We headed to Derry (or Londonderry) this morning. Figured we’d check out the town and have some lunch and then head on to where we are staying tonight – Buncrara. As we were coming into Derry, police had set up with roadblocks and were directing traffic. We could not figure out what the point of it was but made up our own answers and left it at that. Neither of us brought any type of music to listen to in the car and while the BBC News/Entertainment radio channel was actually quite good (keeping updated on the rest of the world going to hell while we carry on our merry way) we figured it’d be a good idea to get some music while in Derry. We parked and headed into the center of town, in which there is a gigantic wall that surrounds the entire city. We figured to walk around it and then find somewhere to get a bite to eat. Derry is the second biggest city in Northern Ireland and sits right on the border between the Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland with the Foyle River running through the city. We walk into town and the first thing we see is a music store. Inside we went and after looking around asked the guy to recommend some Irish music. As Patrick listened I had the following conversation with the music guy:
“Is there somewhere we can get up on top of the wall near here?” (Me)
“You can do that just round the corner, but I wouldn’t be advisin’ it today as they’ll be marching.” (Music Guy)
“Who are they?” (Innocent and clueless Me)
“Oh, that’d be the Protestants marchin’ b/c it’s August 12th, you know – cause of the whole red/green political thing.” (diplomatic Music Guy)
“Uh, so not the best time to be around here, huh?” (Sheepish Me)
“No, that’s why it’s so dead around here. Everyone just avoids the town center today…the only people around here are those involved in the march and the unsuspecting tourists.” (Music Guy)
“We’ll probably close early b/c it’s really not a place to be around. Things could be fine but all it takes is for someone to throw a bottle and the melee begins.” (Music Guy)
Right….so, long and short of it, we got our cds and pretty much headed back out of town. Figured we didn’t need to be around to see the marching…of course, the whole police barricade thing made much more sense as did the constant noise of helicopters flying around the city. Go figure. Might try to make it back up that way tomorrow when everything should be much more normal.
Well, we did wind up heading back to Derry to check out what we had missed the day before. Started to walk on top of it but saw a museum that was reputed to detail the history of Derry. We went inside only to find out that the Derry section was closed for renovations but they had a very nice display for the Spanish Armada…hmmm…since we had about 4 pounds to spend we went ahead and paid for the slice of European history. It wound up being quite good as there was a very knowledgeable guide who told us both about the Spanish Armada (and why a museum in N. Ireland felt it necessary to have such an exhibit – to do with the 30 or so odd shipwrecks that occurred off the NW coast of Ireland during the Spanish retreat after attacking England) and some history of the town.
The walk around the city was interesting although a bit surreal. You feel as you are walking around a place where history is currently writing itself into time. Murals abound in this city too (like Belfast), with depictions of war/peace/figure heads/etc that are striking images seen from miles away. There are also remnants of recent fighting and one building within the walled city that looks extremely fortified and has a bunch of cameras pointed towards Bogside district - a Catholic, working-class, residential area developed in the 19th and early 20th centuries in which Bloody Sunday occurred. We found out that the marching that occurred the previous day was to celebrate the apprentice boys (Protestant) from 1689 who closed the doors to the walled city to King James II (Catholic) when he wanted to turn the city (and all of Ireland) into a predominantly Catholic state. The siege in 1689 lasted something like 109 days until reinforcement ships forced their way through to bring supplies to the desperate city.
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on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Ireland 06, travels.
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