photo credit; Belfast Telegraph website. Sometimes ex-St. Columb's Derryman, Seamus Heaney, gets criticized for being too cagey in his comments about his native north but he has always been ambiguous about his home, a place to love and a place to take a dig at. He has stirred up a bit of controversy by saying in a Times interview, that loyalists protesting about union flags being restricted by recent N.I. rulings, should instead be allowed to fly the union flag as much as they want and then goes on to suggest that they are all mad caste-system yobs anyway (handshake and headbutt). What he could/should have added, is that flags are idiotic and that the republic should take down all tricolours too, not only because it would give the loyalists something to think about, but it would be honest, since "the Free State" has already signed its sovereignty over to the EU anyway, thanks to all those gombeen cute hoors who bankrupted the place.
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So far so good. The last sectarian riot in Derry was in March 2012 when Derry City and Linfield supporters had a go at each other. So far during this Year of Culture for Derry, 2013, admittedly only 13 days old, no serious disturbances have broken out in the city of the Oak Grove as far as can be determined from the media at our disposal. Belfast, on the other hand, has had sectarian "flag" riots damn near every day since the New Year. Belfast people! Look at your northern neigbour and learn something. Derry is the new face of Northern Ireland and it to be dearly hoped it will show the world a thing or two this year and every year from now on.
No Year of Derry could be complete without a look at the old alma mater, St Columb's. That facade has not changed one whit since the 1950's when my generation was there, except for all those late-model cars parked at the top of "the walks". It's now Lumen Christi with no boarders in those lofty windowed rooms of the junior house (left) and senior house (right). It may be time to have a gander-dander back and write down some memories of the place. Look here.
2013 The Year of Derry
The city of Derry is City of Culture this year and we hope to get something on here at least once a week throughout the year, to celebrate not just Derry City's new, belated recognition as a cultural hotbed but the whole county's contributions to the world. Derry punches well beyond its weight! |
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