the UK City of Culture: Principally, it is merely the badge of …

Red Squirrels of Prehen Woods: Under imminent threat from planners and developers?

Mick Fealty on February 10, 2012, 10:23 am

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During the 2005 Slugger live coverage of the Westminster elections, I overheard a fairly senior Sinn Fein representative being candid enough to admit that there were no votes in the Environment. That’s not to pick on that particular party any more than any of the others. It’s a fact of life in Northern Irish electoral politics, and I suspect that Sinn Fein is not the worst offender. People need homes to live in and places to work. But one of …

Culture Night … tonight in Belfast, Strabane, Derry and beyond

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 23, 2011, 12:00 pm

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Across Ireland, tonight’s the night when arts taster events will be run in a town near you … for free. Last September, Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter was buzzing late into the evening as families walked around the streets, guided by maps and diverted by what their ears and eyes could pick out of the smorgasbord of music, pictures, talks, dance, comedy, street performers and one man soulfully playing trumpet from an upstairs window. Tonight, the organiser has crammed in even more …

Presbyterian minister welcomed with a cup of tea at dissident protest camp at Free Derry Corner

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on August 23, 2011, 9:30 am

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Rev David Latimer

Presbyterian ministers can’t seem to keep out of the news this week. Suzanne Breen reports in the Sunday World that Rev David Latimer (minister of the recently refurbished First Derry congregation, and a Territorial Army chaplain) made an unannounced visit to a dissident republican protest camp at Free Derry Corner over the weekend. In a ground-breaking step, the Rev David Latimer visited dissidents holding a 48-hour camp-out in the Bogside in support of republican prisoners in Maghaberry. The Presbyterian minister, …

It’s not Jerusalem, its Yerushalayim…

Quincey Dougan on August 17, 2011, 3:25 pm

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Last Saturday was my annual pilgrimage to the Maiden City to commemorate the Relief of Derry. Personally I have never been one of those Unionists who got overly hung up on the interchangeable use of the words Derry and Londonderry. I’ve been a member of the Apprentice Boys of Derry for 20 years this very month, and for as long as I can remember Saturday has always been ‘Derry Day’ to myself, my family, my friends and basically everyone I …

#UTVtrip: What are the issues in Foyle for #AE11?

Mick Fealty on April 18, 2011, 12:00 pm

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Tomorrow the UTV Twitter Road show rolls into the Foyle constituency. I should be on the ground from about 9, with a vo pop in the city centre, followed by a first political interview with Eamonn McCann. It culminates in our Tweetup at the Café Del Mondo in Shipquay Place. The idea is almost exactly the opposite of the traditional hustings event. There is no platform, just a circle. The subject of the conversation is what people who come bring …

As Irish as Catterick? They won’t be going away you know

Blank on March 5, 2011, 7:51 pm

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Thanks to irishrepublican.net for photographs of British military vehicles on the streets of Creggan yesterday. Some republicans hailed the ending of the British Army’s longest deployment, Operation Banner in 2007. Others knew British Army missions in Ireland had been merely renamed Helvetic to reflect hopes of a normalised population: In their usual astounding display of chutzpah Sinn Fein have produced a T-shirt depicting the IRA expelling a Brit soldier, claiming that the ending of ‘Operation Banner’ (the deployment of troops …

POTD – Busker

Moochin Photoman on February 27, 2011, 7:36 am

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Moochin PhotomanPhotographer and visual artist based in Belfast. I have facilitated community based workshops with groups as diverse as visually impaired individuals in Dungannn, Travellers across Northern Ireland, Young Offenders and many community groups across Belfast. My work has exhibited extensively here in Northern Ireland in group and individual shows and has been shown in North America and i had my first solo international exhibition in New Zealand. I have been the recipient of a number of grants from the …

The Last Bloody Sunday March: Changing How We Remember the Past?

Gladys Ganiel on January 31, 2011, 9:28 pm

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The adjective ‘historic’ gets used far too often in Northern Ireland, but yesterday’s Bloody Sunday March in Derry just might be worthy of the word. In the wake of the Saville Report, the committee of the Bloody Sunday Weekend decided that this would be the last year that the march went ahead. The rationale is that the Saville Report has confirmed the innocence of the victims. It has vindicated not only those who died but also the families and supporters …

Derry Essay: The Protestants of Londonderry

Gregory Campbell on August 9, 2010, 11:53 am

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First there is a generational difference. Older people who came through the 1969 – 72 experience, many of whom moved across the river from the Cityside to the Waterside and further afield have vivid memories of that time and perceptions have been formed as a result of it. Then there is the younger generation who not only did not come through that personally but now live in a different environment and accordingly have a different perspective. There have been a …

Decision time for the Derry/Londonderry City of Culture bid…

Mick Fealty on July 15, 2010, 1:29 pm

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Over at Listenderry, Mark’s calling for volunteers to cover the unveiling of the winner of UK City of Culture… Whether you are in Derry/Londonderry or just plain old London get in touch with him via email or the Listenderry Facebook group… As Brian noted on Monday the Mail says they are favourites (but it wouldn’t be the first that time that great organ of British middle class propaganda got something badly wrong… The current Mayor of the city thinks it …

The Fountain: A part of Londonderry that Derry forgot…

Mick Fealty on June 28, 2010, 5:30 pm

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Nice observational piece here from Middlemarch on Listenderry… A writer from a nationalist background who took a quiet walk into and around the tiny Fountain area: the only part of Derry city’s west bank which retains a substantial Protestant population… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Bloody Sunday Live blog…

Mick Fealty on June 15, 2010, 3:23 pm

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Bloody Sunday report The Saville Inquiry report has been published on the inquiry website. You can catch summary details about the report, family reactions and political commentary through the many, many media outlets camped out in Guildhall Square. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Bloody Sunday: A calculated confrontation?

Niall Ó Dochartaigh on June 15, 2010, 9:49 am

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The Saville Inquiry has uncovered strong evidence that Bloody Sunday was the outcome of a determined military plan to stage a major and unprecedented confrontation in Derry, but will the final report reflect this evidence? The Bloody Sunday Inquiry has not found proof of a British Government plan to carry out a massacre of civilians in Derry in January 1972. Instead it has revealed the contours of a much more complex story, of a major confrontational initiative planned at the …

Derry Essays 8: “It’s the ‘Alternative’ that unites us all…”

Middlemarch on May 21, 2010, 10:08 am

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Guest contributor Middlemarch gives us a tour de force of the importance of music of what has been at times, a power alternative cultural force in the city. If you want to contribute to the series, or blog for our sister site listenderry.org, send Mick an email with your ideas at [email protected].

We’ve got Londonderry themes, now we need Derry writers…

Mick Fealty on May 17, 2010, 5:53 pm

| Readers 5

We’ve taken a bit of a break from the Derry essay series, but we hope to restart from tomorrow. I’ve been reviewing some of my notes from the Facebook group meeting on some of the themes that came up, and which I’d like to ask people to write to if they feel so able. Here’s a selection: What has happened to Radical/Free Derry – “Christiania on the Foyle…” Civil agitation which gave self generated arts organisation Has there been a …