20 Facts About Derry

Derry is close to the border with County Donegal, with which it has had a close link for many centuries.

The person traditionally seen as the founder of the original Derry is Saint, a holy man from, the old name for almost all of modern County Donegal, of which the west bank of the Foyle was a part before 1610.

In 2013, Derry was the inaugural UK City of Culture, having been awarded the title in 2010.

Name Derry is very much in popular use throughout Ireland for the naming of places, and there are at least six towns bearing that name and at least a further 79 places.

Derry is the only remaining completely intact walled city in Ireland, and one of the finest examples of a walled city in Europe.

Related searches

Derry is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in Ireland.

In 1649 the city and its garrison, which supported the republican Parliament in London, were besieged by Scottish Presbyterian forces loyal to King Charles I The Parliamentarians besieged in Derry were relieved by a strange alliance of Roundhead troops under George Monck and the Irish Catholic general Owen Roe O'Neill.

Reason for such a high degree of military and naval activity was self-evident: Derry was the United Kingdom's westernmost port; indeed, the city was the westernmost Allied port in Europe: thus, Derry was a crucial jumping-off point, together with Glasgow and Liverpool, for the shipping convoys that ran between Europe and North America.

The large numbers of military personnel in Derry substantially altered the character of the city, bringing in some outside colour to the local area, as well as some cosmopolitan and economic buoyancy during these years.

Derry was a focal point for the nascent civil rights movement in Northern Ireland.

Molyneux's notes state that the original arms of Derry were "the picture of death sitting on a mossie ston and in the dexter point a castle".

Today, modern Derry extends considerably north and west of the city walls and east of the river.

Derry has, like most of Ireland, a temperate maritime climate according to the Koppen climate classification system.

Derry serves as a major transport hub for travel throughout nearby County Donegal.

Derry is home to the Magee Campus of Ulster University, formerly Magee College.

However, Lockwood's 1960s decision to locate Northern Ireland's second university in Coleraine rather than Derry helped contribute to the formation of the civil rights movement that ultimately led to The Troubles.

Derry was the town more closely associated with higher learning, with Magee College already more than a century old by that time.

In Gaelic football Derry GAA are the county team and play in the Gaelic Athletic Association's National Football League, Ulster Senior Football Championship and All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.

City of Derry won both the Ulster Towns Cup and the Ulster Junior Cup in 2009.

In 2010, Derry was named the UK's tenth 'most musical' city by PRS for Music.