Saturday 7th
September
Today’s pedometer
reading is only 3.18 k’s ! I’m blaming the cold rainy day and our long
drive…about 135 k’s.
In 1949 my Dad was
stationed at the Fleet Air Arm Base, HMS Gannet here in Londonderry. We tried
to find where the base is/was and found that The City of Londonderry Airport has absorbed
it.
We love hearing him
tell stories about his time here. He speaks about how he and his sailor mates
got pretty sick and tired of eating eggs and chips which was about all that was
on offer; so they would leave the base to cross into the Irish Republic (the
border is very close to Londonderry) and feast on steak and vegetables, no
doubt there would be a few pints at the pub before sneaking back into
the base late at night.
Last night on our walk back from the pub we
noticed a very high fence that looked like the Peace Walls in Belfast. This
morning we spoke to the owners of our B&B and found that they are in fact
Peace Walls! We had also noticed an armored Police van as we left Belfast
yesterday and then two more as we entered the Londonderry area. On further
investigation there are two major peace walls here and we’re not really very
far from them! We were told that visitors were welcome & so before we left
Londonderry we visited the Bogside murals and memorials…
The Petrol Bomber mural was painted in 1994 and
depicts some scenes from the ’Battle of the Bogside’, which took place in this area of Derry in August 1969. The mural shows a young boy with a gas
mask, which he used to protect himself from CS gas that the RUC used. He is
also holding a petrol bomb, a common weapon used by residents to deter the
police and army from the area.
The H-Block Monument is in remembrance of the
hunger strikers in the H-Block of Long Kesh prison in 1981. The
main hunger striker was Bobby Sands, who would rather starve to death than be
classed as a criminal by the British Government. Respected by the majority of
Republicans for their fight for freedom, the H-Block Monument features the
story of the Hunger Strikers engraved on it.
The Memorial to Bloody
Sunday…an incident on 30 January 1972 in the Bogside area of Derry, in which 26 unarmed civil-rights protesters and bystanders were shot by soldiers of the British Army. Thirteen
males, seven of whom were teenagers, died immediately or soon after, while the
death of another man four-and-a-half months later was attributed to the
injuries he received on that day. Two protesters were also injured when they
were run down by army vehicles. Five of those wounded were shot in the back. The
incident occurred during a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march; the soldiers involved were
members of the First Battalion of the Parachute Regiment.
On a more positive note…
Down on the waterfront a Peace Bridge has been built and The
Hands Across the Divide monument installed at one end...this is a photo from the internet...it was pouring with rain & the photo I took was rubbish! The striking bronze sculpture of two men
reaching out to each other symbolises the spirit of reconciliation and hope for
the future; it was unveiled in 1992, 20 years after Bloody Sunday.
We then set
off to Carracastle and stopped along the way for lunch in Donegal, it was raining
heavily and we dashed into a bakery/café. It was too wet to wander
around town so we set off again and happened across the Donegal Craft Village
which was undercover so we wandered around…it was right up my alley and there
were some beautiful artworks…particularly in the glass
artists gallery…some slumped glass dishes, individually crafted beads and
framed mixed media pieces that were very tempting indeed.
Our next stop was
the grave of Irish poet W. B. Yeats who chose the peaceful
churchyard at Drumcliffe in County
Sligo as his final resting place, with it’s stunning location at the
foot of Benbulben mountain.
While Yeats died in France it was his wish to rest:
“Under bare Ben Bulben’s head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago, a church stands near,
By the road an ancient cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase;
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On
life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!”
His wish was granted with this very plain gravesite.
We were delighted
when we arrived at our Airbnb cottage, It’s a freestanding cottage, the owners live in the house next door and they showed us how everything works and presented us with a welcome basket of homemade scones, jam and other goodies. The peat-fuelled heater had been lit and the cottage was warm, it was only about 10 degrees outside!
We have a kitchen and
laundry complete with a washing machine and dryer so we’ve made the most of the
opportunity to catch up with our washing, cook our own dinner and snuggle up in
front of the fire. Andrew is very proud of the way he’s mastered the peat fire.
No comments:
Post a Comment