Londonderry / Derry

I forgot to mention that the city has two names. The loyalist call the city Londonderry, while pretty much all the rest call it Derry. Londonderry is what is written on all the road signs leading into the city, but most of them are spraypainted out. It is proper when speaking of the city, especially when you are talking to a mixed crowd to say Londonderry/Derry. I'm gonna just call it Derry here.

These pictures really sum up the feelings in the town. One is a picture of what is termed the "peace wall." It is the barrier between a small protestant neighborhood, and the surrounding Catholic bogs. The term peace wall is quite decieving though because it is subsequently gotten higher in recent years because of people throwing rocks, paint bombs, and petro (gas) bombs over the fence. In fact, while we were walking by this wall, a group of young boys (like 13-15) obviously Catholic, were chunking large stones over the fence and hitting the protestant houses on the other side. They were also yelling some pretty derogatory phrases while doing so. It was the only time while i was in the city that i didn't feel particularly safe because we had to walk between them and the wall while this was going on. What is so unusal about that situation is that these boys are so young, they would not have even been alive during the troubles, most of which happened in the 60's and 70's. So, there are some very deep seating feelings that these kids feel they are being passed down by parents or friends. There is just so much hate here.

The other picture here is the monument at the scene of Bloody Sunday. Most people might find this phrase familiar from Bono's lyrics, but it was a very violent scene in the early 70's where around 13 catholics were killed while protesting. None of them had weapons, but they were fired on in the streets. Around this part of the Catholic neighborhood there are now very large murals depicting scences from that day. The city has such heated past, and truly has not yet completely overcome their troubles.