Bishop Street and the Fountain

Bishop Street & Fountain the

A Shared History

Compiled by Mickey Cooper for the Gasyard Development Trust supported by the Peace Walls Tourism Project 1

Published in March 2015 Gasyard Heritage Centre 128 Lecky Road Brandywell Derry BT48 7NP T: (028) 7126 2812; (077) 9328 5972 F: (028) 7126 2812 E: freederrytours@gmail.com W: www.freederry.net The authors/photographers assert their moral rights in this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.

Copyright Š various contributors, photographers, publishers and Gasyard Heritage Centre.

This publication has been funded by the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister and the Housing Executive.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is originally published and without a similar condition to this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

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Acknowledgements This publication would not have been possible without the assistance and advice of the following people to whom I will always be grateful: Suzanne Breen and colleagues at OFMDFM, Connor Smith and Eddie Breslin from the Housing Executive, Ester Crespo, Andre Pagano, Derek Moore, Patricia Castellanos, Lisa Hauer, Piero Trocciola, Trevor Temple, William Temple, Tony Monaghan, Louise Breslin and the Derry City Council Economic Development Team, all the staff at IPrint, Carlos Gebler, Tommy Carlin, Liam Campbell, Mary Meehan, William Jackson, all at Guildhall Press, Georgina O’Donahue, Angela Jackson, Pam Mitchell, Charlie McMenamin, Hugh Gallagher, Phil Cunningham, Eddie Davis, George Tully, Donna McCloskey, Kyle Thompson, Sophie Blake Gallagher, Rachel Mullan, staff and pupils at Fountain PS, Nazareth House PS, Long Tower PS, Bloom’s Cafe, all the staff at Bishop Street Community Centre, Holywell Trust and all the staff at Gasyard Trust.

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Contents Introduction 5 Chapter One Origins of the Fountain and Lower Bishop Street 7 Chapter Two The siege and its impact on Bishop Street and the Fountain 15 Chapter Three The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century 23 Chapter Four World War I, the War of Independence and partition 31 Chapter Five The Industrial Heritage 37 Chapter Six Churches and Religion 45 Chapter Seven Schools and Education 53 Chapter Eight Local Landmarks 63 Chapter Nine Music and Entertainment 75 Chapter Ten Ghost Stories of the Fountain and Bishop Street 91 Chapter Eleven World War II and its Aftermath 103 Chapter Twelve A Chronology of the Conflict in the Fountain/Lower Bishop Street 107 Chapter Thirteen Community Development 125 Chapter Fourteen The Way we Were 133 4

Introduction Due to our recent political conflict, the Fountain/Bishop Street area has become synonymous with community division. Looking in from outside, the continuing existence of the physical barrier between the two areas implies that both communities remain separate. This publication is intended to reflect, firstly, that the history of both areas in intertwined and interdependent. It also reflects the massively important role that Bishop Street and the Fountain have played in the development of the city. Most importantly, this project has demonstrated clearly that the residents of both areas are happy to collaborate on shared projects which will benefit community relations, heritage awareness and economic development. I hope you enjoy reading the book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Mickey Cooper Gasyard Development Trust

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C hapter O ne Origins of the Fountain and Lower Bishop Street

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espite the relatively modern appearance of both the Fountain and Lower Bishop Street, both areas are long in their antiquity. There have been numerous archaeological discoveries made at the foot of Lower Bishop Street which reflects the fact that the earliest settlers in Derry were living beside the River Foyle due to its abundance of fish. By the 6th century a monastery later credited to Columba was established either in the present Long Tower area or, more likely, on the site of the present day St Augustine’s church. What is more certain is that the great church (An Teampall Mór) was established in the Long Tower area in the 12th century to replace the headquarters of the Columban federation of monasteries which had stood on the same site. The round tower which sat in the vicinity of An Teampall Mór is where the term ‘Long Tower’ originates from.

In addition to the great church, there was also religious activity in the area now known as the Fountain in the form of Cistercian nuns who were said to have been based in the area from the 13th to the 16th century.

In many ways, the modern origins of both areas can be traced back to the plantation of Ulster. The origins of the plantation lay in the English crown’s fear that the Gaelic controlled province of Ulster could be invaded by the Spanish military to launch an attack on England by the back door.

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This led to a Nine Year War between a number of Irish chieftains, led by Hugh O’Neill, and large numbers of English forces. Ultimately, as a consequence of the illfated Battle of Kinsale in 1601, the Gaelic chieftains surrendered. Although granted a pardon by James I, these same chieftains feared eventual arrest, imprisonment and possible death at the hands of the English crown. This led to their departure to mainland Europe on 4 September 1607 from Rathmullan; the ‘Flight of the Earls’.

Following their departure, the English crown feared there could be a future attempt by the Gaelic lords to return with European forces to retake control of Ulster and the wider country. To prevent this, the English decided to embark on a process of colonisation in Ulster with English and Scottish settlers, with the granting of some land to other ‘deserving Irish’ who promised loyalty to the crown. This ‘Plantation of Ulster’ led to the construction of a number of urban settlements as well as a transformation of the rural economy.

In Derry there had already been an attempt by the English to build a fortified town on the old island of Derry by Sir Henry Dowcra 8

during the Nine Years War. This was destroyed during a rebellion by the Irish chieftain Sir Cahir O’Doherty in 1608. Now, in 1613, a decision was made to construct a new settlement on the island with the financial and logistical assistance of the London livery companies (the Guilds of London) who were persuaded by James I to invest in the town of Derry and the wider county of Coleraine (also known as O’Cahans country). They would now be renamed as the ‘City and County of Londonderry’ to reflect the involvement of the London companies.

As well as the establishment of a number of villages across the county by individual livery companies (for example the village of Eglinton was established by the guild of Grocers), the London companies would ultimately spend £60,000 building the walled city of Londonderry and the walled town of Coleraine to control access to both the river Foyle and river Bann and protect the settlers now living in both locations. They also established the ‘Honourable the Irish Society’ to administer the plantation scheme including the large revenues secured from the fisheries and other resources in the area.

Derry’s Walls are perhaps the most famous and ‘concrete’ legacy of the Plantation. Work began in 1613 under the supervision of Sir Edward Doddington of Dungiven and was completed in 1618 after an expenditure of £10,757. In 1619, Captain Nicholas Pynnar, Inspector of Fortifications in Ireland, reported that ‘the Cittie of London Derry is now compassed about with a verie stronge wall, excellentlie made and neatlie wrought’.

With the addition of the cathedral, new housing, schools and gardens, the city eventually became the ‘jewel in the crown of the Ulster Plantation’. The walled city is considered by some to be the first major piece of urban planning in Ireland and remains one of Europe’s finest examples of a seventeenth-century citadel.

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Although the London companies did bring settlers from their own areas, the cold climate and mountainous terrain of the wider area did not encourage their long term presence. Instead a large number of Scottish (mainly Presbyterian) settlers ended up in the city.

The similar terrain and climate in both lowland Scotland and Ulster meant that these Scottish natives were not deterred from remaining here. In addition the king could address the socio-economic, political and religious disturbances on the Scottish-English border through a wholesale transplantation of Scottish planters to Ireland.

In addition to the granting of land to the London companies, large tracts were also given to the Anglican Church (Church of Ireland). The fact that the Anglican church was in firm control of the government in both England and Ireland meant that non-Anglicans would ultimately suffer a penal code which affected amongst other things, where they could reside. As outlined below, this meant that large numbers of both Scottish Presbyterians and Irish Catholics were prevented from living within the city walls area, leading to many Presbyterians settling in the ‘Wapping’ area outside the walls and the growth of a catholic population in the vicinity of the Bogside and ultimately beside the Long Tower church.

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Therefore, the plantation would lead to the origins of both the Fountain and Lower Bishop Street areas and impact on the lives of the citizens of both areas for generations to come.

The fact that the Fountain area was originally known as Wapping is perhaps a reference to the London origins of some of the settlers who arrived in the city during the plantation in the early 17th century. Those same settlers felt the need for protection as Trevor Temple explains in his book, ‘The Fountain: Heartbeat of the City’ (Holywell Trust 2014): In order to provide the necessary ‘fill’ material for the defensive walls, the planters excavated a strip of land thirty feet wide and about eight feet deep, immediately outside of where the walls now stand. The resultant ditch began at what later became Nailor’s Row and ran across Bishop Street Without before joining the line of Wapping, (later Fountain Street). As well as acting as a quarry for the walls of the city, the ditch formed an extra line of defence. Archaeological evidence uncovered in the late 1970s, suggests that the ditch had not yet been in-filled by the troubled period of the 1640s.

Some of the artefacts found near the Bishop Street / Fountain area by David McIntyre.

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An extract of the Neville Map.

The Wapping area is clearly marked on a copy of a plan made during the 1689 siege by Captain Francis Neville, Engineer Officer of the city garrison. Another contemporary engraving marks the area as ‘Wappin’.

These same maps show a row of small cabins running along the edge of the aforementioned ditch. Many of these were occupied by ‘lowly Presbyterians and Irish artisans’, reflecting the reality of the 17th and 18th centuries when Presbyterian settlers, just like the Irish native catholic population, were (with some exceptions) excluded from living inside the city walls. This would also explain why some of the earliest accounts of the Presbyterian population in Derry refer to them worshipping in the Wapping area before they were later permitted to build a church inside the walls at Magazine Street in 1690, mainly due to services rendered for the defence of the city during the siege in 1689.

Another landmark mentioned in siege accounts by Joseph Aicken and Governor George Walker is the ‘sallyport’, a tunnel whose opening is still visible within the city walls near New Gate. It is believed that the tunnel was directly connected to the interior of Columb’s Cathedral as 12

mentioned in Graham’s Historical Poetry With Biographical Notes, printed

by McCorkell, Londonderry, 1823: The sally port was in the south side of the town wall, and from it to the Communion table in the Cathedral there was a direct passage, a covered way leading under the wall.

The tunnel (pictured below) may have been installed during the turbulent 1640s period as an escape route during attacks on the cathedral and walled city by Irish rebels in 1641 and in 1649 by Presbyterians trying to reverse parliamentarian control of the walled city. These upheavals were followed by the establishment of the Commonwealth under Cromwell and restoration of Charles II, after which the city entered a relatively calm period of existence.

Whilst the Fountain was slowly developing during the post-plantation period, the area now known as lower Bishop Street was still considered a rural area. As previously mentioned, the close proximity of the river Foyle, especially rich in salmon, has seen human existence in the Lower Bishop Street area for thousands of years. Nevertheless, it would be well over a century before it began to develop any urban characteristics.

In the 17th century its principle role was as the road to Dublin via Lifford and Strabane, owing to the fact that no bridge existed across the Foyle at that time. During this time it was known as the Kings Highway (the term Lower Bishop Street only began to appear during the late 18th century). Despite its rural setting and small population, the area would play a major role in one of the key events in the city’s history which still has repercussions to this day.

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C hapter T W O The siege and its impact on Bishop Street and the Fountain

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he context for the siege of Derry, which saw major activity in the Fountain and Lower Bishop Street areas, begins in 1685 when King James II succeeded to the English throne on the death of his brother, Charles II in February 1685. James was a devout Roman Catholic and set about restoring a measure of influence to his catholic subjects across Britain and Ireland. The Protestant dominated parliament in England, whilst wary of James conversion, were prepared to accept him as king provided his replacement was a Protestant.

The birth of James’ son in June 1688, meaning there was now a Catholic heir to the throne, greatly alarmed many of James’ subjects. A number of Protestant noblemen now asked the Dutch Prince William of Orange for help. William was the husband of Mary, James II’s daughter from his first marriage who had remained Protestant following James’ conversion.

In November 1688 William landed in England with a detachment of troops. The Protestant officers who had remained in James’ army defected, whilst the rank and file Protestant soldiers refused to obey the orders of their Catholic officers. What support James had left in England evaporated. He fled to France in December and was replaced jointly on the throne by William and Mary.

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Despite the fact that James had been deposed as king of England, he still technically remained as king of Ireland. James now saw Ireland as a potential base from where he could launch an attack on England to regain his throne. It was therefore vital that he gained control of all the key cities across the country, including Derry.

In Ireland the King’s policies were carried out by his Lord Deputy Richard Talbot, the Earl of Tyrconnell. Before James had been deposed, Talbot had gradually been replacing the Irish Protestant civil and military establishment with Catholic soldiers and representatives. By the end of 1688 one of the few places where Protestant soldiers remained was in Derry, where the garrison was under control of William Stewart, Lord Mountjoy.

In December 1688 Tyrconnell decided to transport the Derry garrison to Dublin. They were to be replaced by a new Catholic force, the ‘Redshanks’, under the control of the Earl of Antrim. When Mountjoy left the city on 23 November with the old garrison, the Redshanks were still not ready to take over. In addition, at the beginning of December, a document known as the ‘Comber letter’ came to light. It suggested a massacre of the Protestant settler population by the new regiment was imminent. The rumour cause widespread alarm in the undefended city in advance of the arrival of the Redshanks.

On 7 December 1688 (or 18th according to the revised version of the calendar) an advance group of the Earl of Antrim’s men arrived in what is now the Waterside area. At that time there was no bridge across the river, so two of the officers were ferried across the river Foyle to make arrangements for the admission of the full garrison. Some of the waiting Catholic troops also crossed the river and moved uphill to Ferryquay Gate, one of the four entries into the walled city. As confusion reigned amongst the mainly Protestant residents about what to do next, a group of young trainee tradesmen or ‘Apprentice Boys’ seized the keys of the city and closed Ferryquay gate against the advancing soldiers. The remaining three entrances were also shut against the soldiers.

Under fear of a new attack by the Jacobite troops, a citizens’ committee was formed to plan the defence of the town. All Catholics remaining in the city were expelled. A leading public figure, David Cairns, formed the

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A model representation of the ‘shutting of the city gates’ from the Tower Museum.

men into six companies before departing to London to request assistance for the city’s defence.

Meanwhile on 21 December, it was agreed that Antrim’s men were be totally withdrawn and an all-Protestant garrison under Lieutenant Colonel Robert Lundy would be accepted by the city. Lundy was made governor of Derry. This move was made on behalf of James II in an attempt to soften Irish Protestant resistance to his challenge to retake the English throne. Whilst this gesture did reduce tension amongst the Protestant residents, they still remained uncertain about what the future would hold.

By the turn of 1689 William and Mary were firmly in control of the English throne. David Cairns secured a meeting with the joint monarchs and agreed their consent to send a ship with supplies to Derry. The captain of the ship, James Hamilton, also carried a new Williamite commission for Robert Lundy. When David Cairns returned to Derry a council of war was held at which it was decided that the city would declare for William and Mary. Derry now became a refuge and a symbol of Protestant resistance to James II.

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In April 1689 James II landed in Ireland, hoping to use the island as a base from which he could regains his throne. In advance of his arrival around 7,000 Jacobite forces, under the command of Richard Hamilton, were despatched by Tyrconnell to wipe out Williamite resistance in Ulster. They were successful throughout the eastern parts of the province and by mid-April were about to turn their attention to Derry. In due course they joined forces with another contingent of Jacobite troops, under the command of the French general, Rosen, at important river crossings near Lifford and Clady, about fifteen miles upstream from Derry.

It was the duty of Governor Lundy to assemble a force of between 7,000 and 10,000 Protestants to defend Lifford and Clady. However, their heavy defeat saw Lundy retreat in disgrace to Derry. There were now considerable doubts about his loyalty to the Williamite side.

In response King William sent two English regiments to the city.

These professional soldiers then informed a specially convened council of war that, in their opinion, Derry could not be held against the Jacobite forces. The regiments were sent back to England and many of the officers in the town took the opportunity to sail away with them, fearing that the city was about to fall into the enemy hands. Regardless, the citizens of Derry, encouraged by Adam Murray were determined to hold out against the Jacobite forces. By this stage James II was on the march northward to the city with his troops.

On the morning of 18 April, James II arrived with a large number of troops at Bishop’s Gate on the city’s southern side. Further Jacobite forces also gathered at Butchers Gate. When surrender negotiations failed, the defenders of the city walls shouted ‘No surrender’ and fired on James. Lundy, who had advised surrender to James as being the best option, now quietly slipped away. His perceived abandonment of the local citizens saw him being labelled ever since as ‘Lundy the Traitor’ by many Protestants in the city.

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Unionists celebrating the burning of Lunday in the 1950s. Walker’s pillar can be seen in background.

James II also decided to leave, but not before ordering his troops to launch an offensive in an attempt to take control of the city. The following day, Henry Baker and George Walker accepted the leadership of the city garrison in place of Lundy. The siege of Derry had begun.

The first Battle of the Windmill: 5th of May The following accounts are abridged extracts from The Siege of Derry, A History, Gebler, Carlos, Abacus, 2005: Just off lower Bishop Street, in an area behind the current Lumen Christi college, there is an area of rising ground. Today a ruined windmill stands on the site. This same windmill stood here during the siege alongside the city’s gibbet (the location for public hangings).

Despite being outside the besieged walls the city’s Williamite garrison had successfully established an outpost there armed with a few fowling pieces. These weapons, flintlocks rather than matchlocks, needed no burning tow to fire them, which made them easier to use. They were also more accurate and had a longer range than matchlocks. Equipped with these weapons, garrison members had been sniping at the Jacobites.

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The casualties they inflicted were small, but the ceaseless firing obliged the Jacobites to be endlessly vigilant. The removal of this irritation was a good reason to take the hill, but equally compelling was the view it afforded.

Since the beginning of the siege proper the Jacobite artillery had been blazing away for days on the city walls area without making much of an impression. With ordnance on Windmill Hill more serious damage might be caused.

Therefore on 5th May took Windmill Hill with 3,000 troops. Fearing an onslaught on the walled city area from the site, the Williamite forces retook the hill the following day and built outworks to prevent it being retaken by the Jacobites.

On 4th June the Jacobites were seen regrouping. Correctly guessing that the Windmill would be a key target, the Williamites saturated the site with 8,000 troops and absorbed the onslaught, leading to the loss of even more Jacobite soldiers.

The old Windmill at the brow-of-the-hill.

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The failure of the Jacobites to take Windmill Hill would prove to be decisive in the long run as it reduced their ability to launch effective close quarter attacks on the walled city. As a result their tactics changed to one of blockade with a large metal and wood barrier, or ‘Boom’, placed across the river Foyle to stop food getting into the city. Whilst this created famine conditions inside the walls, the resolve of the inhabitants proved to be far beyond what the Jacobites had expected. Instead of a quick surrender the siege would ultimately continue for 105 days, leading to a situation where the numbers of both the Protestant inhabitants of the walls and Jacobite attackers were decimated due to lack of food and poor sanitary conditions.

When the Mountjoy and a number of other Williamite ships broke the Boom and food arrived for the city’s inhabitants a Jacobite surrender quickly followed. The siege was over.

Today, reminders of the siege are visible at a number of locations. The remains of the Windmill stand in the grounds of Lumen Christi college and the sallyport entrance (which is believed to have been used during the siege) is still visible. At the corners of the raised section of the walls in front of St Columb’s Cathedral are two sentinel posts which loom over the Fountain area. Installed originally in the 1620s, these were used to survey the Jacobite encampments at Gobnascale and Creggan from where a lot of the heavy artillery was fired during the siege. By witnessing the preparation of the artillery, the sentinels inside these posts could warn the population inside the walls to prepare for an onslaught from beyond the walls. The two posts are now major points of interest to visitors to the city.

Above and below: Sentinel posts on the city walls.

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Wapping Lane in the late 1960s.

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C hapter T H R E E The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century

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s previously mentioned, lower Bishop Street was still considered a rural area until the 19th century. The first signs of change came when Frederick Augustus Hervey, the Anglican bishop of Derry from 1768-1803, decided to build a summer palace, known as the ‘Casino’, in the area. The same building was later bought by the Catholic Church in the 1870’s to become a catholic boys’ seminary, St Columb’s College (pictured above).

The construction of the ‘Casino’ was in addition to the extensive remodelling by Hervey of the Bishops Palace which had been constructed inside the walls by his predecessor Bishop Barnard. The construction of the Bishops Palace eventually led to the ‘Kings Highway’ being renamed as ‘Bishop Street Without’.

Across the street from the Bishops Palace a new courthouse was constructed in 1813 which still stands today. As in most cases, a prison was in the proximity of the court; Derry Gaol had been constructed in 1791. Its only remaining tower still stands on Lower Bishop Street (see Local Landmarks).

1786 also saw the opening of the new Long Tower Church as a result of the relaxation of the penal laws. This saw the natural congregating of 23

Long Tower Church

a large number of Catholics in the vicinity of the church. At this time their accommodation would have mainly comprised of small cottages in a similar vein to the accommodation in the Fountain area.

By the 19th century the Lower Bishop Street area became an epicentre of shirt production in the city (see section on Industrial Heritage) which led to large numbers of terraced houses being built in the area for the workers in both the factories, the docks and other smaller industries and professions. This in turn led to the development of large numbers of shops, pubs and associated services.

This large population increase also led to a growing demand for educational facilities, leading to the opening of the Christian Brothers in 1854, St Columb’s College in 1879 and Nazareth House Primary School in 1892. By the turn of the 20th century Lower Bishop Street had undoubtedly become an urban location with a number of the buildings from that period still standing today.

Even a century after the siege the Fountain area was still known as Wapping. The cabins built in the area during the 17th century (many of which were destroyed or demolished during the siege) were replaced by new dwellings in the 18th century and the population gradually began to increase.

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The Wapping area also became more integrated into the life of the walled city when an opening was created in the walls beside Widows Row (now London Street) in 1787. The creation of ‘New Gate’ (later closed but then remodelled by 1807 into the version that exists today) also coincided with the relaxation of the penal laws which allowed the reconstruction of First Derry church on Magazine Street. The original church, which had been built on the same site in 1690 (for services rendered by the Presbyterians during the siege), had been subsequently demolished by the Anglican authorities in the early 18th century when the penal laws were being most severely enforced.

First Derry Presbyterian

The gradual rebranding of the ‘Wapping’ area to the ‘Fountain’ came about in the first half of the 19th century when a new water supply was created in the city following the construction of the first bridge in the city, as recalled by Trevor Temple in his book The Fountain: Heartbeat of the City’ In the first decade of the nineteenth-century, the Londonderry Corporation, by an Act of Parliament, were empowered to levy a rate for the purpose of constructing and maintaining a water supply for the city. In the years 1808 and 1809, a sum of £15,583 8s 9d was spent on the works. The water from the surrounding district was collected in a small reservoir at Fountain Hill, (then called Quae Brae Head or Corrody) above the Waterside, on the south-east side of the city. It 25

was constructed of stone-faced embankments with a puddle clay core to prevent the seepage of water, and designed to hold 4,000,000, gallons.

From there, the water was conveyed across the old Wooden Bridge (built 1789-91) in six-inch bore, oak or elm pipes to a reservoir in Wapping, a distance of over a mile. From here, it flowed to the various mains supplying the city.

By the late 19th century the water supply from the basin at the Fountain was deemed to be insufficient and a new supply was created from other sources in the city. Nevertheless the name ‘Fountain’ stuck.

As the population grew trades such as printing, dying, carpentry, shoemaking, millwrights, bookbinding, plastering, tailoring and glazing were established. Street Lights were converted from oil to gas in 1829.

The key industry, just like Bishop Street, was shirt making, which saw massive factories being constructed such as Tillie and Henderson and Welch Margetson (see section on Industrial Heritage).

A Female Penitentiary, for the ‘reform of unfortunate females’ was also established on Hawkin Street on 1 May 1829. The initiative was based on a survey which found that 1,441 women in the city had been driven to prostitution by destitution.

Residence was limited to three years with the ladies then receiving free passage to America, Scotland and other locations if desired. The institution closed in the late 19th century.

During the period of the Great Famine a soup-kitchen was opened by the Relief Committee in the Potato Market in nearby Society Street. The destitution created by the famine was compounded by diseases such as Tillie and Hendersons shirt factory.

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cholera, bronchitis and typhus which had a major effect on the residents of both the Fountain and Lower Bishop Street. The fact that some of the premises were being used as makeshift butchers and pig sties did not help the situation. A press complaint in the 1890s also referred to the poor state of Fountain Street and the amount of rowdy behavior in the area. Added to this was sporadic confrontations (1870, 1883 and 1899) between Fountain based unionists and nationalists over issues such as marches, the extension of the franchise and other political issues.

Although the accounts above point to the Fountain and lower Bishop Street being working class areas during the 18th and 19th century, it should be noted that the lower Fountain and Abercorn Road was predominately for the professional classes. Houses in Hawkin and Horace Street later merged into the new Carlisle Road as it grew in the 1860s and 1870s. The following section provides an overview of how the streetscape in both the Fountain and lower Bishop Street expanded during this period.

The Streets of the Fountain and Lower Bishop Street Unlike the majority of the streets built in the Fountain in the 19th century, the original houses in Hawkin Street dated back to the early Georgian period. Known as Cunningham’s Lane in 1734, later names included Hawkin’s Lane and Gilmour’s Lane before its rebranding as Hawkin Street in 1868. This coincided with the construction of the Georgian style houses at the bottom of the Street which still stand today.

Wapping Lane was commonly known as Meeting House Lane (possibly a reference to the fact that the Presbyterians originally worshipped in a Meeting House in the Wapping area before they moved to Magazine Street). The lane now terminates at Abercorn Road but once ran right to the edge of the river Foyle.

As Derry’s population increased due to immigration from Donegal in the run up to the Famine (1845-52) the Fountain and Lower Bishop Street both began to expand with the catholic population naturally congregating in the vicinity of the Long Tower church.

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Following the construction of the Carlisle Bridge (Derry’s second bridge opened in 1863) major redevelopments took place on both sides of the river. Part of the plan saw the creation of a new street through Gilmour’s Lane (named after Patrick, a local merchant and benefactor to the poor), Widows Row, and London Street. Other streets including Kennedy Place, Henry Street, Fountain Street and George’s Street (after landlord George Duddy) emerged between the 1860s-1880s. Victoria Street, Clarence Place and Aubrey Street (again named after the landlord) were all in place by the turn of the century. Aubrey Street was the location of Davin’s Box Factory which created boxes for the city’s flourishing shirt industry. It moved to the Fountain area from Foyle Road due to lack of space.

As stated earlier Bishop Street was renamed following the construction of the Bishops Palace by Bishop Barnard. The other main route in the area, Abercorn Road, was created in 1868 to connect the Bishop Street area to the new Carlisle Bridge and was named after the Duke of Abercorn, one of the biggest landowners in Ulster. The theme of naming streets after landowners and developers continued into the smaller streets such as Bennett Street, Brooke Street, Ferguson Street and Moore Street.

The remainder of the street names in both areas reflected religious connections (Long Tower Street), historical events (Mountjoy Streetnamed after the Mountjoy which broke the Boom to end the 1689 Siege) and the British Royal family (Clarence Place, Albert Place, Victoria Place).

Carlisle Bridge

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A view of Bishop Street from the early 1970s.

Some of the more well known streets in the area include the following.

Although many of these streets have since disappeared due to redevelopment, they are still remembered with affection by older residents: Wapping St Cunningham’s Lane Fountain St Major’s Row Albert St Adam’s Row Kennedy Place Hawkin St Bennet St Horace St Albert Place

Mountjoy St George St Henry St Victoria St Aubrey St Clarence Place St Joseph’s Avenue Dark Lane Long Tower Bennet’s Lane Barrack Street

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Henrietta Street Foyle Road Pitt Street Nailor’s Row Alexandra Place Munn Street Abercorn Road Alma Place Windmill Terrace Brooke Street

Top: The GPO in the aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising.

Below: The signing of the Ulster Covenant.

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C hapter F O U R World War I, the War of Independence and partition

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y the turn of the 20th century the Fountain and Lower Bishop Street areas had clearly developed as working class, industrialised areas. To say that segregation of Protestant and catholic was clear would perhaps be an exaggeration, as reflected in the 1901 census. The census returns show many people in the area had been born in Scotland, Donegal, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Monaghan, and elsewhere. In Fountain Street, the census revealed that there were 631 people living in the street. 306 were members of the Church of Ireland; 218 Presbyterians; 43 Roman Catholics; 15 Independents; 13 members of the Salvation Army; 10 Brethren; 9 Congregationalists; 7 Methodists; 5 Covenanters; 4 who referred to themselves as Presbyterian/Church of Ireland; and 1 member of the Free Church of Scotland.

Whilst the religious beliefs in the lower Bishop Street area at the time would have been more catholic in denominational terms, there was still a number of Protestant residents in areas like Abercorn Road and amongst the laboring class living in the side streets. Virtually all of the residents were affected by the seminal events of the 1912-22 period.

The precursor to the bloody events of the War of Independence can be traced back to the demand for a Home Rule parliament for Ireland in the 31

late 19th and early 20th centuries. Derry, as a nationalist majority city, was very much in favour of the policy. At the same time members of the unionist minority were equally opposed to the measure, as evinced on Friday, September 20, 1912 when Unionist leader Edward Carson was received as a saviour by residents of the Fountain and other Derry unionists.

Eight days later, 471,414 people signed the Covenant (a document pledging to resist Home Rule by any means) or, in the case of females, a declaration. Unionists in the Fountain Street area signed in large numbers. In Fountain Street alone, 275 residents signed the Covenant.

In the same year the Ulster Volunteer Force had been formed to resist Home Rule by force. This was a response to the establishment of the Irish Volunteers whose aim was to ensure the success of the Home Rule measure. The Irish Volunteers had considerable support in the Bogside and Lower Bishop Street areas.

According to Trevor Temple in his book The Fountain: Heartbeat of the City: City of Derry UVF had by August 1914 almost 3,500 volunteers.

The last available official returns to UVF headquarters, prior to the outbreak of the Great War, detail a three battalion strong City of Derry Regiment. Strength was given as 3,480 and the headquarters was listed as 24 Hawkin Street (the building of the former Female Penitentiary).

Gun-running was taking place before the Larne gun-running episode of April 1914, and volunteers had the use of two separate rifle ranges located on Carlisle Road and Abercorn Road Gunfire had already been heard in the city in August 1913. The incident began following a confrontation between Fountain residents and nationalist workers of Tillie and Henderson shirt factories over the demand for Home Rule. Following the arrival of the RUC further confrontation ensued, this time between residents of the Fountain and the police. By the end of the night four people had been shot including local resident Francis Armstrong who died from his injuries. Fountain residents complained afterwards of heavy handed tactics by the police.

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The events of World War One had a direct impact on the Fountain area, not least the Battle of the Somme. Among the dead on the opening day of the battle on 1st July 1916 were approximately 115 men associated with the city and its immediate environs. Among those who died or were fatally wounded that day were at least 28 men who had family ties with the Fountain district.

When the Home Rule Act was suspended by the onset of World War I events took a new turn. The Easter Rising in Dublin and the execution of a number of the rebellions leaders saw the Irish population republicanised. The subsequent establishment of Dail Éireann and the beginning of the IRA war of Independence had consequences in Derry, especially in the Fountain/Lower Bishop Street area. Serious rioting had already occurred in August 1919 at the junction of Wapping Lane following a nationalist procession in the city. Further incidents in 1920 included attacks on Lecky Road barracks, the injury of a young catholic and attacks on troops. In May an attack by armed unionists on the Bridge Street area saw reaction from nationalists which resulted in the death of the head of the Special Branch Sergeant Mooney.

Incidents in June included gun battles in the vicinity of Bishops Gate, armed unionist patrols in the Carlisle Road area and, on 21st June, the death of two Catholics and the son of the governor of the Apprentice Boys. The ensuing upsurge in violence saw a final death toll of nineteen and countless injuries.

Following the partition of Ireland the nationalist residents of the city either remained within the new Northern Ireland state or in some cases moved across the border to live with family members in Donegal. Whilst unionist residents of the Fountain celebrated the retention of the union, living and working conditions remained poor for both communities, a situation exacerbated by the Depression of the 1930s. The 1940s would see a short term improvement in the economy as a result of the outbreak of World War Two which had other implications for the Fountain and Lower Bishop Street areas.

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An armoured car on the city streets in 1921.

Below: UVF B Company 2nd Battalion in 1915.

Bishop Street without in the mid 1930s.

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Republican mural from the early 1920s in Abbey Street in the city.

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C hapter F I V E The Industrial Heritage

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lthough most people associate the Fountain and Bishop Street area with the city’s political and religious history, both areas have played key roles in Derry’s industrial development. The sheer range of trades operating in both areas a century ago reflect the labour-intensive, pretechnology roles which were carried out by men and women alike.

The 1901 census returns show people employed in a multitude of professions: shirt-makers; machinists; engine-fitters; printers; compositors; labourers; dressmakers; seamstresses; shirt-cutters; tailors; luggage porters; clerks; painters; drapers; bakers; carpenters; telegraphists; joiners; plasterers; shoemakers; firemen; photographers; stokers and shopkeepers.

Whilst some of the workers were self-employed, several industries dominated the local area as demonstrated below.

The GNR The Great Northern Railway (GNR) of Ireland, originally known as the Irish North Western Railway, existed independently for 77 years and was the second largest of the Irish railway systems. Its origins lay in the need to link Dublin and Belfast by rail; it took longer to travel between Dublin and Belfast than it did to cross to Liverpool in a boat as the only 37

means of travel was by coach, a 100-mile journey over rough roads.

The Dublin-Belfast rail link was developed over quite a long period through a staged amalgamation of smaller railway companies, culminating in the formation of the Great Northern Railway Company in 1875-6. This allowed the interconnection of the routes operated by these companies to create a direct link from Derry to Dublin.

The Great Northern Railway (station pictured below) was at its most prosperous in the 30 years or so preceding World War I. Nevertheless, the company’s fortunes changed following the partition of Ireland, civil war, tariff restrictions and, above all, the development of road transport. By the end of World War II, falling receipts and soaring operating costs had further exacerbated matters. Five years of shared nationalisation followed during which most of the network was shut down. In 1958, what was left was divided and administered by the Ulster Transport Authority and Coras Iompair Éireann in the six and 26 counties respectively.

The GNR line closed in 1965. It had been located in the Foyle Road area of Derry for many years, partly because it could avail of the connection provided by the lower decks of the Carlisle Bridge (1863) and its replacement, Craigavon Bridge (1933), to the Donegal County Railway terminal on the other side of the river. Although there had been a sense of inevitability about the GNR closure among its workforce, the people of the area were incensed that another cross-border link had been cut between Derry and Donegal.

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Shirt Making and Shirt Factories The largest factory system in the city was undoubtedly shirt making, which employed mainly females. The fact that Derry had a large port was especially helpful given that the north of Ireland, save for Ballycastle and Coalisland, had very little natural coal supplies. Derry port could instead facilitate large imports of coal from England and Scotland to power the factories.

William Scott opened this first factory in 1831 in the area of the Foyle Road once known as Weaver’s Row. The following article from Geraldine McCarter’s Shirt Tales (Guildhall Press) relates the reasons for his new initiative: William Scott was part of the great linen industry for which Ulster was famous. For generations farmers had grown and bleached flax which was spun into yarn by their wives and daughters and then sold to weavers who produced linen cloth. The cloth was in turn sold in drapers’ shops and made up by housewives, domestic servants or professional seamstresses. This was the traditional way in which clothes and household linens had been made for hundreds of years.

But in the early decades of the nineteenth century enormous changes took place which affected peoples’ lives not only in Ireland but throughout the world. The Industrial Revolution meant that goods which had traditionally been made in the home were now being produced in factories. The invention in 1825, by James Kay, of a new wet- spinning method led to the collapse of the domestic spinning industry and women who had earned their living as spinners had to seek other means of livelihood. Many of them turned to sprigging or flowering, a special sort of white embroidery on white linen. In counties Derry, Donegal and Tyrone there were thousands of spinners, all expert needlewomen, looking for work. The growing populations of large industrial cities, and of America and the colonies, wanted to buy ready-made clothes. Men in particular wanted inexpensive, ready-towear shirts which could be bought without delay in a drapery shop or man’s outfitters.

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These new shirts, however, were not the old style linen or flannel garment. Previously for the fashionable Regency Buck, a shirt had been an item of underwear and was hardly visible. The space between the waistcoat and neck was filled with an enormous stock like those worn by King William IV. The new nineteenth-century look dictated a lower-cut waistcoat, a smaller tie, a stiff collar and a starched white linen shirt-front. A man’s shirt was now an article of fashion.

As industry, banking, transport, retailing and many other commercial activities expanded, the new army of “white-collar-workers” created a demand for ready-to-wear shirts. Fashionable gentlemen, bank clerks, American cowboys, all wore the new style of shirt and would buy them in huge quantities.

William Scott was convinced that he could meet this demand and so, in 1831, he took a small consignment of garments to his principal Glasgow customer, William Gourlie and Son of 8 South Frederick Street. Scott’s idea paid off and further orders from Glasgow followed.

A second market was found with a draper in business in Australia.

The women of the Scott family worked hard to complete this order.

William Scott’s daughter-in-law was one of those who helped and a descendant of hers, JP Scott, writing in the 1920s, described her memory of that time, “In long after years I often heard her tell the story of how resolutely and unweariedly the four women worked to finish the consignment and how well the shirts were made”.

Although the early orders were small and could be met by the women of the Scott household, William Scott soon found it necessary to employ needlewomen in Derry and throughout the surrounding countryside.

As his business expanded the cloth was cut in Scott’s weaver’s shop – imported cotton for the body and sleeves of the shirt and linen for the collars, cuffs and fronts. These pieces of cloth were then collected by stitchers or taken by horse and cart to outstations as far away as Limavady, Donemana and Moville where they were, in turn, collected by women who made up the shirts in their homes. The finished shirts were then returned to Scott’s premises where they were examined, packed and dispatched by steamer to Glasgow. Demand for Scott’s shirts soon

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spread beyond Glasgow and a London agent, William Robinson of 32 Addle Street, was duly appointed.

In 1840 the firm moved to new premises in the old military hospital in Bennett’s Lane where there was ample space for weaving, cutting, examining and packing and where the yard and stables could accommodate the expanding fleet of horse-drawn carts. In 1845 the Londonderry Journal reported that William Scott “gave employment to no fewer than 250 weavers and upwards of 500 persons making shirts”.

By the 1920’s Derry was a virtual powerhouse of shirt making with a third of the population employed in the industry. Numerous factories were built around the Fountain and Lower Bishop Street areas, including: Star Factory: Built in 1899 on the Foyle Road, it has since been converted to quality apartments.

Tillie and Henderson: Opened in 1857, the now demolished Tillie and Henderson shirt factory once dominated the Foyle Road/Abercorn Road junction on the city side of Craigavon Bridge. Opening in 1857, it featured a grandiose French-chateau-like design. William Tillie (from Glasgow) and his partner, John Henderson, were the first to introduce the USA-invented portable sewing machine to Derry in the 1850s. Their business was mentioned by Karl Marx in Das Kapital, in his discourse on the transition of work from the home to the factory setting in the nineteenth century. His daughter Eleanor had actually visited the factory and was able to relate the working practices employed there to her father.

Sinclair’s Factory: Built in 1863 on the opposite side of the street from the Tillie and Henderson site. It still retains its prominent clock face and is noted for its unusual configuration on a tight corner site. There are currently proposals for its refurbishment into apartments.

Welch Margetson Shirt Factory The firm of Welch Margetson, founded in London in 1824, was by the 1840s looking for new sources of supply. The success of William Scott’s

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business led them naturally to choose Derry, where in 1847 they opened a warehouse in the Waterside. In this warehouse their shirts were cut and then supplied to workers to be made up at home.

In 1850, the firm moved to Foyle Street where it continued to rely on the out-worker system of shirt production. In 1876 it moved to larger premises on Carlisle Road and adopted the factory system. The Carlisle Road outlet employed a workforce of 1,000 while orders sent to outworkers provided constant employment to 3,000. The factory closed in 1991. It is now used as office space for the Department of Social Development.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Bishop Street was also famed for its markets. The Albert Market, which attracted both locals and visitors, sold everything from agricultural produce to linen and hay.

It was later replaced by the Long Tower Primary School. The original arched entrance to the market can still be seen at the front of the school.

In addition a thriving horse market existed in the Lower Bishop Street area for generations. The market was a massively important facility for the purchase of horses which were used for haulage and farming in the age before cars, lorries and combine harvesters. Horse markets also tended to be a social occasion with many visitors staying in the local vicinity. This saw the development of a number of hotels on Bishop Street inside the walls as well as a vast array of public houses.

At one stage there were eighteen publicans in Bishop St. Without in addition to seven grocers and spirit sellers. There were also seven egg, butter and fowl shippers who availed of both the Albert Market and the local docks to trade their wares.

For generations the docks were the only means of employment for many of the local male population. Many of these men worked on a day to day casual basis due to a lack of permanent contracts being made available. Those who couldn’t get work signed onto the Dole at the unemployment exchange which sat at the junction of Lower Bishop Street and Corporation Street until it moved to the Asylum Road.

Meanwhile, the female shirt factory workers also relied on the local Jones and Lowther laundry on Lower Bishop Street to wash and press their own garments given the little time they had for domestic chores.

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Top: The Unemployment Exchange in the 1930s.

Middle: Lowther’s Laundry on Bishop Street.

Bottom: One of the many grocers on Bishop Street.

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A military helicopter assists with the rebuilding works of St Columb’s Cathedral spire.

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C hapter S I X Churches and Religion

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y the late 19th century, the Fountain area was no longer a residential area only for Presbyterians. By now a wide range of Protestant denominations were based in the area. At the same time a steady influx of catholic migrants from areas like Donegal had moved into the area around the Long Tower/Lower Bishop Street. The list below reflects the vast number of religious buildings which emerged during the 18th and 19th century: The Long Tower Church (1786) The Long Tower Church was commenced in 1784 during the episcopate of Bishop McDevitt. This coincided with the relaxation of the penal laws which allowed catholic churches to be built for the first time in almost 200 years. Some of the money used for the construction was donated

by Bishop Hervey, the Anglican bishop of Derry. He also donated the Corinthian capitals in the altar.

Completed in 1786 at a cost of ÂŁ2,800, the nave and galleries were added in 1810. Ten years later the vestry was added and a wooden floor laid. The ceiling was added in 1821 and in 1823 new entrances completed. The organ was added in 1833.

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In 1908 the church was extended and remodelled. Another transept was added and the high altar moved to its present position. The interior, of neo-renaissance style, now had two pairs of marble columns with Corinthian capitals to match those on the original high altar. The paintings on the walls, by McEvoy of Dublin, are copies of old masters in oils on copper. The exterior is simple and dressed in sandstone. The random rubble stonework was obtained from the demolished Lifford Gaol, with some local whinstone mixed in. The slated roofs were surmounted by a small copper cupola crowned with a simple cross.

In 2009, renovation work to mark the centenary of the church was completed. This included the restoration of a burial plot in the church grounds which contained the remains of people whose bodies had been washed onto the main road during a landslide in the 1930s.

St Columb’s Cathedral (1633) St Columb’s, the first purpose built Anglican cathedral in Ireland, was built under the direction of Sir John Vaughan, Governor of Derry, with William Perrott as the main contractor. The construction lasted for five years and cost £4000. Completed in 1633, its style is described as ‘Planters’ Gothic’. The tower originally supported a short spire which was removed to make lead bullets during the siege in 1689 when the tower roof served as a gun platform. During the episcopate of Bishop Hervey (1768-1803) a new wooden spire was built which was later replaced by the existing stone version in 1823, possibly to designs by John Bowden.

A chancel was added in 1887 to the design of Fountain native John Guy Ferguson. The chapter side and choir vestry were built on the south side of the cathedral in 1910, to the designs of Sir Thomas Drew who also designed the original St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast. Further restoration work took place in 2010-11 in part due to the cathedrals role as a major visitor attraction in the city.

The tower contains thirteen bells including the tenor bell of the peal weighing 32 ½ cwt. St Columb’s is one of only four cathedrals in Ireland which maintains the integral Anglican choral tradition. Therefore, unlike a normal Anglican church, the services of Holy Communion, 46

matins, evensong and compline are sung by a choir of ten men and thirteen boys.

St Augustine’s Church (1872) St Augustine’s is neo-Gothic in design, with a fine chancel arch but an otherwise simple interior.

It was built in 1872 as the first Anglican subscription church in Ireland. Delightfully situated on the city Walls, it is surrounded by its grave yard (which contains members of the famous Alexander and Montgomery families) and a pretty parish school and hall.

The present building replaced the older Chapel of Ease, a former Augustinian priory which the seventeenth-century settlers restored as their parish church. In his 1972 centenary history, William McSparron suggested the site had been ‘God’s acre’ since the thirteenth century whilst Brian Lacy suggests that the very first Christians in Derry, seven centuries earlier, worshipped there following the establishment of a monastery on the site which is today credited to St Columba.

In more recent times it has had some notably long serving clergymen, such as Rev W Cowan (1888-1909). The present congregation still remember with great affection Canon Herbert McKegney (1931-72); he showed enormous enthusiasm for the parish’s scout troop, founded the parish magazine, started the Christmas Eve midnight Holy Communion (the first in Ireland) and was enthusiastically involved in the YMCA and in the temperance cause. Today the church can also claim to have produced the first female bishop in the Anglican Communion of Britain and Ireland. Reverend Patricia Storey was the rector of St Augustine’s until November 2013 when she was ordained as Bishop of Meath and Kildare.

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Carlisle road Presbyterian Church (1879) Built in 1879 by the Belfast architects Young and Mackenzie, the Carlisle road Presbyterian Church has a neo-Gothic perpendicular style facade in whinstone and sandstone.

The church originally belonged to the Presbyterian Synod of Ireland, distinguished by the name “Seceders�, and its congregation was known as 2nd Derry. Before its recognition as a congregation in 1837 it existed as a Mission Station which met in a Hall in Fountain Street. In 1840 the Synod of Ulster and the Secession Synod united to form the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and when the new Presbyteries were constituted in 1841, the church became known as 4th Derry. The Congregation then moved to an old theatre in London Street (now the Synod Hall) and finally settled in the present church in 1879.

Fountain Street Baptist Church (1897) Though there were people with Baptist leanings in the Derry area for centuries, the first and only church, at Fountain Street, was not built until 1897, with the opening services conducted by Pastor Charles Spurgeon, son of the famous Victorian preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

It is an unassuming red brick building opening directly on to the public footpath. Inside is a simple hall with a slightly/raised central pulpit-area, and in front of it the Communion table surrounded by a railing. The baptistery is set into the floor under the table. Across the street is the mission hall which was erected in the early twentieth century.

Carlisle Road Methodist Church (1903) Built in 1903 to the design of architect Alfred Foreman, it has a number of flying buttresses which add a visual effect rather than any function and an unusual hexagonal roof at one corner over a neo-gothic façade.

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Methodism first came to Derry in 1765 when John Wesley, the cofounder of Methodism, preached in the Linenhall. During the nineteenth century the Methodist community was incredibly active, establishing the Epworth Hall in Rosemount area and the Clooney Hall in Waterside, as well as a hostel at Barrack Street. The era of expansion culminated in 1903 with the construction of the church at Carlisle Road. It was a costly building and left the congregation heavily indebted for two decades.

Primitive Methodists Chapel (1869) In 1810 the more evangelical members of the Methodist Church split to form the Primitive Methodists. From 1816 they worshipped in a former Methodist chapel in Magazine Street before moving to a new site facing the Hawkin Street penitentiary in 1869.

The church closed in the early 1900s and was converted into an Independent Order of Good Templar’s building. The Order originated in the 19th century as one of a number of fraternal organisations for temperance or total abstinence. Reflecting its progressive attitude it admitted men and women equally and also made no distinction based on member’s race.

First Derry Presbyterian Church (1780) The earliest local Presbyterians, seventeenth-century settlers from Scotland, took turns with the Episcopalians to worship in St Columb’s Cathedral. This arrangement came to an end in 1661 (following the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy) when the Church of Ireland bishop tried to enforce conformity laws leading to a period of great difficulty for Presbyterians. By 1672 they had acquired a new minister, Rev Robert Rule, from Kilready in Scotland. Their first formal church was then established close to where Fountain Place later joined Fountain Street.

Rev Rule’s successor, Rev Robert Craighead, survived the 1689 siege and 49

built the first church on Magazine Street using the proceeds of a Regium Donum from Queen Mary for services rendered to the city

by Presbyterians during the siege.

Unfortunately, as the enforcement of the Penal Laws began to bite in the early 18th century, the church was demolished by the Anglican authorities.

The present building was rebuilt in 1780 following a relaxation of the penal laws. Its Roman Corinthian portico, designed by W E Pinkerton, was added in 1903. In 2010 the church was extensively renovated following an appeal by the Minister, Rev Latimer, to the local council, deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and Speaker of the Assembly William Hay. The restored building now incorporates the Bluecoat visitor centre, incorporating a range of displays, artefacts, interactive areas, audio-visual equipment and as a ‘dress-up area’ where younger visitors can try on the robes which were worn by children who attended the nearby Blue Coat School (now the Verbal Arts Centre). This new facility tells the history behind the Church, along with the history of Presbyterians in the city (and beyond) as well as the role they played in the great siege.

Albert Street Presbyterian Church (1783) In 1783 a church was built on Albert Street at a cost of £450. It was initially connected with the Secession Synod, and was known as First Derry Secession Congregation. For sixty-five years the congregation practiced a simple but devout Presbyterianism. It eventually joined the general synod to become Second Derry Presbyterian Church. In 1848 the church moved to the Strand Road which closed several years ago due to a fall in church numbers.

Reformed Presbyterian Meeting House (1810) The Reformed Presbyterian Church was established in 1690. In 1810 a church was built in the Fountain Street area at a cost of £450. A new 50

church was then later built at the Clarendon/Queen Street junction in 1858.

Plymouth Brethren Meeting House (1897) Around the same time as the Baptist Chapel was opened in Lower Fountain Street, a Plymouth Brethren meeting house was established in George’s Street. The Brethren Church, which has its roots in Dublin, seceded from the Anglican Church around 1827, feeling that the church had become too involved with the secular state and abandoned many of the basic truths of Christianity.

Salvation Army (1881) In 1881, members of the Salvation Army moved into premises in Carlisle Road called ‘The Temple.’ Prior to this, they had worshipped in a building on Strand Road which had been formerly used for skating and was known locally as the ‘Rink.’

The Jewish population in Derry The Robinson, Edstein, Wellshy, Spain, Fieldman, Gordons, and Danker families were among the first Jewish families to arrive in Derry around the 1880/90s. Mainly tailors, pedlars and picture framers by trade, they arrived as the result of two separate waves of migration. The first of these arrived at the very end of the nineteenth century following their expulsion from Russia and settled in the Abercorn Road, Bishop Street and Fountain areas. They first worshipped at 18 Abercorn Road before opening a synagogue at the top of Lower Fountain Street whose existence was first recorded in 1901. The synagogue moved to Kennedy Place in 1929.

A second and smaller wave of immigrants arrived in the city immediately before the Second World War. Many of them had fled Austria to escape persecution by the Nazis. They included Madame Beck, the milliner, and Louis Schenkel whose collection of almost one thousand cacti is to be found at Belfast’s Botanic Gardens. As the Jewish community became smaller the synagogue was finally forced to close in 1948 and its Torah was taken to Israel.

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The old Cathedral School building on London Street.

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C hapter S E V E N Schools and Education

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s the Fountain area developed a number of educational establishments also emerged, including James Daly’s English School (established 1811), James McLaughlin’s English School, Thomas Quigg’s English School and W. and R. Simpson’s Classical School. The Fountain Street Female School was also established by 1837 and a Ladies’ Lending Library opened in Fountain Street in 1839. In 1846 the Fountain Street Reformed Presbyterian School was recorded as having received £5 from the Irish Society.

1846 also saw a Catholic College and Ladies’ Boarding & Day School opened in Pump Street. The Fountain Street Industrial Ragged School was opened in 1850 whilst 1856 saw the Londonderry Christian Fellowship Association opening a school on Fountain Street. Whilst these smaller schools tended to be short lived, a number of larger establishments have had a much longer existence: Fountain Primary School (1995) Fountain Primary School was built in 1995 to accommodate children from Carlisle Road Presbyterian, Cathedral Church of Ireland and First Derry Primary Schools. Its construction was due mainly in the falling 53

attendance at all three of these schools which was causing funding and teaching difficulties for all concerned. Therefore a decision was taken in 1992 to amalgamate all three, leading to the establishment of the Fountain Primary School which continues to teach pupils from the Fountain and Waterside areas.

Bluecoat/First Derry School (1733) The ‘Bluecoat’ School (emblem above doorway below) was opened in 1733 at Stable Lane on the city walls. Bluecoat schools originated as charity schools in 16th century England. The blue uniform worn by the pupils was chosen due to the fact that blue is traditionally the colour of charity. It was later taken over by the nearby First Derry Presbyterian church to add to its schools at Ballyarnett, Ballymagroarty and Balloughry. Those pupils who could sing became choristers in the First Derry church, which is why the newly renovated exhibition centre in the church is now known as the Bluecoat Visitor Centre.

The school was rebuilt in 1894 in Queen Anne revival style which was very popular in the late Victorian period. The familiar repertoire of high roofs, Dutch gables, tall chimney stacks and mullioned windows is set in an asymmetrical red-brick composition. In 1992, following the closure of the school due to falling enrolment, a decision was taken to transform it into The Verbal Arts Centre dedicated to showcasing and celebrating all forms of the spoken and written word.

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Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church School (1889) In 1889, mainly through the energies of the minister Rev Robert Ross, a new hall was built adjoining Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church.

Constructed primarily as a Church School, it was in use by the education authorities until 1995. By this time numbers had dwindled, leading to the transfer of pupils to the new Fountain Primary School.

Cathedral School (1891) The Cathedral Primary School first welcomed pupils in 1891 during the episcopate of Bishop Alexander. It closed in 1995 as a result of dwindling numbers with most pupils transferring to the new Fountain Primary School. In 2009 the HLF awarded funding for a complete restoration of the building with proposals for a multi-purpose exhibition, training and educational venue. Although the renovations were delayed, work has recently resumed on the B1 listed building.

In many ways the large number of denominations based in the Fountain by the mid-19th century would account for the many separate educational buildings opening in the area. Reciprocally, the lower Bishop Street area saw many more catholic educational establishments opening, partly as a result of the renewed self-confidence of the Catholic Church following the demise of the penal laws.

Long Tower Infants School (1825) Long Tower Infants School first opened in 1825 (six years before the National Schools Act of 1831) followed by Long Tower Girls School in 1893 and Long Tower Boys School in 1912. The original school buildings were constructed in the vicinity of the Long Tower Church whilst the newer buildings were constructed on the site of the old Albert market (indeed the arch to the old market still survives at the entrance to the school). The schools contributed to the rich scholarly heritage of the city over the years and many of their pupils were destined for success in later life, one such being the playwright Brian Friel.

Also in the grounds of the Long Tower church is the former Long Tower Primary school, or the ‘Wee Nuns School’. This B2 listed building 55

Aras Colmcille on the grounds of the old ‘wee nuns’ building.

is the oldest surviving purpose-built primary school building in the city, and derives its name from the fact that it was run by the Sisters of Mercy as a primary school for much of its existence. Since 2014 the building has been known as ‘Aras Colmcille’ and houses an extensive exhibition chronicling the life and impact of St Columba on Derry and beyond.

Christian Brothers (1852) The Brow of the Hill (pictured below) was the location of one of the first Christian Brothers institutions in Ulster. The Brow was a secluded, well enclosed area with a spacious garden situated between the Bogside and Lower Bishop Street. Columba and his monks were said to have dwelt in the area in the 6th century. It was also the scene of two battles during the Siege of Derry including the famous ‘Battle of the Windmill’. In the 18th century local landlord William Hogg developed the site as a private estate (indeed the adjacent street is still called Hogg’s Folly).

Mr Hogg’s former estate was purchased in 1846 by Bishop Maginn who intended to develop a diocesan seminary at the site. He resided in the building until his death, when he was succeeded by Dr Kelly. A section was also used as a teaching block by the Sisters of Mercy, who 56

had set up residence in Bishop Street in 1848. It became a Christian Brothers school on 13th March 1854 when the Sisters of Mercy moved to the newly established St Eugene’s primary school at Francis Street.

Teaching at the Christian Brothers was divided into primary and technical departments with subjects taught such as Chemistry, Physics, Mechanics, Drawing, Manual Instruction, Mathematics (including Arithmetic, Mensuration, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus, and Graphics), English, Geography, History, a Modern Language, and Machine Construction and Design’. Pupils would also be expected to avail of physical education, with particular emphasis on GAA activities which took place in nearby Celtic Park.

By the 1970s, comprehensive schools had been well established in various areas of the city with most pupils from the Bogside and Brandywell attending St Joseph’s and St Peter’s in the Creggan or, if they passed the 11-plus, St Columb’s College, which sat beside the Brow of the Hill site.

Indeed the Brow of the Hill classrooms were taken over by St Columb’s after 1976 when the school closed its doors on site for the last time. The Brothers continued to teach technical subjects at St Peter’s in Creggan until 1989, thus ending their 135-year academic association with Derry.

The Brow of the Hill technical school.

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St Columb’s College (1879) St Columb’s (pictured above) was initially intended to be a diocesan seminary to educate young men mainly, though not exclusively, for the priesthood. There had been several failed attempts to create such an institution in Derry, including a building at Ferguson’s Lane in the early nineteenth century and another at Pump Street from 1841 to 1864.

Built in the vicinity of Bishop Hervey’s former ‘Casino’ residence, the foundation stone of the south wing, or junior house, was laid in 1877.

The college finally opened its doors on 3rd November 1879 with two priests, Dr Edward O’Brien and Dr John Hassan acting as the teachers in residence. It had cost £10,000.

A red brick gatehouse was opened in 1892 with the north wing, or senior house, added in September 1893 at a cost of £8,000. The museum, baths and recreation rooms were added within five years. In 1932 a large extension was built consisting of the dormitory block, refectory and kitchen. Four years later the old chapel, on the site of Hervey’s Casino, was replaced with a larger version.

The school was considered to be quite large at the time and was expected to accommodate 20 to 30 boarders. The introduction of the 11-plus as a result of the 1947 Education Act saw pupil numbers triple within 20 years, leading to the opening of a new campus on the Buncrana Road in 1973 to cater for senior pupils (Third Year to Upper Sixth).

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In 1997 the entire school moved to the Buncrana Road after the completion of a new senior block to the rear of the existing buildings.

Lumen Christi College, a co-educational Catholic grammar school founded in September 1997, took over the Bishop Street site and this remains the case today.

Today, St Columb’s College has its own unique place in Irish history as the only school in Ireland that can boast of two Nobel laureates amongst its past pupils; John Hume (Nobel peace prize, 1998) and Seamus Heaney (Nobel literature prize, 1995). The college’s former pupils’ association makes an annual award (the Alumnus Illustrissimus Award) to ‘a past pupil who has achieved something of major significance, or has made a considerable contribution in his own field’.

Past winners of the award are as follows: 1994 Dr Edward Daly, former bishop of Derry.

1995 John Hume, former MP, MEP and Nobel Laureate.

1996 Seamus Heaney, poet.

1997 Brian Friel, playwright.

1998 Professor Sean Mullan, neurosurgeon.

1999 Monsignor Brendan Devlin, cleric.

2000 Sir James Doherty, politician/businessman.

2001 Professor Raymond Flannery, physicist.

2002 Martin O’Neill, soccer player/ manager.

2003 Phil Coulter, composer.

2004 All alumni honoured as part of the school’s 125th-anniversary celebrations.

Brian Friel

Seamus Heaney

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Phil Coulter

The old St Columb’s College, now Lumen Christi, in the background with the Nazareth House in the foreground.

2005 James Sharkey, former diplomat.

2006 Sir Liam McCollum PC, Lord Justice of Appeal.

2007 Peter McCullagh/John Toland, mathematicians.

2008 Professor Patrick Johnston, director of the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology (CCRCB) and Dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry, QUB. 2009 Professor Seamus Deane, poet and novelist.

2010 Sir Declan Morgan, current Lord Chief Justice.

2011 Paul Brady, musician 2012 Prof Declan McMonagle, director Irish College of Art and Design 2013 Brian Dooher, former Tyrone All-Ireland winning football captain Other famous pupils include journalist Eamonn McCann, politicians Raymond McCartney and Mark Durkan and many more former alumni.

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Nazareth House (1892) Nazareth House first opened in 1892. Designed by architect EJ Toye, and formerly named Sunnyside, it was purchased with the aid of a bequest from a Madame Waters and established as a ‘home for children and aged folk’. The building, with its fully integrated gas, electricity and water supplies, was considered revolutionary at the time.

On Friday 4th October 1902, the corner stone of the new school building annexe was laid to mark its completion. The school was attended by children from all over Derry, while some of the children living in the orphanage attended schools in other parts of the city.

The residential home for orphans closed in 2000 allowing the school to adapt it into a nursery unit.

Notable past pupils of the school include classical concert pianist Ruth McGinley, actress Bronagh Gallagher, television journalist Tony Connelly, actress Pauline Hutton and biotechnologist Aaron Murray.

A young Ruth McGinley plays for Joe Kennedy.

Bronagh Gallagher

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Derry Gaol, now the Heritage Tower.

A funeral march makes its way past the old city Gaol in the 1930s.

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C hapter E I G H T Local Landmarks

Derry Gaol (1791) erry’s first gaol was situated in the Diamond area from the plantation period. It was replaced by a structure at Ferryquay gate before the new structure at Bishop Street was built in 1791. In 1798, following his capture on board La Hoche at Lough Swilly, Wolfe Tone, leader of the United Irishmen, was detained at the Gaol (pictured above) before being brought to Dublin for trial.

Remodelled in 1824 at a cost of £ 33,718 Irish pounds, the building was modelled in a gothic style and part coated with cement and Dungiven sandstone. By the time of its closure there had been no female prisoners since 1921 (all being moved to Armagh). The female prisoners had been replaced by republican internees, which led to the only successful escape from the gaol when Frank Carty, a TD in the second Dáil, managed to scale the 50-foot back wall on the prison in February 1921 to make his way to freedom in Scotland, a feat which eluded the ‘men of 43’, a group of 21 republican prisoners who made a famous escape by tunnelling under the gaol into the back of a house in Harding Street before escaping in a furniture van. All would eventually be recaptured apart from one prisoner who was killed later during other republican activities.

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The prison also saw several executions over the years. Many more were sentenced to death only to have their sentence commuted to life imprisonment. It closed in 1953, with eventual demolition in 1971.

One of its former towers still stands on Lower Bishop Street and today serves as a heritage tower.

The Old Fire Station (1891) Built in 1891 to a design by Fountain native John Guy Ferguson, the old Fire Station is set just outside the city’s walls at New Gate. The structure is believed to be the only late 19th Century Fire Station building in the north and has been B2 listed since 2004.

The first committee with responsibility for fire fighting in the city was established in 1775 which later saw the establishment of a fire station at Linenhall Street. In 1892 the Corporation established a Water and Fire Brigade Committee to avail of the new building at Hawkin Street. In 1942 the Fire Brigade was incorporated into the National Fire Service.

In the post war years the Brigade moved to old factory premises at the Waterside end of the Craigavon bridge before moving to new premises on the Northland Road in 1961.

Extensively damaged by fire in 2006, the Hawkin Street building has since been restored and extended and is now used as office space.

Apprentice Boys Memorial Hall (1873) The Memorial Hall, the worldwide headquarters of the Apprentice Boys of Derry, was built in 1873, to a design by John Guy Ferguson, and extended in 1936. Neo-gothic, with a strong Scottish baronial façade, it contains meeting rooms for the Loyal Orders and a large area for events and social gatherings. It also houses an Initiation room for all new members of the Apprentice Boys Society.

The Apprentice Boys are a Protestant fraternal society founded in 1814 to commemorate the victory of pro-Williamite forces at the 1689 Siege of Derry. Their two main demonstrations occur in December (commemorating the Shutting of the Gates against the Earl of Antrim’s forces in December 1688) and August (celebrating the Relief of Derry in August 1689).

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Those celebrations take the form of a parade to and from a Church Service held in St Columb’s Cathedral and a wreath laying service at the City’s War Memorial to remember, in the words of the Apprentice Boys, ‘all those who have died over the centuries, including the First and Second World Wars, in the defence of civil and religious liberty’. The organisation currently has over 10,000 members and is looking forward to the renovation of its headquarters which will include a museum to relate the story of the siege and the history of the Apprentice Boys.

In 1828 a column was erected on the Royal Bastion beside the Apprentice Boys Hall to commemorate the Reverend George Walker, joint Governor of Derry during the Siege of 1689. Completed in 1828, it was used for over 140 years by the Apprentice Boys to burn the effigy of Colonel Lundy at the end of the Shutting of the Gates Commemorations in December each year. In August 1973 the pillar was destroyed by a bomb blast with only the plinth remaining today. Ever since, the effigy has been burned outside the Bishop Street courthouse.

The following pages include a selection of illustrations drawn by young pupils from Fountain PS and Long Tower PS – showcasing some of the areas most significant buildings and landmarks. For more of these wonderful drawings visit www.visitbishopstreetandthefountain.com.

The Memorial Hall in the 1970s.

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Above: Lumen Christi College by Lara Kennedy.

Below: Guildhall Square by Charly Morrison.

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Above: A view of the Guildhall from the City walls by Alex Murray.

Below: Free Derry Corner by Connor Doherty.

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Above: Derry Court House by Paul Harkin.

Below: Bishop’s Gate by Shane O’Connell.

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Above: Old Free Derry Corner by Clodagh Barton.

Below: Austins Department Store frontage by Ava Farren

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Old Derry Gaol by Kate McCafferty.

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Above: St Columb’s Cathedral by Teegan and Dayna.

Below: Bishop’s Gate by C Gillan

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Above: The old Fire Station by Jasmine Armstrong and Mervyn McNair.

Below left: The Heritage Tower by Ellie Simpson and Jasmine Watson.

Below right: The Sally Port by Kai Jay Burke.

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Above: Sinclair’s Shirt Factory by Luke and Adam C. Below: New Gate by Adam S Steven.

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Rock legend Rory Gallagher

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C hapter N I N E Music and Entertainment

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he contribution of people coming from both the Bishop Street area and the Fountain to the City’s rich cultural history has been highly significant. The following performers, artists and musicians have sealed their place in the city’s musical heritage.

Michael O’Duffy Born Michael Duffy in Brooke Street, off Bishop Street, in 1918, he worked at the Great Northern Railway before winning the ‘Golden Voice’ competition at the Adelphi theatre in 1939. Thus began a career which included six albums, numerous international performances and film roles including The Rising of the Moon, Gideon’s Days and Johnny Nobody. His regular gigs with fellow Derry men Josef Locke and Patrick O’Hagan saw the three men dubbed The Three Irish Tenors. He died in Hertfordshire in 2003 aged 84.

Jimmy McShane Jimmy McShane, from Bellevue Avenue, off Bishop Street, was lead singer with Italian ‘new wave’ dance outfit Baltimora in the mid to late 1980s. They are best known for their 1985 hit single Tarzan Boy. 75

Released in the summer of 1985, Tarzan Boy was a huge success, peaking at No.6 on the Italian singles chart and reaching the top five in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, France, the Netherlands and Norway. The single also reached No. 3 in the British chart in August 1985 and peaked at No. 13 on the US Billboard chart in the early spring of 1986. Their second single Woody Boogie also reached the top 20 in Germany, Switzerland and Sweden.

The group eventually disbanded in the late 1980s. Nevertheless, Tarzan Boy re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart in March 1993 as a remix following its use in a Listerine commercial. The song was also featured in the films Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993) and Beverly Hills Ninja (1997).

Jimmy McShane eventually settled in Milan, where he was diagnosed with the AIDS virus. A few months later he returned to Ireland. He died on 29 March 1995 at the age of 37.

Rory Gallagher Rory Gallagher was born on 2nd March 1948 in Ballyshannon, County Donegal. Music was always a big influence in the Gallagher family.

Rory’s father had played the accordion and sang with the Tir Chonaill Ceile Band whilst his mother Monica was also a singer and had acted with the Abbey Players in Ballyshannon.

The family later moved to Derry where Rory’s younger brother Dónal was born in 1949. When Rory’s parents separated he moved with his mother to Cork whilst his father remained in the Foyle Road area of Derry. Initially successful with the blues band Taste, his solo career as a guitarist saw him sell in excess of 30 million copies worldwide. In 1995 he received a liver transplant in London in 1995 but died of complications on 14th June. He was 47 years of age.

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Phil Coulter Phil Coulter was born in Harding Street, off Bishop Street, on 19 February 1942. Whilst attending Queen’s University, he played in a number of bands and wrote several Irish hits before moving to London to begin a career as a musical arranger and songwriter. His first big song writing success came with Puppet on a String which won the Eurovision Song Contest for Sandy Shaw in 1967.

He also wrote the 1968 Eurovision runner-up Congratulations for Cliff Richard. The two records sold almost ten million copies between them and put Coulter on the song writing map. Other successes included All Kinds of Everything (the 1970 Eurovision winner sung by Bogside resident Dana), Back Home (a Number One hit for the England football team), several hits for Irish actor Richard Harris, and My Boy which Elvis Presley took to the top of the charts.

He later wrote and produced for the Bay City Rollers who enjoyed huge success between 1974 and 1976 with hits including Remember, Shang-a-Lang and Summer Love Sensation. He also enjoyed five TopTen hits with the band Kenny and a Number One with boy band Slik, led by Midge Ure. He also produced albums for Planxty (featuring Christy Moore) and wrote hits for the Dubliners including Scorn Not His Simplicity (written about Coulters own disabled son). His most famous song, The Town I Loved So Well, was written about the war-torn Derry of the early 1970s. In 1984, he launched his first solo album, Classic Tranquility, which was the biggest selling Irish album of all time until his follow up Sea of Tranquility out sold it. Numerous hit albums and musical shows have followed right up to the present day.

Cecile Alexander (1823-95) Born Cecile Humphreys in county Tyrone, she married the Rt. Rev. W. Alexander, who later became Bishop of Derry and Raphoe and eventually

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Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland. They were married for 45 years, half of which was lived in Derry.

As a young girl she showed a gift for poetry and later became a prolific writer of over four hundred hymns as well as many narrative poems.

Tennyson said he would have been proud to have written her poem The Burial of Moses. All the profits from the publications of her hymns were given to help an institution for Irish mutes.

Perhaps her most famous hymn is There is a Green Hill Far Away. It was said to have been inspired by the hill of Creggan outside the walls of Derry. In her mind it was on a hill like this on which Jesus was crucified.

It was written to help her godchildren understand the statements of the creed, “Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried�. It was composed while she sat by the bedside of a sick child.

Of humble disposition, she disliked praise and flattery. Greatly admired by the many poor she had helped by her kindness, she is buried in Derry Cemetery.

Gary Lightbody Among the names on the Diamond War Memorial is Corporal Thomas Wray, 10th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (Derry Volunteers). He lived with his wife Elizabeth at number 15 Fountain Street and was killed in action on July 1, 1916, at the Battle of the Somme. Thomas Wray was the great-grandfather of Gary Lightbody (on right), lead singer of multiplatinum, Grammy-nominated rock band, Snow Patrol.

Snow Patrol were formed in Dundee in 1994. During the 2000s they enjoyed massive success with albums including Eyes Open, Final Straw and A Hundred Million Suns. Singles such as Run, Chasing Cars and Take Back the City have also become huge anthems. In 2012, Lightbody, who grew up in Bangor, received an Honorary Degree from the University of Ulster (UU) for services to the music industry. His bandmate Johnny McDaid (on left) also hails from Derry.

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Despite its small geographical size the Fountain was also home to a number of entertainment venues. In the mid-19th century the Wapping Theatre was the only theatre in the city. Of basic design, it had a temporary stage and a very rough gallery, behind which were the ‘boxes’ which were accessed from the City Wall. It was redeveloped in the 1850s by a Mr Davis before closing in 1859. On 23rd December 1912 a new cinema also opened at the corner of Hawkin Street and Fountain Street.

The most famous venue in the vicinity of the Fountain was undoubtedly the Opera House (pictured below) on Carlisle Road.

Designed by the well-known Theatre Architect CJ Phipps, it could accommodate upwards of 1,600 people. It was the first Opera House in Ulster and only the second in Ireland when it opened in 1877. A visit by Oscar Wilde in 1884 generated much publicity followed by a visit by the Prince of Wales the following year.

In 1914, the Opera House began showing silent films, followed in the early 1930s by the ‘talkies’. In September 1919 it was renamed The Empire and was rebranded again in 1922 as the Opera House. Reopened as a cinema in 1938, it was destroyed in 1940 by a fire caused by an IRA bomb.

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William King Memorial Flute Band – “Thank you for the Music” The William King Memorial Flute Band was formed on 12th August 1972 by a few young men from ‘The Fountain’ (rumoured to be Trevor Mitchell, John Rankin, Charlie Boyd, Davy Ferguson and Billy Rosborough) who were bored listening to accordion and pipe bands during the annual 12th celebrations. They decided to name the band in honour of a local man, William King, who had died three years earlier of a heart attack following an assault by a group of nationalists in London Street. Lexi Montgomery (married to William King’s niece) had wanted to use the name for a pipe band but the decision was instead made that a flute band was the way forward.

The band first met at the home of Mr Miles Stott in Fountain Street with a committee, under Trevor Mitchell’s chairmanship, formed on 17th February 1973. The band’s first instruments, bought for £1.50 each, are a disaster and not a note could be obtained from them so they invest in B flat Miller Brown 5 key flutes, four drums (costing £30) bought from Eglinton Accordion Band and a handmade bass drum costing £35. The flautists were taught by Uel Magowan and the drummers by Ronnie Gallagher, both veterans of the old “No Surrender Flute Band”, who had been based in the Abercorn Road/ Barrack Street area of the city. All of these purchases are only made possible due to the generosity of the local residents who donate 10p per week per house to raise funds for the band.

Band practice was held in the front room of Myles Stott’s home which had previously been Gormley’s Bar. The old bar stools came in handy for the drummers to practice on.

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By July 1973 the band had a staggering £18.00 in their funds.

They therefore decided to write to unionist politicians including Rev. Ian Paisley, William Craig and Brian Faulkner among others, to seek funding, but to no avail.

Nevertheless the band persisted and on Saturday 6th April 1974, with 8 tunes under their belt, the band was dedicated in the Apprentice Boys Memorial Hall by Dean George Good. A few days later the band paraded on Easter Monday with Fawney Fort Browning Club Apprentice Boys, on the 12th July with L.O.L 858 in Limavady. Because they had no Parent Club to lead on the 12th August, they marched to the Waterside Railway Station on the footpaths to offer their services to any arriving Branch Club who didn’t have a band.

As 1975 progressed it became clear that maintaining band numbers and discipline was not an easy task. However the killing of band member Bobby Stott by republicans in November 1975 galvanises the bands membership. The band played “Abide with Me” on the steps of First Derry Church as his coffin entered the building for his funeral service and there was a determination to continue.

In the period between 1976 and 1981 other bands including the Sergeant Lindsay Mooney Memorial and East Bank Protestant Boys were formed. It was during this time that a core of members joined the William King who are still involved to this day. A major low point was the death of another young member David Walker in a hit and run accident at Maydown in August 1977 on his way back from a band parade.

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From 1978-81 the band paraded annually in Kirkcaldy, Scotland where many new alliances and friendships were made. The band reached new heights when they were invited to lead the “No Surrender” Parent Club of the Apprentice Boys at the 12th August parade in 1978.

The bands first trophy came in 1982 at a parade in Tobermore for Band Displaying Best Discipline. The band also became involved in indoor contests organised by the North of Ireland bands Association and the Flute Bands League which saw them come second to the Lindsay Mooney Memorial Band at the annual Band Championships of Ireland in the Guildhall.

The bands soaring reputation saw them accepting an invitation from the Royal British Legion in 1982 to lead their annual Remembrance Day Parade to the Cenotaph. In November 1984, the band also travelled to London to lead the protests against the city council name change.

In April 1988 the band recorded their first cassette “Ace’s High” at Homestead Recording Studio in Randalstown. The following year the band engaged an instrument maker in London, Mr John Millar, to make new flutes based on the legendary early 20th century Crown AZ B-flat Flute. The band still uses a variation of this flute today. On June 10th the band also led the Siege Tercentenary Parade in Liverpool and Southport.

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In 1990 a request came from the General Committee of The Apprentice Boys to lead the 12th August Relief of Derry Parade on a five year contract. The band reluctantly turned down the offer in favour of continuing to lead the No Surrender Parent Club to which they held a great loyalty.

In 1993, the band celebrated their 20th Anniversary with a dinner dance in The Apprentice Boys Memorial Hall. In 1996 new uniforms and drums were dedicated by Rev. David Latimer from First Derry church and the band played at a fundraising concert there with the Hamilton Flute Band alongside Lebanese Flautist Wissam Bousamy and Marcas Ó Murchú, a fantastic traditional flute player. The following year the band played at their first Fleadh (FLA) in Burtonport, Co. Donegal.

The next major event for the band came in 2002 when they travelled to the Limerick International Marching Band Parade on St. Patrick’s Day. The event, hosted by the Irish Peace Institute saw the band receive a warm reception. Around the same time the band had its first meeting with the Parades Commission who said that the bands presentation gave the most positive and open assessment of parading in Ireland that they had ever heard.

Throughout 2004-2005 the band used the Blast Furnace studio in Creggan and the Apprentice Boys Hall to record their new CD which was released during the “Maiden City Festival” in August 2006. The incredible public response saw 1,000 CD’s being sold in three months.

In 2008 the band went to the “Blackskull Flute Band” contest in Glasgow with great success. In November 2009, the Ulster Bands Forum and Ulster-Scots Agency organised a Festival of Marching Bands. The William Kings topped the readers’ poll in the Newsletter which saw them being invited to give a twenty minute concert playing traditional melodies, marches and classical pieces in the Ulster Hall. At this time there was also a shift in the musical direction of the band under the guidance of Derek Moore, Alistair Lyttle and Philip Lindsay which saw the band move from hand written music to producing their own printed arrangements which were subsequently used by a wide variety of other bands.

2010 saw the band back on parade in Scotland for the first time in 18 years where they won the Best Flutes, Best Drums, and Best Overall Band 83

trophies. 2010 also saw collaboration with the “Ulster Scots Agency” who funded a 20 week tuition programme on fluting and drumming.

This helped the band to develop new techniques in classical pieces and traditional Scots Irish melodies. Working with the Gateway to Protestant Participation group also saw the band develop new strategies and codes of practice including community skills in Conflict Management and Child Protection.

The bands third album which was to be named True Comrades was recorded in 2011/ 12 and finally released during the 2013 Maiden City Festival during the UK City of Culture. By this time it was decided to change the albums title to Our Director in memory of Drew Porter the bands long time conductor who had died before its completion.

During 2013, the band engaged in a number of events during the UK City of Culture Year, including the Walled City Tattoo, master classes during the All Ireland Fleadh and a host of smaller events associated with the culture year. With help from the Big Lottery Fund they also created a one hour documentary on the history of the band and its association with The Fountain.

From 1982 until the present the “William King Memorial Flute Band” has become the most successful band on the island of Ireland.

Their impressive list of titles and trophies include: 84

North of Ireland Band Association All Ireland Contest (Melody) – 16 wins North of Ireland Band Association All Ireland Contest (Grade 4) – 10 wins Flute Bands League (Melody) – 12 wins Flute Bands League (Melody Plus) – 11 wins Northwest Bands Association Contest – 18 wins Londonderry Feis – 15 wins As well as the affiliated titles they have won many indoor titles in Ireland and Scotland including five titles in the annual Quartet Contest and solo titles for Brian Moore in 2004, 2005 and 2009. The band has also been Northern Ireland Band of the Year in 2004, 2005 and 2009.

In 2006 the band won the Adjudicators Special award, The City of Dublin International Festival Trophy for the Best Overall Performance of the Day, beating 20 other bands in all grades.

In 2009 they repeated this feat, this time in the Flute Bands League contest, the first time a band in their grade has ever achieved this feat.

In the past few years the band has been a leading example of inclusion in community led events and has collaborated with bands from across the city and surrounding areas through events including the Pan Celtic Festival and the Walled City Tattoo.

They are also working with other groups in The Fountain Forum which aims to enhance the area and coordinate a community development strategy for the Fountain, the only remaining working class Protestant district on the west bank of Londonderry.

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The following section includes biographies of other residents of the Lower Bishop Street and Fountain areas who have gained various levels of public recognition.

David Dunseith David Dunseith was born in Ivy Terrace, off Lower Bishop Street, in 1935. Initially an RUC member in Derry, he moved into broadcasting in the 1970s. His first high-profile post was as a news anchorman with UTV when the Troubles were at their height. He moved to the BBC in the early 1980s and became presenter of the seminal Talkback Radio Ulster show in 1989.

He remained as its presenter until 2009 when he was replaced by Wendy Austin, a member of the Austin family whose famous department store (now owned by the Hassons) still stands in the Diamond in the city centre. He continued to present Seven Days on Radio Ulster until his retirement in March 2011. Following a brief illness he died on 30 June 2011.

Patsy O’Hara Patsy O’Hara’s involvement in the political situation began shortly after Bloody Sunday when he joined the Republican Clubs. He remained active until his seventeenth birthday when he was interned without trial.

Shortly after his release in April 1975, O’Hara joined the Irish Republican Socialist Party. Two months later he was stopped at the permanent checkpoint on the Letterkenny Road while driving his father’s car from County Donegal. Charged with possession of explosives he spent six months on remand before he was eventually acquitted and released.

In September 1976 he was again arrested in the north and charged with possession of a weapon. The charge was eventually withdrawn after four months.

In June 1977 he was imprisoned for the fourth time. On this occasion, after a seven-day detention in Dublin’s Bridewell, he was charged with holding a Garda at gunpoint. Released on bail six weeks later he 86

was eventually acquitted in January 1978. In January 1979 he moved back to Derry but was arrested on 14th May and charged with possessing a hand grenade. In January 1980 he was sentenced to eight years in jail and went on the Blanket Protest against the removal of political status in the north’s prisons.

Appointed as leader of the INLA prisoners in the H-Blocks, he joined IRA Volunteer Raymond McCreesh on Hunger Strike on 22nd March 1981. He died on Thursday 21st May 1981 aged 23 years of age.

A Hunger Strike memorial mural in the Blucher Street area.

Patsy’s portrait is the leftmost on the wall.

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Bobby Jackson Since the 1940s, the Jackson family have been painting murals in the Fountain. In 1993 a conflict emerged over the Housing Executive’s plan to demolish one of Jackson’s murals during the construction of the Fountain Primary School. The mural, depicting King William and the Relief of Derry, was noteworthy both for its age and its artistic merit.

It originally stood in Clarence Place in the old Fountain and had been relocated by the Housing Executive on the insistence of the local people during the major redevelopment of the early 1970s.

Following a petition the Housing Executive agreed to relocate the mural for a second time. Unfortunately it was destroyed during transit and Bobby Jackson agreed to work on a new version which was unveiled on 11th August 1995. The mural is an important landmark in the Fountain and is seen by tourists from all over the world.

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John Guy Ferguson The architect John Guy Ferguson was born in Fountain Street in August 1829. In his early career he joined his father’s construction business along with his two brothers, George and Robert. Robert Ferguson and Sons subsequently became one of the main contractors in the city and built many of John Guy’s designs.

One of his earliest works was Christ Church at Infirmary Road. Other notable designs included the YMCA Hall (pictured below) at East Wall (now the site of the Millennium Forum), Tillie and Henderson Shirt Factory, Saint Augustine’s Church of Ireland, Welch Margetson’s Shirt Factory, Craig Memorial Hall, the Apprentice Boys’ Memorial Hall, the Commercial Buildings at Foyle Street and the Cathedral National School at London Street.

Kathleen Coyle Kathleen Coyle (1886-1952) was born in Abercorn Road in Derry before moving to London where she worked as an editor’s assistant. Her father John was one of a family of four whose parents owned a massive store in Bishop Street. Kathleen’s mother was a descendent of John McNulty who’d helped to build the Long Tower Church and her great aunt was the redoubtable Madam (Jane) Watters. She met her husband, Charles O’Meagher, whilst living in Dublin where she was involved in both the Labour Movement and the Suffragettes. The marriage lasted four years and with two small children to support, Coyle made the decision to write for a living.

Travelling to Belgium and France, she became friendly with Norah and James Joyce and finally settled in America. Coyle’s A Flock of Birds (1930), was runner-up to EM Forster’s A Passage to India for a major literary award. Further works include The Widow’s House (1924), Youth in the Saddle (1927), It Is Better to Tell (1928), Family Skeleton (1934), Undue Fulfilment (1934), Immortal Ease (1941), Morning Comes Early (1934) and The Magic Realm (1943).

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C hapter T E N Ghost Stories of the Fountain and Bishop Street

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he Bishop Street and Fountain areas are famed for their ghost stories. This is not surprising given the long history of both areas.

The tales below are just a few examples of the strange occurrences that have taken place over the years. The tales below are extracted from Parade of Phantoms: Derry Ghostlore by Peter McCartney, Guildhall Press, 2011.

The Demon Bride A macabre tale of exorcism dating from the early 1940s was still common knowledge among the residents of Bishop Street over fifty years after the event. It centred on a two-roomed flat on the top storey of a house in lower Bishop Street.

A newly married couple were urgently seeking a place to live and in their desperation they reluctantly accepted this particular flat.

The dwelling itself was in excellent condition and both rooms had a window looking onto Bishop Street. Their reluctance to move in stemmed solely from rumours of ghostly and mysterious happenings associated with the premises. All the previous occupants were adamant in their belief that a strange forbidding atmosphere seemed to pervade the smaller of the two rooms in the flat.

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Many years before, this same room bore witness to a tragic event. The family who owned the house at the time had a daughter who was engaged to be married. One night as she was trying on her wedding dress in the room, she became suddenly and violently ill. She was laid on top of a bed in the room and a doctor and her fiancé were summoned. As the night progressed, her condition rapidly deteriorated. At one stage she began tossing and turning and screeching, “I won’t die, I won’t die. I’ll be back, I’ll be back!”

Just before dawn the young bride-to-be died, still wearing her wedding dress. She was buried in the dress and a few weeks after the funeral, the grief-striken family moved out of the house.

It was subsequently converted into flats.

The latest occupants of the top-floor flat found it very difficult to settle into their new surroundings. From the start, they decided not to use the smaller room at all, preferring instead to sleep, cook, and live in the one larger room. Still, however, they were constantly troubled by strange disturbing noises and movements coming from the empty unused room.

Ten months into their occupancy, the couple had a baby boy, and it was shortly after the birth that events in the flat reached a dramatic conclusion.

One night the young couple and child went out to visit some relatives – leaving the flat obviously empty. Sometime later, a young girl was passing the house on the opposite side of the road and happened to look up at the window of the small room of the top flat. She saw, as she later described, ‘a slim figure in a white dress’ waving and beckoning her to come up.

She couldn’t quite make out the face of the figure at the window and was somewhat taken aback at this strange sight. However, curiosity got the better of her and she crossed the street to have a closer look. Again she looked up and there was the figure, still beckoning. Suddenly, the figure thrust its head forward, right up against the window, and the young girl reeled in horror as she saw a leering evil face, contorted in a malevolent sneering grimace, star92

ing down at her. She fainted, but within minutes a policeman doing his beat found her prostrate on the street.

He revived the young girl, who pointed fearfully to the window. The policeman looked up and saw what he assumed to be a girl in a wedding dress waving at him. Thinking it must be someone in need of help, he rushed into the house and up to the top storey. He knocked loudly on the door and on getting no response, he broke it down. He searched the flat carefully but, to his complete astonishment, found no-one in either of the rooms.

When the couple residing in the flat returned, the events of that night were told to them. They decided it was time to contact their parish priest.

On his way to work the next morning, the husband called at the parochial house. That same afternoon, a priest arrived at the flat. He listened intently to the story the young wife told him and immediately went to the cot where the child was lying. He lifted the child up and cradled him snugly, but securely, in his arms. He then asked for a candle to be lit and beseeched the young woman and her aunt, who was also there, to begin praying aloud and on no account to be distracted by anything they might hear.

He entered the room with the child and closed the door behind him.

Instantly, the infant began to scream and an infernal disturbance could be heard coming from inside the room. The women prayed fervently outside.

Twenty minutes later the door opened and the priest, cradling the stillscreaming child, stepped out. His coat was lying open and torn, as if an attempt had been made to forcefully remove it. His body was saturated with sweat and he was praying continuously. In this trance-like condition he walked out of the flat, went down three steps to the upper landing window and, without fear or hesitation, thrust his hand through one of the panes.

At once, the child stopped screaming and the priest calmly instructed one of the women to find a piece of wood to cover the broken pane. The infant was returned to his cot and immediately fell soundly and peacefully asleep.

The priest sat down exhausted and was given a cup of tea. He explained that some ‘fiendish presence’ had been in the room and that only the child had been able to see it. In a tone of regret, he informed the two women that he had only the power to banish it temporarily. Heeding the priests warning the couple very soon afterwards left the diabolical abode. No-one ever lived there again, and the house has long since been demolished.

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Bizarre Occurrence in Bishop Street The eerie experiences of one local man are clearly and cogently conveyed in his own words in the following story. They occurred while he was living and working in his family’s pub, Mickey Lynch’s, a well-known hostelry which once graced lower Bishop Street.

“This story starts for me years ago, in 1966. I had just moved from one bedroom in the house to another as my older brother had gone to London to work. There was nothing unusual about this nor were there any tales or stories about this particular bedroom, everything was just normal in a normal household – as I thought. Shortly after moving into the bedroom a very strange and, at the time, very frightening thing happened. One morning I awoke to find a figure standing at my bedroom door, a female figure.

At first I thought it was my sister but after rubbing the sleep from my eyes I could clearly see there was no resemblance at all. It was a young woman, I guessed in her early twenties. She wore a long dress and colourful silk head scarf. She stood absolutely still, her face gaunt and expressionless.

My initial reaction was that of fear and utter disbelief in what I was seeing. I began to think I had not wakened and rubbed my eyes again, but she was still there. Then, to my horror, she began to move towards the bed, not walking, but with an effortless motion as if she was floating.

I jolted upright in the bed still thinking, hoping, it was all a dream, but she continued her slow and seemingly menacing approach. She stopped at arm’s length and looked directly at me – I saw a faint smile on an otherwise sad face. I seemed to lose my fear at that stage, wondering instead why she was sad; had something terrible happened to her? What did she want? In fact, I was quite content about the whole situation. Then she started to fade before my eyes, gradually becoming transparent until she simply disappeared.”

Three similar manifestations occurred at approximately three yearly intervals then, as inexplicably as they had begun, they ceased – the questions remained unanswered. A decade of ‘normality’ followed. Redevelopment plans for the area were sanctioned and the pub was duly demolished. However, one harrowing episode was to precede its final demise. The story continues . . .

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“I had since got married and moved out. My mother had also bought a house so the premises were no longer lived in. I often worked late in the pub and because I didn’t drive I relied on taxis to get home.

Normally a friend would call before the last customers left and we would sit and have a few drinks until my taxi arrived.

On this particular night, however, I was on my own.

“As usual, I locked all the doors with the exception of the front door.

I sat down by the window and waited for my taxi. Directly opposite me was the last door I had locked. It led to the bedrooms at the top of the house, and there’s no question about it, I had definitely locked it.

“It was about three o’clock in the morning and very quiet. I heard the sound of a car approaching and, assuming it was the taxi, I stood up on the seat, parted the curtains and looked out. I was surprised there was no car anywhere to be seen. That part of the street was long and straight and I had a good clear view in either direction. I know I heard a car. I checked again and at that precise moment the locked door leading to the bedrooms burst violently open.

“Instantly, before I could even turn round, I felt a hand grasp me forcibly on the shoulder. The grip was vice-like, excruciating, every hair on my body stood up. I was abruptly released and the door slammed shut with a thunderous echo. I gasped in relief but remained frozen to the spot for what seemed like an eternity. Eventually I was able to move and literally bolted out into the street, pulling the front door shut behind me. I can tell you I was glad to get out. Some distance up the road, a few women I knew were standing chatting – it wasn’t unusual even at that time of the morning. I made my way up and was greeted with the words: ‘What’s wrong with you? You look terrible!’ I told them the story.

“The next morning I went back to the bar. The door leading to the bedrooms was indeed locked. I went up to my old room and just stood there for a few minutes. I didn’t feel afraid.

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“I told the story to a few old-timers who had come into the bar. One of them informed me that curiously enough my mother had been upstairs the day before and took an old picture from one of the bedrooms up to her new house. The picture in question was an icon-style portrait, hand woven in gold thread, possibly quite valuable. It had been there when my parents bought the house fifty years previously. I can’t logically explain it but I knew there was a connection with its removal and the incident the night before. I phoned my mother and told her the story. She was more than happy to bring back the picture. It was bulldozed along with the bar.

Thankfully I’ve had no similar experiences since that night.”

Pump Street Shocker A local electrician’s shocking experience is the subject for the following tale.

“I was just in from work when the phone rang. My boss was on the line.

He asked if I’d be interested in extra work in an old house in Pump Street. I was more than pleased with the offer as my holidays were near and the extra money would be very welcome.

“I collected the key from my boss on the Saturday morning and went to the house. My boss had given me a rundown on the house, told me it was very old and needed a lot of work done to it. I was to go down into the bottom level where the old Victorian kitchens were, take a look around, and see what needed rewiring. I arrived, grabbed my tools and entered the house.

I could see by the tools lying about that other contractors had been in and done some work. I found the kitchen, sorted out what I needed and started work.

“As I worked, I imagined what it must have been like to have lived there over a hundred years ago. Then, all of a sudden I felt very uncomfortable.

A strange, eerie sensation seemed to be creeping all over me, a strange sense filled the room. I’m not a man who’s usually bothered by these kinds of things, but I didn’t like this.

“I decided there and then to take a break, hoping it was just my imagination. I sat down, but the uncomfortable feeling persisted. Without warning, the air turned ice cold, my breath turned frosty, as if I was outside on 97

a winter’s morning. I felt breathing on the back of my neck and my hair stood on end. There was no way I was going to look behind me, so I bolted towards the door of the basement, my legs like jelly. I suddenly became aware of a noise above me.

Calming down a little, I tried to concentrate on the sound. I could hear footsteps coming from the first floor, as if someone was making their way upstairs. I felt instant relief, thinking there was someone else in the building. I followed the footsteps; they seemed to stop at the first floor.

“When I got there I shouted, hoping whoever it was would call back. Nothing but silence. Then I heard more footsteps.

This time they came from the second floor.

At that precise moment, the icy air returned, slowly swirling around and around me. I called out, but again no response. I was getting annoyed, wondering what they were playing at. Again I heard a movement, this time on the third and last floor. I ran upstairs going over to each room and confidently throwing open all the doors, expecting to catch the culprit out. No-one. Not even a hint that anyone had been there. While trying to make sense of this I heard more footsteps run down the stairs. But I was still standing on those same stairs and couldn’t see anyone. The footsteps seemed to stop on the middle level, so I ran down. Again, nothing.

“Then I heard a disturbance in one of the rooms facing me. This had to be whoever else, or by this time, whatever else, was in the building. I put my hand on the handle. I went white with shock as the most blood-curdling, sinister, mocking laugh I’ve ever heard in my life sent shivers through every part of my body. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing would come out; I was screaming in silence.

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“After what seemed an eternity, I came to my senses and ran down the stairs, falling, tumbling, missing steps, any-which-way at all just to get out of there. On the way home, I convinced myself it was only a trick played on me by some of the other workmen out for a laugh at my expense. I shrugged it off and told myself I would just wait until Monday and see what happened.

“When Monday came, I told my boss what had happened. I admitted I had been a bit frightened, but I was more annoyed and wanted to find out who was in the building and seemed to enjoy scaring the wits out of me. My boss and the workmen stared at me as if I was talking nonsense. I stood there waiting for the punch line. No reaction. I asked who else had a key to the building, still trying to convince myself that there had been other workmen in the building that day.

‘No-one,’ my boss said. ‘The only other key to this building is in Belfast with the painters. They’ve had it for weeks.’

“I knew by the expression on his face that he was telling me the truth.

Well that did it. I definitely wasn’t going back again.”

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A sceptics’s story WG’s Bar on the corner of Society Street and Bishop Street, near the centre of the old walled city, has stood on the same spot since it first opened in 1871. It closed its doors and remained out of use from 1972 until the middle 1980s. It underwent extensive renovations in recent years.

This story was told by one of the pub’s regular clientele, a retired local businessman and confirmed sceptic in matters paranormal. He recounted this tale in, unusually for him, a very serious, sombre fashion.

The story concerns an incident in a house in one of the oldest streets of the city – Pump Street. According to the Christian Brothers’ 1927 Souvenir and Prospectus, the street was at one time known as Patterson’s Street, presumably because of its proximity to Patterson’s Orchard which once covered a large area between present-day Bridge Street and the Central Library.

However, because a town pump was situated in the street in ‘the early days’, it became known as Pump Street and so it has remained for well over 350 years. This then is the sceptic’s story.

“Now I neither believe in ghosts nor believe in God, not one bit, but this is a fact. One night this friend of mine came into WG’s. I knew him well, I still do, indeed he still drinks in here. Anyway, he’d bought a house over in Pump Street and this particular night I happened to be 100

here when he came in and, in all seriousness, he was the colour of death.

He ordered a double brandy and gulped it down.

“Straight away I asked him what was wrong, what had happened.

Well, what he told me was that he’d just been over working in his house in Pump Street that night – on his own. He hadn’t been in the house long when he noticed a very strong, almost overpowering smell of gas.

He searched everywhere for what he was sure had to be a gas leak and then it suddenly dawned on him that the gas in the house was cut off and all the fittings had been disconnected for years. It was just then that he noticed an awful chill all around him and he felt the hairs rising on the back of his neck. He said he sensed that there was something definitely close by, right behind him in fact, but there was no way he was going to confront it. He simply ran as fast as he could out of the house and straight to the pub here, he didn’t look back once.

“Just out of curiosity I asked him if the house in question was a particular number and he told me it was. Well, in all honesty, I was certainly taken aback. In fact, just for an instant, it made me shudder because, as I told him there and then, that was the same house where a young boy I used to go to school with had killed himself – that would be over fifty years ago now – he gassed himself!

“Now that is honest, the man came in here that night and he knew nothing whatsoever about that incident all those years before, and if he came in here now he’d tell you the same story. I don’t believe in the supernatural but I do know this man is a very down-to-earth person, not very easily impressed or affected by anything like that. However, I think he sold the house a short time later, he certainly never set foot in it again!”

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C hapter E L E V E N World War II and its Aftermath

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hen World War Two broke out in 1939 a large number of Fountain residents joined the Allied campaign. One particular regiment, the 9th Londonderry regiment, became known as the ‘Derry Boys’ and were involved in campaigns in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Amongst the fatalities from the Fountain were Gunner James Shields, Flight Sergeant Willie McDermott and Sergeant William Wright. Whilst the onset of the war saw increased employment for many in the city, including extra work in the shirt factories and the military bases, the end of the conflict saw further serious unemployment in both the Fountain and lower Bishop Street areas.

The Second World War period also saw a revival of IRA activity in Derry. On January 2, 1940, a bomb was thrown into the Central Fire Station in the Fountain in reprisal for the alleged hosing by firemen of Republican internees in the Derry Gaol on Christmas Day. Just a week later on January 9th a bomb was thrown at Whitehall, the headquarters of the Ulster Special Constabulary (the B-Specials) in the Hawkin Street area. The IRA claimed the attack was a response to the treatment of 45 Republican internees in Derry gaol the previous evening. In March 1943 a further incident at the gaol saw 21 republican 103

The old city gaol on Bishop Street.

internees escape by tunnelling into the backyard of a house in Harding Street off Abercorn Road. All were subsequently captured apart from one who died later in a separate incident.

The coronation of Elizabeth II saw huge celebrations in the Fountain area. This included the unveiling of a new mural in the area by Bobby Jackson who had become famed for wall paintings since the unveiling of his famous King William mural in 1947. October 1954 also saw the visit of the famous missionary Gladys Aylward to the Fountain where she preached in the Fountain Street Baptist Church.

By the late 1950s there was a clamour for jobs in the city. This was addressed to a degree by the opening of factories in the Creggan and Maydown. For residents of the Fountain and Bishop Street this increased opportunity was limited to skilled workers. As unemployment remained chronic and the abuses of the electoral system continued under the local corporation, the 1960’s saw the demands for Civil Rights grow louder.

Whilst residents of both the Fountain and lower Bishop Street would benefit from an increase in suffrage and housing conditions which the Civil Rights movement demanded, it soon became clear that the unionist population in the city believed the claims of the Stormont government that the Civil Rights campaign was a front for the more radical aims of the republican movement. The die was cast for years of conflict which would have a massive impact on the residents of both areas.

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C hapter T W E LV E A Chronology of the Conflict in the Fountain/Lower Bishop Street

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o properly explore and explain all of the events of the conflict which affected the Bishop Street and Fountain areas would require a book in its own right.

Put simply, by the end of the 1960’s the demands of the civil rights movement, which would have improved the voting and housing conditions of vast numbers of working class unionists, were ultimately only supported by the catholic population due to unionist beliefs that the civil rights movement was acting as a conduit for more radical organisations to overthrow the state. The following chapter chronicles the gradual segregation of the two communities in the Fountain and Bishop Street from 1969 onwards and the impact of the conflict on the lives and attitudes of both communities.

1968

October On 5th October a NICRA civil rights march is water cannoned and baton charged by the RUC in the Duke Street area of the Waterside leading to the first riots of the conflict in the Bogside. A follow up demonstration 107

in November attracts thousands of protestors. Meanwhile a number of reforms are announced by the Stormont government including the abolition of the Corporation (the local government) to be replaced by an appointed commission.

1969 January On 4th January, riots erupt in the Bogside following an attack on a civil rights march at Burntollet Bridge by supporters of Dr Ian Paisley. This leads to the erection of the first barricades in the Bogside. Confrontations also occur in the city centre between civil rights protestors, local unionists and the police.

April On 19th April, Sammy Devenney, a resident of William Street in the Bogside is beaten in his home by the RUC leading to a rise in tension across the city (he dies of his injuries in July 1969). At the end of April both Anglican and Roman Catholic Bishops, in the company of clergy from the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, tour the Bogside and Fountain Street in a bid to calm tensions.

July The death of Sammy Devenney on 5th July leads to further rioting in the Bogside.

August During the annual Apprentice Boys march on 12th August, confrontations occur between nationalists from the Bogside and the RUC at Waterloo Place. The riot subsequently lasts for two days and nights and becomes known as the Battle of the Bogside. On 14th August the British Army is brought onto the streets to replace the RUC and B-Specials. Several premises on Bishop Street are badly burnt by loyalist youths in the aftermath of the riots.

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In the fraught atmosphere following the events of the summer, confrontations between unionists and nationalists in the city centre and Bishop Street continue to escalate, culminating in a riot on 24th September which leads to the first fatality in the Fountain area as a result of the conflict.

September The following account taken from the Ulster University’s CAIN website (www.cain.ulst.ac.uk/events) recalls the events leading to the death of Fountain resident William King: On 24th September 1969 the first serious rioting since the arrival of British troops took place. It began when a fight broke out between a few Catholic and Protestant teenagers leaving the technical college on the Strand Road. ... The fight developed into a running battle and as the youths ran into the city centre, groups of Protestants came out of the Fountain to help the Protestant youths. Groups of Catholic youths began to move into the city centre and before long several hundred people were confronting each other around the Diamond. At this point troops appeared on the scene and separated the crowds by clearing Ferryquay Street and sealing either end of it with barbed wire. However, the army had a poor grasp of local sectarian geography and, as they cleared this street, part of the Protestant crowd were pushed up or rushed up a side street which led on to Bishop Street, where Catholic crowds were still gathered. Clashes broke out and by the time the troops intervened,

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William King, a middle-aged Protestant from the Fountain, was dead.

He had suffered a heart attack while being beaten. His death had much the same effect on Derry Protestants as the death of Sammy Devenney had had on Catholics, and increased their sense of fear. His funeral too was understood in political terms and prominent local Unionists were among the 2,000 people who walked in the funeral procession along streets lined with people... The army responded to the riot in which William King died... by erecting a peace line in the city.

October At the end of October 1969, a small group of Protestants, mostly women and teenagers, stage a sit-down protest on Craigavon Bridge concerning the Hunt Report which had led to the disbandment of the B-Specials.

A group of about forty Catholic youths respond by staging their own protest nearby on Foyle Road. Stone throwing breaks out between the two groups as they disperse, leading to clashes in the Diamond. British troops then separate the groups by pushing the nationalist crowd back towards Waterloo Place on the edge of the Bogside.

As the 1970s dawned the situation in the Bishop Street/Fountain area continued to gradually deteriorate. RUC and UDR members from the Fountain, Lower Bishop Street and Abercorn Road areas began to move out due to the continuing threat from armed republican groups. They were followed by other unionist civilians who had either seen their property attacked or who perceived that there was a threat against them. Others moved due to the large number of explosions taking place in the city centre or to avail of more modern housing developments being constructed in other parts of the city.

In addition, some unionists, fearing that the west bank of the city would be ceded to the Irish government by Westminister, moved to the east bank and other towns like Limavady. This population movement is still referred to as ‘The Exodus’ by unionists in the city.

Nationalist residents in lower Bishop Street also saw their homes attacked by missiles thrown from the Fountain. A number of local 110

businesses were also burnt out by unionists during these confrontations.

The decision of the British army to move into the former Derry gaol and to establish bases beside the Masonic Hall and in the Whitehall building led to even further problems as both sites gradually became targets for the rejuvenated IRA. The British Army also established a base at the old Mex site (above) on the Foyle Road which became an additional target for republican groups.

Gradually the makeshift barricades were replaced by a permanent barrier between the two areas which continues to exist today. The following pages chronicle only the major events that took place as opposed to every single incident of a missile being thrown, damage to property or assaults on residents from both sides of the wall.

1971 May The British army, which had been using it as a temporary base, vacates the former Derry gaol. The site, heavily vandalised over the previous year, is eventually demolished apart from one tower which becomes a community facility and later a heritage centre.

July Gun attacks are launched in the Fountain Street area from the vicinity of Long Tower Street.

August 9th August 1971 sees the introduction of internment leading to the arrest and in some cases imprisonment without trial of a number of residents 111

of lower Bishop Street. As violence escalates, Hugh Herron (31) is shot dead by a British soldier firing from the observation post at the Double bastion beside Bishops Gate (above).

September On 9th September 3 year old Gary Gormley is killed by a speeding British army land rover on the Foyle Road. Witnesses described it as a hit and run incident.

October On 11th October British soldier Roger Wilkins is shot dead by a republican sniper at Bishop Street while on duty at an observation post.

November On 9th November 1971, British soldier Ian Curtis is killed by an IRA gun attack on his patrol near the junction of Foyle Road and Bishop Street.

December On 29th December 1971 British soldier Richard Ham is killed by a sniper while on foot patrol at waste ground on Foyle Road.

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1972 The events of Bloody Sunday on 30th January 1972 sees even more tension and violence in the city and a major growth in support for the IRA in areas including lower Bishop street. Reciprocally there is a growth in support for loyalist organisations including the UVF and later the UDA in the Fountain estate.

April April 1972 sees the first serious confrontations to occur in the Bishop Street/Fountain area since the events of August/September 1969. There are attacks on Fountain Street and the former Horse Market Sub-Post Office at the top of Abercorn Road is destroyed by fire. British troops subsequently launch CS gas and rubber bullets against nationalist youths. Afterwards some Protestant residents from the Abercorn Road go to the RUC headquarters and demand increased protection.

On 16th April 1972 British soldier Gerard Bristow is shot and killed by an official IRA gunman. Corporal Bristow was on patrol near the junction of Ferguson Street and Bishop Street when he was hit.

August Serious rioting occurs in the city following the annual Apprentice Boys demonstration including some confrontation at the Bishop Street/ Fountain interface.

October On 25th October 1972, British soldier Thomas McKay is killed when two high-velocity shots are fired at his vehicle by an IRA sniper as it approached the corner of Brook Street and Bishop Street.

1973 January Following a march to commemorate the first anniversary of Bloody Sunday there are confrontations between nationalist youths and British troops near the Masonic Base at Bishops Gate.

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One shop on Bishop Street is destroyed by fire and two others severely damaged. There is also heavy rioting in the area between Bishops Gate and Albert Street before the youths are driven back into the Bogside by CS gas and rubber bullets fired by British troops. In subsequent rioting a shop belonging to James Gallagher is also destroyed in the Albert Street area.

September On 21st September 1973, the body of James Brown is discovered at Foyle Road. The IRA accused the Brandywell man of being an informer.

1975 November On 25th November 1975, UDR man Bobby Stott is shot dead by a republican gunman as he approached his home in the Fountain Estate.

1976 February In early February there is rioting in the Bishop Street/Fountain interface and also between soldiers and nationalist youths in the Bishop St/ Abercorn Road area. As a direct consequence the wall at the Bishop Street/Fountain interface is enlarged and made more permanent.

Below: This temporary boundary built between Bishop Street and the Fountain is later removed and a more permanent structure erected.

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November On 7th November 1976, part-time UDR man Ronald Bond is shot dead by a republican gunman as he approached his house in Harding Street.

1979 February On 14th February 1979 British soldier Stephen Kirby was shot dead by a republican sniper at the junction of Wapping Lane and Abercorn Road.

The 1980s During the early 1980s attacks on the Masonic and Whitehall bases continued, leading to further disruption for Fountain and Lower Bishop Street residents. The impact of the Hunger Strikes on the lower Bishop Street area was profound, due to the death of local resident Patsy O’Hara and the massive publicity and disturbances that ensued. The peace wall continued to grow in scale throughout the period whilst the late 1980s also saw further attacks on Bishop Street courthouse and the enlarging of observation posts at Bishops Gate and on the city walls. 1989 also saw the arrest of a number of Fountain residents as part of the Stevens Enquiry into collusion between loyalist organisations and the British Army/RUC.

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1981 February In February 1981 part time UDR man David Montgomery, a resident of Fountain Street, is shot dead by the IRA at Keys timber yard on the Strand Road.

April On 25th April 1981 15 year old Paul Whitters, a resident of Bellevue Avenue off Lower Bishop Street, died in hospital ten days after being struck by a plastic bullet fired by an RUC officer in the Great James Street area.

May On 21st May 1981, INLA member Patsy O’Hara, a resident of Lower Bishop Street, dies after 61 days on Hunger Strike in the H-Blocks as part of the campaign by republican prisoners to secure political status.

His death leads to increased marching and major rioting across the city including the lower Bishop Street area.

1982 October In October 1982, the city council rejects an Irish Independence Party resolution calling for the removal of ‘all fences and barricades’ around 116

the Fountain Estate. Councillor Liam Bradley said he wanted to see all fences removed and the area opened up so that Protestants and Catholics could live with each other as neighbours. SDLP members attacked the proposal after Councillor Bradley admitted that he had not consulted the residents of the estate before tabling the motion.

1984 March A mass unionist rally takes place in the Diamond area to protest at the changing of the local government name from ‘Londonderry City Council’ to ‘Derry City Council’. The event is attended by large numbers of residents from the Fountain. In the aftermath four people receive serious head injuries following a confrontation between protestors and the RUC. April On 23rd April British soldier Neil Clark is killed by an IRA sniper in the Lower Bishop Street area.

May The residents of ten houses in the Fountain complain about a Housing Executive decision to erect a four feet fence (pictured below) on top of an eight feet wall directly opposite their homes. The Executive state that the wall was a response to incidents in which stones were thrown from the estate into the backyards of some of the houses on Harding Street.

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1985 February On 23rd February, the body of Kevin Coyle is discovered at Corporation Street off Lower Bishop Street. He was shot dead by the IRA who claimed he was a police informer.

November A number of unionists from the Fountain attend a mass rally at Belfast City Hall in protest at the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement by the British and Irish governments. As a direct consequence of the Agreement the Whitehall military base is closed and other security measures removed from the Fountain.

1986 April In April 1986, shots are fired at the home of a Catholic family living in the Fountain. A total of seven shots are fired through the windows of the family’s home while the mother of the family and two sons are asleep.

In late April 1986, members of the RUC come under attack from a stone-throwing crowd in the Fountain as they investigate reports of a house being stoned.

1987 April Following a number of incidents involving attacks on homes there are calls from Fountain residents for the entrance to the Fountain at Wapping Lane to be sealed. April also sees five hundred people take part in several demonstrations in protest at new public order laws. One of the protests occurs in the Fountain during which an Irish tricolour is burned on the steps of the Courthouse.

December There are renewed calls for vigilante patrols by residents of the Fountain estate following several attacks on residents and property.

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1988 December In December 1988, residents in the Fountain called for tighter security in the area after a bombing at Bishop’s Gate. Four people in a bar beside the gate are slightly injured in the blast, while elderly residents in homes near Bishop Gate narrowly escape injury from flying glass. The IRA later claimed responsibility for placing the 3lb Semtex device at the security gate.

1989 February A 400 pound van bomb explodes outside the Courthouse (below) in Bishop Street causing damage to a number of homes in the Fountain and the destruction of a number of stained glass windows in St Columb’s Cathedral.

November Thirteen Fountain residents are arrested as part of the Stevens Enquiry investigating the Brian Nelson affair and collusion.

As the 1990’s dawned it seemed that the conflict was becoming intractable. Nevertheless, in the background contacts between republicans and the British government were gradually intensifying.

This was reciprocated by engagement between loyalists and the Irish government which culminated in the 1994 ceasefires. Although incidents continued in the vicinity of the peacewall, foundations were being laid for a more peaceful future between the Bishop Street and Fountain areas’ 1993 September Local councillors meet police to discuss security in the Fountain following a number of incidents.

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1994 August The IRA ceasefire announcement on 31st August is welcomed by nationalists in the Lower Bishop Street area. As part of security relaxations the one way entrance into the Fountain estate from inside Bishops Gate is amended to allow access from Lower Bishop Street as well.

October There is condemnation of a sectarian attack on three young men and damage caused to local properties in the Fountain. October also sees the announcement of a ceasefire by the Combined Loyalist Military Command. The announcement, taken in tandem with the IRA ceasefire, is seen to be a major boost for the peace process.

1996 June Residents of the Fountain call for the re-instatement of the one way entrance into the estate at Bishops Gate following a number of incidents.

July There is serious trouble in the Fountain during protests linked to the standoff by Orangemen at Drumcree church in Portadown. During the trouble youths set fire to a bin outside the home of a mixed religion couple and threaten to burn them out of their home. The couple move out of their home due to fears of further attacks. Several vehicles are also burned out in the area.

There are further disturbances in the Foyle Road and Lower Bishop Street areas a few days later when the decision to ban Orangemen from marching down Garvaghy Road from Drumcree church is reversed, leading to nationalist protests across the north.

As the new millennium dawned, the peace process on the ground was still fragile with a number of incidents taking place in the Bishop 120

Street/Fountain area. However, a number of initiatives including a new mobile phone communications system between community workers in the Fountain and Bishop Street areas, the end of the IRA campaign in 2005, the removal of the Masonic Base in 2007 (above) and new CCTV cameras all serve to reduce the number of incidents in the area which has created the space for a number of initiatives between the two areas over the last few years.

2001 March Community leaders in the Bogside and Fountain warn that lives could be lost if sectarian clashes in the Fountain/Bishop Street area continue.

They were speaking after a number of running battles between rival groups of youths at the Fountain/Bishop Street interface.

August Nationalist residents of Bishop Street and Bennett Street are invited to a community event taking place in the Fountain with activities including the painting of a window of hope in the security fence dividing the Fountain and Bishop Street.

Several violent incidents also occur in the Wapping Lane and Bishops Gate areas. In one case an assault by a group of men hospitalises a thirteen year old partially deaf boy from the Fountain.

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2002 June In June 2002, Unionists welcomed a pledge by the new Mayor Kathleen McCloskey that she would play a part in the resolution of sectarian violence at the Fountain and Bishop Street interface.

2003 March Following a period of relative calm, there are further clashes at the Fountain/Bishop Street interface and several other sectarian attacks.

2004 June A number of incidents culminate in the throwing of paint bombs into the Fountain estate.

2005 July The IRA formally announce an end to their armed campaign.

September The IRA decommission their arsenal in front of several independent witnesses.

2006 March Missiles, including paint bombs, are thrown from the Fountain into the Bishop Street area of the city.

November Police say they were concerned by a resurgence of sectarian incidents in the Fountain/Bishop Street area.

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2007 July The PSNI said there were no major incidents reported at the Eleventh Night bonfires in the city.

In the Bogside area, community representatives were on the ground to prevent nationalist youths from approaching the interface between Bishop Street and the Fountain Estate. Sinn Fein Councillor Peter Anderson praised the efforts of the local communities in helping to prevent disturbances.

September The Masonic Army base, scene of countless attacks by republicans over the years, is finally removed as a response by the British government to the end of the IRA campaign two years earlier.

2009 January Sectarian graffiti threatening Catholics is daubed on the wall of the Foyle Day Care centre in the Fountain. Management call for those responsible to leave the mixed religion staff and kids alone.

2010 July The PSNI launch Operation Exposure which uses CCTV images in an attempt to identify those engaged in criminal activity. Those arrested include some accused of being involved in incidents at the Fountain/ Bishop Street interface.

At the time of publication the numbers of incidents at the Fountain/ Bishop Street interface have continued to decline in number, leading to a markedly improved atmosphere within and between both areas. Work continues by the Peace Walls project and other organisations to build on this progress and in particular to increase economic and social cooperation between residents and businesses in the two areas.

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C hapter T H I R T E E N Community Development

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he last forty years have seen significant redevelopment in both the Fountain and Lower Bishop Street areas. This has seen the old terraced streets of the 19th and early 20th centuries making way for modern maisonettes and flats. Whilst the physical fabric of the areas has changed, the strong community spirit has remained. The following chronology charts some of the changes that have taken place over the years.

1968 A meeting of the Transport Committee agrees that the Corporation should consider a redevelopment scheme for the Fountain Street area as part of the new Derry area plan. There are also proposals for the redevelopment of the Lower Bishop Street area.

1970 The local Press revealed that the historic Fountain Street area was to be redeveloped within the next two to three years. Almost 1,000 people from 285 families in the 10 acres area just outside the City Walls would be affected and the old gaol site demolished. A ‘green parkway’ around 125

a section of the historic Walls was also planned with 200 new houses replacing the existing 263 houses in the Fountain Street area. 70 houses would be built in the first phase of the implementation programme on the old gaol site at Bishop Street.

1972 The first tenders are received by the Development Commission for the first stage of the Fountain Street redevelopment scheme in the adjacent section of the Fountain Street area, which had been sealed off at the ends of Fountain Street close to Bishop Gate and Albert Street.

The Cathedral Youth Club is opened as a facility for the young people in the Fountain Estate.

1973 The first allocation of nine houses is made in the Fountain. The Wapping Community Association, formed in May to replace the Fountain Street Tenants’ Association, begins the lobby for a modern primary school to replace the three primary schools in the area and a new community centre.

1975 The new Fountain estate, which was still in the course of construction, had won the Tidy Estate award, run by the City Council. The new Foyle Park development is also opened at the bottom of Lower Bishop Street area to replace the derelict Victorian housing in the area.

1976 The first phase of the new Long Tower Court development is opened on Lower Bishop Street. It replaces the recently demolished older streets beside Bishops Gate (opposite).

1978 The last remaining turret of the former Derry gaol becomes part of a new community centre and nursery.

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1980 The new Cathedral youth club premises (pictured below) are opened by the Dean of Derry in the former offices of Londonderry Unionist Association. New housing is also opened on the Lower Bennett Street area off Abercorn Road.

1982 The local Branch of Save the Children Fund opens an After School Play Centre for children aged of 5-11 years in the Fountain.

The Abercorn Road and the Fountain Estate communities also unite to oppose a proposal to open a discotheque on the fourth floor of the former Tillie and Henderson shirt factory.

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1983 New housing is allocated at Alma Place on the Foyle Road following recent redevelopment.

1985 Further housing at Alexandra Place is released for allocation bringing to an end the redevelopment of the Foyle Road. New housing at Corporation Street and Windmill Terrace is also opened.

1987 Following a number of complaints from elderly residents in the Fountain, Councillor David Davis said he had been assured that redevelopment work was coming to a close.

1992 The Fountain Estate received a ÂŁ3 million boost for a major regeneration of the area including a new primary school with nursery provision and an environmental improvement scheme for local homes.

A number of Heritage Murals depicting the Fountain as it was in the 1950s are unveiled by mayor William Hay at the Cathedral Youth Club in the Fountain.

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1993 The first phase of the redevelopment work in the Fountain sees the demolition of the maisonettes in the area.

1995 Local community groups, the Diamond Project Trust and the Wapping Community Association, join forces with the private and educational sector to form the Fountain Area Partnership. The Playhouse, the Cathedral Youth Club, the Verbal Arts Centre and the Churches Volunteer Bureau are all partners in the new project.

The Fountain Area Partnership also launches a new brochure entitled ‘Fountain of Hope’ to attract people back into the Fountain area. The Partnership also announced that around £6 million had been promised by various agencies to help redevelop the Fountain area. Plans for the future include a family support centre, a sheltered housing scheme, an adventure play park, a training skills centre, facilities for small businesses, and the building of heritage centres which will attract tourists and provide employment Demolition work begins on Whitehall Chambers, the former headquarters of the B Specials in the Hawkin Street area of the Fountain. It is identified as a possible location for a sheltered accommodation project.

1996 In a unique development the Bogside & Brandywell Initiative, the Fountain Area Partnership and the Creggan Neighbourhood Partnership come together to outline a joint approach for funding allocated under the EU Urban Sub-Programme to target social needs. The Prince of Wales also visits the official opening of the new Fountain Primary School.

In July the Fountain Area Partnership launches a five-year strategic plan for the regeneration of the Fountain.

1997 Work begins on the new Oaklee Housing scheme at Hawkin Street in the Fountain. The new development will comprise 28 sheltered flats for older people, warden’s accommodation, and six flats for people recovering from mental illness.

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1998 The Cathedral Youth Club secures £262,855 from the European Union’s Urban Community Initiative for renovation works.

2000 The Housing Executive starts a £1.5 million improvement scheme to 67 homes in the Fountain Estate.

2002 Funding is secured to open a heritage centre in the former Derry gaol tower at the Fountain interface.

2009 A bronze sculpture of an apprentice angel, created by the young people of the Fountain Estate and funded by Arts Council, is unveiled.

2010 The Garden of Bastion Plots, funded by Co-operation Ireland, are officially opened. The community allotments form part of the Growing Together project.

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The old Fire Station on Hawkin Street, in its heyday and after recent redevelopment.

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C hapter F O U R T E E N The Way We Were

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n this section we talk to some of the senior residents of the Lower Bishop Street and Fountain areas who share with us their memories of the past.

William Temple I was born in Gordon Place which was just behind the Lecky Road in the Bogside. Our house was located in an area called the ‘Banking’ which was perpendicular to Gordon Place and ran across from the Dark Lane. The wall at the rear of our house backed onto the Christian Brothers School.

Despite its small size there were two families living in our house. There was only one window at the front and a small staircase which led up to two attics. One family slept in the attic at the front and another in the attic at the rear; in fact the only light for our bedroom came through a skylight in the attic. There was another window at the back for the small kitchen which only had a cooker and a sink. The only other room was a large sitting room with slate tiles which contained a range for cooking.

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Our only toilet was in the backyard. It had been converted into a flush toilet from one of the old ash pits that were located in the area.

I only have faint memories of Gordon Place because I was so young when I lived there. We eventually moved into a London Street tenement which is now known as Will Warren House. Again I remember living there only vaguely. We moved there just before the war but three years later we moved down to Corporation Street. The rear of our new house backed onto the exterior wall of St Columb’s College and the Christian brothers; in fact we were living just above our original home in Gordon Place with a school again located behind us!

I have a very clear memory of lying on the banking beside Corporation Street on a summer’s day and looking up at the barrage balloon that had appeared on the skyline as a result of the war. I used to be amazed at the way it got smaller and larger depending on how far away it was in the sky or if it was coming down. On that particular day there were a massive amount of planes flying overhead. I didn’t realize the significance at the time, but they were probably going on a bombing mission into Europe.

I also remember the night the bomb was dropped onto Messines Park by a German bomber plane. I recall standing in the hallway wrapped in a blanket. My mother was refusing to take us to the air raid shelter because the shelters always smelt awful owing to the fact that they were often used as toilets. Instead she decided we would stay in the house until the very last minute and if a bomb landed somewhere we would rush to the shelter. Fortunately no bombs landed in our area but I still recall the panic and fear in the air at the time. I also remember the troops coming back home after the Second World War. We were allowed out of Bennett Street Public Elementary school where I was a pupil and taken across to Duke Street to see the soldiers returning.

My general memories are of a very happy childhood. I didn’t like reading books or studying but preferred to play outdoors instead. In the summer we used to go across to play in Prehen Woods and at the Bolies.

We were also allowed to play at the docks down on the Strand Road after the war was over and also on the submarines that were located down in Lower Clarendon Street. We also played at the entry at the bottom of Wapping Lane. My grandmother lived on the Foyle Road and I would 134

go to her house five days a week after school. After tea time my mother would have collected me to take me up to Corporation Street. My other grandmother lived in George’s Street in the Fountain.

Saturday mornings was always the time to do the errands or ‘messages’ as we used to call them. We went to various shops for our meat including McKay’s for sausages, Joe Wilson’s Pork Store on Bishop Street and Ernie Hutton’s butcher’s shop which was also on Bishop Street. We’d usually get back to George’s Street at dinnertime where we often played football at the back entry with a cloth ball made up of old socks and other materials.

As well as the various meat stores, there were lots of other shops and trades based in Lower Bishop Street area. Jones and Lowther’s Laundry was near our house in Corporation Street. There was also a tennis court at the corner of Corporation Street which was later the site of Atlantic Harvest, a seafood company set up by John Hume. There was also the Abercorn baking company at Corporation Street, Grants snuff (tobacco) factory, Grants Pork Store and the bru (unemployment exchange) which was just around the corner from our house. So there was quite a lot of retail and trading premises set amongst the domestic properties.

The main industry of course was shirt making. There was the Star factory on the Foyle Road, Leinsters on Bellevue Avenue and Tillie and Henderson’s at the end of Foyle Road. When I was in Bennet street school we looked forward to a Friday when we went down to Tillies to see the shirts being loaded onto the horses which would have to take them up Tillies Brae which was very steep. The same thing would happen at the Star Factory where the horses had to get the loads up Moat Street. On numerous occasions there would be a commotion due to the shirts falling off the carts going up the steep hills which, as young boys, we thought was hilarious!

In general, before cars and lorries were widespread, horse and carts were the main conveyance for the products that we were coming out of the factories and the various warehouses. Wordies Carting Company was based on Bennett Street and there was also Montgomery’s Carting Company on the Foyle Road who also stabled horses. There was always activity around the GNR railway as well. When we were playing on 135

the Foyle Road we would often get called over to the GNR to drive the cattle to the various pens around the city using nothing but a big stick.

We would drive them down to the cattle pens behind the Guildhall and to various farms like Browns in the Prehen Road. We called ourselves cow whallopers and always had great craic! My father’s cousins would have been dockers and I have lots of memories of playing down at Derry Quay. Peggy Strain, who worked at the docks was a real character in particular.

The construction of River View Park in the early 1950’s was a big event for the local population. It was an adventure playground where we could use our sleighs and it also had a small football pitch. It also brought the people of the Fountain, Bishop Street and Foyle Road areas together and everybody had a great time playing there. During schooltime we were also taken to the ‘plots’ which were allotments situated beside Riverview park. The teacher would use the plots to teach us horticulture. I enjoyed my time at primary school as well as my time at Foyle College which I attended after I passed my 11-Plus.

Outside of school I was a chorister at St Columb’s Cathedral. I was also a member of the cubs and later the scouts which were also connected to the church. So church life was very much part of my life experience.

On a Monday night there would be choir practice, more practice on Wednesday, midweek evensong, and then more choir practice on a Friday. Saturday was mainly taken up with playing here in the Fountain but on a Sunday everything focussed on church. The day would begin with Sunday school followed by singing at the morning church service.

We then sang at the afternoon service followed later on by evensong.

I also performed at the Londonderry Feis with the Bennett Street school choir and later with the Foyle College choir. In fact on one occasion we took first place in the schools choir section. At Foyle College I was also involved in the musical society and played in the school orchestra.

I was also the accordion player in the Britannia band for over 16 years. Indeed there were quite a lot of musicians living around the area including dance band musicians like the Clifford’s from Foyle Road and the Conaghan’s from Orchard Row. My aunt would often perform with the Conaghans. She did a fortnight performing with them in the Carlisle 136

Road Opera house when she got a throat infection. Tragically she died within three days of falling ill.

Sport was always a big thing in the city. In particular I remember the crowds coming out onto the streets to watch Derry City parading the Irish Cup through the city in 1954 and 1965.

On leaving school I became an apprentice pharmacist at Harpers Chemist on Duke Street. I later moved to Campbell’s chemist on Bishop Street where I eventually became manager. In 1964 I opened my own pharmacy at the top of Lower Bennett Street which I ran until my retirement in 1998. Of course the Troubles were going on for most of that period and I have lots of sad memories from that time. Nevertheless I think the future looks brighter for the city although I do miss the close knit nature of the old streets in the Fountain and Lower Bishop Street.

Georgina O’Donaghue I was born in 1956 in Bridge Street and was christened in the Long Tower church. When I was very young we would certainly have been considered to have been poor; the same situation applied to most residents in Bridge Street. The housing conditions were pretty bad.

We lived in a derelict house in Bridge Street before we moved to Eden Place and then onto Bishop Street where we lived from 1960 to 1976.

I attended primary school at Nazareth House which I really enjoyed.

We learnt things like crocheting, knitting, embroidery and went on nature study out into the country to learn about the trees and the plants before bringing some samples back to school to paint and put in our scrapbooks. We also learnt how to cook; one week we’d help to make a breakfast and then dinner the following week. In general you learnt a lot of life skills at school which doesn’t seem to happen as much today.

Today computers are everything. I don’t see children out in the street playing anymore. We used to play hopscotch, throw two balls against the wall, we had swings and we also enjoyed skipping. Of course, we had 137

our different sweets as well like penny chews, ha’penny sweets, dainties, clove rock and brandy balls which were definitely my favourites!

When I was younger I also sang in a ceili band. Our speciality was Irish and Scottish music and we made several LPs. We used to go around to the ceilis in the local halls and also in the rural areas. We also performed in England, Belgium and Germany which was a great opportunity in those days when travel opportunities were few and far between for most people in Derry.

I also remember going down to the docks to see the sailors when I was very young. We were always trying to see if they would give us any fancy items like candy bars! When I was at Nazareth House we also used to go to the American naval base in the Waterside for parties. The Americans were based here during World War II but stayed here afterwards due to the Cold War. They would host regular parties for the local children and we used to love going there.

There were plenty of local characters in those days. My uncle Dicky Valley was a good example. Anytime anybody would ask how he was his response was ‘Aye, Dead On’. He’s now mentioned in the Derry phrasebook in the saying ‘Dead On, Dicky Valley’. He ended up living in the Rossville Flats and was famous for dying his hair with boot polish!

My first job was as a civil servant at the Crown buildings in the Strand Road. I was then promoted to the Department of Commerce in the Limavady Road before I went to England where I got a job in an architect’s office as a secretary. When I had my two girls I moved to part time work but after they left home I returned to full time employment with Standard Life insurance in Southampton where I worked for eighteen years. I then moved to London where I worked for eleven years as a general advisor to the Irish community before I moved to Lincolnshire to work as an administrator for a care company. I then had six mini strokes which meant I had to finish work.

Today I go to the seniors club at the Gasyard on a Monday. Everyone there is lovely and there is always loads for us to do. On Thursday, I go to the Irish Language classes at the Culturlann, I learnt Irish when I was younger but wanted to learn it again as you lose the language if you don’t use it. I also love photography. I invested in a decent camera a few 138

years ago and love to take photos. I’m also a real crocheting addict! I like listening to music but actually never watch the television; in actual fact I enjoy using the computer myself despite all the complaining I did about the youngsters earlier!

Angela Jackson I was born in 1958. My family has lived in Bishop Street since 1959. Before we moved here we lived on Strand Road and my grandfather Andy Cole owned what is now called the Earth Nightclub. A section of the nightclub is still actually called Coles. I lived there until I was three when we moved to Bishop Street.

My childhood was quite difficult due to the fact that we had very little money. Initially we were quite well off.

Both my parents and grandparents worked. We even had a nanny who looked after the seven of us. My father owned a shop and had a list of customers who would get goods on credit. Then the recession hit. My father refused to take the money from the people who owed him. His attitude was: ‘Why should I take money from a mother with children when I already have enough for my family?’ He went bankrupt as a result but we never really went without so we were okay in the end up. When it was time to get a new pair of shoes your old ones were inspected first.

If they weren’t too bad then your sibling who might have a hole in theirs got a new pair instead. I always got my sisters clothes because I was the last of the four girls.

During my childhood the residents of Sunbeam Terrace across the street were all business people. They either owned shops or were teachers. There were also plenty of rooms in this house for us and we even had cellars underneath. When we were young, we learnt how to ride our bicycles in the backyard because we had so much room. We were lucky; a friend of mine across the street lived in a house of fourteen children which wasn’t uncommon. The further you went down the street the smaller the houses got. These included one storey cottages which 139

sat on the site of the current community centre. Nevertheless, we had great times growing up here and had a lot of friends. We played football, hopscotch and skipping in the street. I am still in contact with quite a lot of my friends from the street.

I attended the Long Tower Church, which was absolutely beautiful.

When I was young the chapel was completely full regardless of what mass you attended. Now they don’t even need to open the balcony due to the reduced numbers of people who attend.

Lumen Christi college, which is just a few doors away from my house, was the original St Columb’s College site when I was younger. Number 164 next door to here was one of the oldest houses in Bishop Street and was where the boarders at St Columb’s lived. The boarders usually came from the rural areas and one rule was that they weren’t allowed to leave the house. One year, the World Cup was on and my father bought a TV for our front room. All the football fans amongst the boarders wanted to watch the World Cup so my mother agreed. There were so many people in the room that, the two front windows were opened so the boys outside could watch as well. To cut a long story short the headmaster at St Columb’s heard that all the boys were on the street and suspended the whole lot of them for the weekend. They weren’t even allowed to go out to the shops. And all because of our new TV! At the top of Bishop Street my uncle and his friend owned two pubs, the Elephant Bar which sat beside the entrance to the Fountain and the Arch Bar which sat opposite beside Nailor’s Row. My friend Irene lived in one pub and my cousin lived in the other. We would regularly climb out through the backyards onto the Derry Walls to play. We also had great fun playing in the field here, behind our house which had an orchard. Those are great memories.

McLaughlin’s Undertakers was also based on Bishop Street just before the traffic lights. Their daughter Margaret was a friend of mine. Her father used to stack the coffins upright in the back yard of the undertakers. Me and Margaret would hide in them when we were playing and sometimes her father would lock us in the coffins by accident!

On either side of the undertakers there were two small shops. Johnny Shiels was a grocers and then there was wee Johnny’s where everything 140

cost a penny whether it was a small glass of lemonade or four little chews.

He was especially famous for his comic books. He would charge everyone a penny to sit in his shop and read the comics which made him a fortune as it wouldn’t have cost him more than five pence to buy each comic in the first place. He made also sold loads of ice cream and lemonade to the local children. Another local landmark was Harry Grants shop which opened way back in the 1920s. His son Phillip owns it today under the Mace trading name.

The Bishop’s Gate area was full of shops. There was Hippsleys, All Cash Stores, Wards, Jackson’s newspaper shop, Cairns sweet shop and there was always a fish and chip shop. There was also Jones and Lowther’s laundry on the corner of Abercorn Road and Bishop Street and Grant’s Pork Store and abattoir which would have stood below where the traffic lights are today. There was also a police station further down the street in the days before the Troubles began.

I also remember a man known as the ‘Donkey’. He was a brock man by trade who collected the leftover food which was known as ‘brock’ from each house in the area. Most houses had a bucket to keep the leftovers for him to collect. He had a yard for his animals at the bottom of Bishop Street where he fed the brock to his pigs and donkeys, hence his nickname ‘The Donkey’.

One of my fondest memories was when Sony Fiorentini opened his first ice cream parlour at Bishop Street. The seats were like church pews.

You would sit in the stalls and watch him make the ice cream into a block in front of you. The family now has a parlour on Strand Road.

Sonny was also a security man in Du Pont when I worked there. He went back into the ice cream business after his retirement from Du Pont.

When my parents bought this house the only school that had enough places for four girls was the Waterside Primary School on the other side of the bridge. Every morning we had to walk over the Craigavon Bridge up Spencer Road to the school at Chapel Road. It didn’t matter if it was snowing or raining; the four of us had to walk that bridge. After primary School we all went to St Brecan’s which had just been built. It was right at the top of Fountain Hill in the Waterside. If we missed the school bus on John Street we had to walk the bridge, go up behind Kelly’s 141

supermarket, climb through the quarry and then through the fields to get to the school. I certainly got plenty of exercise in those days!

Going to school at the Waterside Primary School was totally different to the experience of people who went to the local schools at Nazareth House or Long Tower. To me the Waterside Primary School was a real hell on earth. The principal was Miss McGill and she always had a cane in her hand. If you did something wrong, said something wrong, read something wrong or spelt something wrong she slapped you hard..

In class my sisters and I all sat beside each other, and my sister Carol always shook when Miss McGill came into the room. She really beat us something terrible. I don’t have very good memories of primary school at all because of those experiences. I actually met three of the girls who were at school with me the other day. One of them, Anne McCallion, is from Anderson Crescent and she now works in Barnardo’s shop. We had a good chat about Miss McGill and her cane!

Though my memories of primary School were not good, my experience at St Brecan’s School was very different. It was a lovely school.

We were older and we were treated as such. You never felt you were being treated like a child or punished for nothing. One of my clearest memories was cleaning in the cookery room at Christmas time. I was cleaning the cooker in one of the corners next to a cupboard door which led from one class to the other. I opened the cooker to clean it and just as I did Anne McCallion ran through the cupboard door with a sweeping brush and accidentally broke my teeth! Actually just today I was at the school of dentistry at the Royal Victoria Hospital getting my bridge fixed! We had great fun at St Brecan’s and I still have a fondness for the Waterside today as a result.

I started in Du Pont as a data processor at seventeen years of age after I left school. The job involved typing purchasing data and other information onto cards before the data could be inputted into the computer. I then transferred into the accounts Department before I moved into what was called the Hub where I would have done the reception, operated the telex machine and lots of other duties.

When I was nineteen, I left DuPont to work at IBM in London. I stayed there for a year before I went to Belgium and France to work as 142

an au pair. I came back for Belgium and I was reinstated into DuPont before I was made redundant two years later. I then worked in Aberfoyle Medical Surgery as a medical secretary before I left to get married. Later I worked in the City of Derry Golf Club and then at Radio Foyle as a receptionist.

I then worked in Barney Watkins scaffolding company before leaving to have my second daughter Emma. On the same day that Emma began Primary One I went back to the North West Technical College to study.

I eventually worked as an administrator in Cheshire House on Nelson Drive in the Waterside. The role of Cheshire House was to facilitate independent living for the physically disabled. It was a charity named after Leonard Cheshire, a former RAF man who found that a lot of families of those men injured in the war couldn’t care for them due to their injuries.

He opened the first Cheshire House in England and my aunt worked there as a nurse. When I applied for the job I was able to phone her to get plenty of information about the place which was handy for my interview!

I had to leave when I developed osteo-arthritis. I now host language students from the North West Academy when I get the chance.

Today I keep myself busy without stressing myself out too much.

I like swimming and I was also in a choir in Pump Street until very recently. We actually sang in the Guildhall just last year at a festival.

I’m also a member of the Community Centre and I go to the Over 50s club on a Tuesday which is really nice. I have also been involved with the Galliagh Women’s Group for over twenty-five years. I started my involvement with them when I lived in Danesfort. They actually got me back into work when I had Emma as they were able to retrain me to go back into employment which was a great help. So all in all I’m still very active though I’d love to go back to those simpler childhood days when I didn’t have a care in the world!

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Pam Mitchell I was born in 1930 in The Fountain just across the street from where I live now. When I first left my old home I moved further down the street to actually live in a prison! I should explain that the turret of the old jail which had been left intact when the jail was demolished was converted into a flat and I lived there for sixteen years. There was actually a nursery above me and a community centre below me in the same building.

Originally another couple had been allocated the flat but before they moved in they came to me to ask if there was a ghost in there. They came to me because my father had worked at the jail during the period when the last person was hanged. In fact there were quite a few hangings over the years. The couple had obviously heard about this and feared the flat would be haunted and they ultimately decided not to move in. A lot of people in Bishop Street and in The Fountain have different memories of the jail. When you were young it was a place you unconsciously hurried past if you were coming down Bishop Street.

When I was growing up there was a close bond between the shopkeepers and the local community. These were small shops; very different to the large stores you see today. It was a close community. There were the small streets of Albert Street, Albert Place, Fountain Place, Victoria Street, Wapping Lane and Clarence Place. Then there was Hawkin Street and the other streets in what was called the Lower Fountain. That’s where I went to school before I worked in Welch Margetson’s Shirt Factory which is now an office to administer pensions. The Synagogue was also in the Lower Fountain but unfortunately it collapsed a couple of years ago and the site is still vacant. Originally there was also a wall separating the small terraced houses from the larger homes in Kennedy Street. If you wanted to get from one side of the street to the other you had a long

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detour. It was a real reminder of the separation in the past between the working class people and the more well to do!

The large number of children living in the area meant there was always sufficient numbers to keep the local schools going. They were good schools with good teachers. At the Cathedral School we had one teacher, Miss Guthrie. We used to think that she was very strict. Her motto was “You have got to be cruel to be kind”. Despite that she was a lovely person. I started in junior school aged three and a half. We actually had a small band which we played in. Our teacher was a Canadian girl called Miss Norris. I don’t know how long she lived in the city but she was lovely. Miss Irvine was the head teacher at the junior school and her family owned a printing works at the bottom of Waterloo Street.

As well as the Cathedral School there was the Carlisle Road School and Lower Bennet Street school. There was also the Lower Cathedral School which was further down Bishop Street which I believe is now a community centre. My husband and his family went to school there.

A lot of the children from the Fountain also attended First Derry Presbyterian school on the city walls. I remember three of the head teachers, Fred Logan, George Turner and also Bobby Maguire. The last head teacher was Mrs McNally who then took over at the new Fountain Primary School.

In some cases local boys could take an entrance exam for Foyle College. Any family who had a son at Foyle considered themselves very privileged. I remember one young boy called Desmond Lowry who later became a QC which made his family very proud. We actually belong to the same church.

When we were old enough our entertainment included activities in the church, the brownies, the Girl guides, the Cub Scouts, and we also had a club which was founded by two of our curates, Rev Cave and Rev Graham. There was also the girls’ choir where Ms Dale was the choir mistress. St Augustine’s was also an important church. It had the GFS, the Girls Friendly Society. A friend of my daughter has written a book about its long history.

I also remember getting onto the Burns and Laird boat at seven o’

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clock in the evenings and setting sail for Liverpool or Glasgow to visit my mother’s sisters and two of her brothers who lived in Scotland and Manchester. I went on my first trip with my grandmother during the spring or the summer. I remember standing on the deck going down the river Foyle until we got passed Moville where you got into the expansive waters of Lough Foyle.

As children we played together and we danced together. When we didn’t have much money, we did the ‘monkey parade’. It involved walking in groups from Austins in The Diamond down to Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church and back again. If you met your friends, you blocked the pavement whilst standing and chatting. A police patrol would usually come along and make us move so we just stood by the edge of the pavement instead-that was the height of our mischief!

In those days there was no bad language and very few drunkards amongst the young men or women. Quite simply very few could afford to get drunk because the money you earned had to be handed to your parents to help everyone in the family. If we weren’t going to the Memorial Hall. Corinthian or Britannia dancehalls we would bounce our money together and go to Coyle’s fish and chips shop where Sproules jewellers are located today. . We would all go upstairs and buy maybe two plates of fish and chips then sit chatting for an hour or two. David Coyle who had a beautiful voice, would sometimes come along and say: “Do you know such and such a song?” He’d then start singing a couple of lines before I joined in then the two of us sang together. When the shop closed David went to Strabane and got married. As well as the fish shop there was a small confectionary shop at the top of our street owned by a couple called Alistair and Elizabeth. The youngsters in the area could buy their sweets there instead of having to go the whole way down to Carlisle Road.

Going to the different dancehalls and learning how to dance properly was great entertainment. We were lucky as some of the big bands came to the Guildhall which had a marvellous dance floor and also hosted great concerts. There was also a pantomime at St Columb’s Hall which was organised by Father Daly who later became Bishop Daly. Don O’Doherty was also involved. His wife, Mary, was a champion Irish dance teacher who worked with a chap called Brendan De Glinn. When 146

you looked at Brendan you wouldn’t have thought he would be an Irish dance teacher but he was actually very light on his feet. They both took children to America for Irish dancing; the James McCafferty singers would have done the same. It was a real feather in the cap for the city to see these groups being invited to perform in the States. The people who had left the city to live in the USA would flock to these events as they could give the performers messages to bring back home to their families.

Quite a lot of my friends also married navy men and went to America.

They were lucky enough to be able to come back home again when their husbands retired.

In those days if you were house proud you did your best to keep your home in reasonable condition. In wartime, if you couldn’t buy certain items you smuggled them instead from across the border.

Unfortunately back in those days there wasn’t a lot of work, but everybody helped each other. What we called hard times. If for example somebody had a young family but were short on money we made extra meals like soup, stew or chips which they could eat. My grandmother was a great baker so she made scone breads as well. People also knitted clothes for those who needed them.

There were loads of characters in Bishop Street back then. I remember Hawker Lynch, Johnny Cuttems, Bella Doherty and Maggie McKay from the Long Tower. There was also a great chap called Peggy Strain.

His family are still in the city. I was very fond of him, I thought that he was great, he was very polite and would always say “Hello love!”

There really wasn’t a lot of work for the men. The women basically worked in the factories. Quite a few of my friends worked in shops but the basic work was factory work. There were other businesses like the BSR in Bligh’s Lane which made gramophones and a company owned by Cyril Lord which made carpets. The men who worked in the docks had a close community. The boats would come into the docks past the Guildhall.

I also remember the Horse Market, the Albert Market and Jones and Lowther’s Laundry. I had four aunts who worked in the laundry and quite a few friends working there as well. It was very popular as few people had items such as washing machines and stuff like that. A lot of the women worked in the factories, and had little time to wash 147

their domestic items. Instead they would go to the laundry to wash their blankets, sheets and shirts and get them ironed as well using a big mangle. A mangle was two very hot wooden rollers which the sheets were passed through to press them dry. There were girls ironing shirts all the time or blouses or dresses. Even curtains were ironed. If something was extra special then you had to be careful with it. I don’t remember any complaints of anything being destroyed but if it did happen my aunt, who was a charge-hand, would have torn you to pieces!

I turned fourteen on a Friday and I started work at the Welch Margetson Factory on the following Monday. I had different jobs at the Factory. First I was a message girl then I worked in the cutting room.

I also stamped the collars, which showed the correct size of the shirt. I also did ‘turning in’; which involved folding in the collars and cuffs and ironing them before they were stitched onto the shirts. I also helped out a few times in another room where the collars were soaked in a solution and then pressed to make them stiff. When you were putting collars into the striped shirts you also had to make sure that the stripes matched.

It was always important to shade the cloths to make sure that all the pieces you were stitching together had the exact same shade. My last job was as a boxer which involved packing the shirts into boxes. You had to make sure they were packed properly, so that the stiff collar wasn’t destroyed. Sometimes there would have been special orders for firms like Harrods. You had to be extra careful with them as they were very expensive. My boss actually told me how to pack properly. I thought I was doing it fine but he taught me the professional way of doing it!

When I left Welch Margetson’s I worked for a short time at the Rochester shirt factory at Ebrington before my son became ill and I had to leave. I later helped out an old couple called Annie and Paddy who had a shop at what we called the Cross Lanes. The Millennium Forum is now built on the same site. I would help out at night in the shop when there was a good film being shown in St Columb’s Hall or the Rialto. That meant there was always a crowd looking for sweets.

Due to rationing at the time a lot of people used coupons to redeem their sweets. Me and Annie would serve sweets and lemonade and if you were very lucky some fruit might be available from the local orchards. I 148

would escort them home at night to Chamberlain Street in the Bogside to make sure they got home safe as Paddy the husband always had the day’s takings with him. Often me and my mammy would also have tea in their house.

I also worked at Sloans which sold furniture clothes and shoes. My last job was in the cinema. I was there for eight years and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The people I worked with were fantastic people. Whenever the Sound of Music came to Derry the seating in the cinema had to be altered and you had to reserve seats in advance. I worked in a tiny office as the cashier. When we were taking bookings for the first month of the show, I was there from 10.30am in the morning even though I didn’t start officially until 1pm. I would then work right through to 11 o’clock and sometimes even later if there was a midnight matinee which always had a queue to get into. We would always get a taxi home. I was always the last to get home as we would drop the girls from the Creggan back home first. I started in the cinema on St Patrick’s day and left on the last day of March eight years later just before my oldest daughter was born on the 5th of April.

Up until recently I had been involved with cross community and cross border pensioners groups but have had to drop out of a lot of activities due to my health. I am still terribly interested in the welfare of pensioners. It all began when me and a friend began to organise pensioners dinners. When the community centre was going at the top of the street in the prison tower we had dinners for the pensioners and children’s parties every Christmas, Easter and Halloween.

A lot of the events we held are no longer possible as we don’t have a community centre any more. Willie Temple has organised things through the Good Morning North West Office including events at Christmas or at school. I remember being asked to prepare a barbecue during an event to celebrate the Queens Jubilee or something similar. There was a great sense of community spirit at events like that and I hope we see more in the future. The key is to be able to get a new community centre so we have the right facilities to deliver the events. After all the hard work we’ve done in our jobs and raising families, I think we deserve a nice place to meet up and remember the old times like we have today!

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For a more detailed history of the Fountain area why not buy Trevor Temple’s publication

The Fountain Heartbeat Of The City

Available from all good local bookstores.

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