WE JUST CALL IT DERRY -

Known as Londonderry officialy, but called just Derry by the locals, Derry is the second largest city in Northern Ireland.

Spending just a day in the city is not enough to experience it completely, so the easiest to describe Derry would be – sad but beautiful.

Sad because of its complicated history and peoples suffering but beautiful as in how far have the individuals come after their tragic past.

*One of the original gateways, Shipquay gate, was remodeled in 1805*

Known as the last walled city in Ireland, with walls built in early 17th century, Derry is the only remaining completely intact walled city in Ireland.

The Walls were built during the reign of King James VI and I when the Scottish and English settlers that had moved to Ulster for work.

Their culture differed from that of the native Irish. And that was the beginning of the end. Or at least of one of many conflicts between (English) Protestants and (Irish) Catholics.

Bellow the city walls the area known as Bogside was underwater at the time. Bit by bit it dried out and settlers from all over started their new life in the area.

According to found documents among the settlers, only British families counted. The Irish inhabitants were ignored.

Derry was the biggest example of anti-Catholic discrimination in the northern state. To give someone a house meant to give them a local government vote, so Catholic families were forced to live cramped together or move further away from the city

As the migrant population was rising during the 18^th century, there was a significant number of Catholic population in Derry. Since none of the Catholics were allowed to live within the walls most of them settled in the Bogside.

The influx of migrants throughout the 18th century created a significant Catholic population in Derry. Because Catholics were forbidden from living within the walls most settled in the Bogside. The steady growth of the Catholic population was reflected in the construction of the city’s first Catholic church, Long Tower (1784), and St Eugene’s Cathedral (1851).

By the end of 19th century, the Bogside was overcrowded and predominantly Catholic, however even with the clear voting majority they had no political power.

The differences were obvious.

On one hand, there was a community within the walls, safe, secure and powerful; on the other there was the opposite.

That created dissatisfaction and anger that led toward conflicts.

And conflicts led to the The Troubles.

In early January 1969, as police attacked the Bogside, the slogan ‘You Are Now Entering Free Derry’ was first written on the gable wall. It was inspired by the sit-in protests in Berkeley University, California

*Digression* having Northern Irish guests on my tours we would often touch the subjects of Croatian and Northern Irish recent history. It was always funny them telling how Croatia had war; while they called their political disagreement just troubles. No more, no less

*Bloody Sunday Monument the day in 1972 when the British army opened fire at a protest, shooting and mortally wounding 14 innocent civilians*

*The H letter shaped monument honors those who died in the 1981 hunger strike.*

*Between July 1969 and July 1972, 53 people were killed in the area covered by the Museum of Free Derry*

To learn a bit more about this subject I visited the Museum of Free Derry where a kind volunteer and former participants in the times of The Troubles shared with the visitors its past and hopes for the future.

Saddened and shocked by the displays, documents and information I realized how much people can endure and how little can humanity learn from it mistakes.