I had visited Derry a few times before as one of my closest friends studied in the university in the city, but every other time I was in Derry, I didn’t really get to see much beyond the university campus and the inside of a nightclub, but it’s a pretty sweet city. Whilst it was my first time getting a meaningful glimpse at Ulster’s second city, it was also my first time travelling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The terminology of the area can be a bit divisive. The city has 2 names, and living in a post conflict society with 2 distinct communities, the name of the city is often used as a debate ground with the Unionist community referring to the city as Londonderry, and the Nationalist community calling the city Derry. Use whichever you feel comfortable with, I prefer the latter version because it’s what I grew up with – and it’s shorter to say. More importantly though if someone corrects your terminology, they’re just being an asshole.
The city itself is split by the River Foyle, with the train station where we came in on the ‘Waterside’ (East Bank) and the old town/city walls on the ‘Cityside’ (West Bank). The sides of the river have also been divided along both communities in Northern Ireland, with the Cityside largely along Nationalist/Catholic lines, and the Waterside along Unionist/Protestant lines.
We started our excursion by walking from the train station, over the peace bridge which connects both sides of the city, and into the heart of Derry. The bridge takes you close to the Guildhall and wall, so we started exploring the wall overlooking the Bogside part of Derry, before coming full lap around the walls to the Derry Girls mural celebrating the popular TV show.
As long time readers are aware, I’m a little bit of a beer connoisseur – so after eating in the bar connected to the mural, we embarked on a mission to find a bar with outdoor sitting to have a few drinks. Ongoing COVID restrictions prevent premises from serving alcohol indoors if you haven’t ordered food to accompany the drink. We discovered a nice bar we’d passed on the wall and enjoyed a drink on the benches outside Brickwork bar.
We checked into our hotel, and then embarked back across the peace bridge for food that night, we had booked into Wall Street Brewery on Ebrington Square, and it was AMAZING! The food was delicious, the service was incredible and the staff were extremely friendly. I was delighted with my experience and couldn’t recommend highly enough. I’ve always been eager to try a chimichanga, because I love burritos and the idea of a deep fried burrito excites me (and scares my arteries).
After sampling some of the breweries own brewed beers and their gin, we ventured to another craft beer haunt the opposite side of the river, Guildhall Taphouse. Guildhall Taphouse is home to ‘Dopey Dick’s Brew co.’s beer. The brewery is named after an orca swam up the River Foyle in 1977 – the locals affectionately nicknamed said orca ‘Dopey Dick’
The next morning we got up to embark on a tour of the Bogside, a large nationalist area just outside Derry’s city walls, where the Troubles are largely said to have begun. The Bogside tour takes you through where the ‘Battle of the Bogside’ took place, and where the later ‘Bloody Sunday’ massacre took place. The guides are locals and explain that the deaths are not just statistics, but people known to them who grew up around them, and the tour company’s owner’s father was one of those killed on Bloody Sunday. The tour went past the famous “you are now entering free Derry” sign, multiple murals and a memorial to the 14 murdered on Bloody Sunday by the British Army.
It was a very insightful tour, but I’d be lying if I said it was impartial about views of the conflict. It was also a very real glimpse into the extremely impoverished area – but from what the guide told us, people from the area never forget their roots with local football superstars James McClean and Shane Duffy being very charitable within the area, and local political giants John Hume and Martin McGuinness remained living in the area until their deaths.
My trip was short but sweet, and I saw a side of Derry that eluded my when I visited during my uni years. We were welcomed and enjoyed chatting to locals, and seeing more than the inside of the now closed Sugar nightclub. I really recommend visiting for a night or 2.