July 10, 2010

Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, UK

Slept very well although others were woken up about 2 am due to some men breaking bottles in the parking lot below them . I slept through it. It had rained overnight, but was clearing up after finishing breakfast and boarding the bus at 8:45 a.m. We met with a local tour guide at 9 a.m. in the city centre of Derry/Londonderry. His name was Ronan McMamara. Now you would never know that was his name because although he had a good Irish name, had a lovely Irish dialect, and could speak the Irish language, he looked Asian. His mother was Chinese and his father was Irish. He had a great personality and was very informative about the Irish history. (Later during the tour we passed another tour of Japanese tourists. They all started pointing at him as they walked by. He greeted them and shook some of their hands.) We began our tour by bus through the Bogside of Derry. This was the area of great civil unrest during the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and early 90’s. We viewed the murals depicting “The Troubles” as that time period is now called. One could get a very strong feeling of the uneasy peace that is currently in place. While there are no soldier presence any longer, the former strong security measures can still be seen in the fencing around some of the buildings . There were also graffiti regarding the Real IRA. We then got off the bus and walked to the top of the City Wall. Derry/Londonderry is the only remaining completely walled city in Ireland. The walls were completed in 1618 to defend the merchant city from Gaelic chieftains. The walls have never been breached even during James II army lay siege in 1689, when 7,000 people of 20,000 died of disease or starvation. He was Catholic and the city was Protestant. The phrase “No surrender” is still used by Loyalists to this day. The celebration for this event is actually in 2 days and bunting and flags were beginning to go up as we left the city. We finished our tour by the government building that was constructed in 1890, burned in 1908, and bombed in 1972. Interesting enough though, one of the militants that was part of the bombing, eventually became a leader in the same building after he was pardoned for his crimes during The Troubles. We also viewed a pair of statues commemorating the signing of the peace treaty. It represents a Catholic man and a Protestant man reaching out towards each other in a gesture of teamwork. However, the hands are not touching. For the peace treaty, both sides got another smaller statue made showing the same pair not grasping hands. After the tour, we were given time to shop and explore some areas of the city. I found a hair salon that did waxing and finally got my eyebrows waxed. It was a bit expensive, but I can now wait until I get back to Peru to have them done again. We left Derry/Londonderry about 11:30 a.m.