I wish I was back home in Derry

The Guildhall - don't call me Londonderry

Conversations in the car as we look for an ATM in Derry

Who do you think wrote that song?
Um... Christy Moore
No
The Corrs
No
The Chieftans
No
Brian Kennedy
No
Republicans...
Ah you are not wrong
Wolf Tone
No
It was Bobby Sands
But he was not from Derry
He wrote it for someone from Derry he shared his cell with

So to really appreciate Derry you need to know your Troubles history. Inside out and upside down cos every brick in Derry is defined by resistance. If there was a city in Ireland which would be the correlation to the Rebels and the Republic in Star Wars, it would be Derry. They are the people who fought when no one else would fight and they demanded that their truth be heard. And they did this for such a long time that their struggle became the struggle of the oppressed and neglected in the world. They have always had this - we are better than all of you attitude - because they have this sense of never having 'sold out'. They were Republican to the core and Republican they will remain. Even if it kills them. Of there is a corner universe where neo-colonialism was not allowed to set foot on , Derry is it.

It was very dark by the time we were back in Derry. When I first moved to Belfast, I found Derry mean and filthy. And this is also true. Derry is very odd. Sometimes you would visit it and it would look splendid. Sometimes you would visit it and you would wish to crawl into a paper bag and die. One of my most depressing memories was walking through the Bogside and Brandywell from town up to the Creggan (no one in Derry walks by the way), and it was littered in broken vodka bottle and used syringes. When I got to my destination at the top of the hill, I said, oh dear, I have just walked through the Bogside and Brandywell and seen this. Yeah, the fucking Brits, they did this to us. Really that was about eight years ago. I wonder if the blame the Brits for everything thinking still persists...

HOWEVER, I have since not thought about that anymore... instead I was up at this brand new housing estate in the Creggan and well, every house was solar powered. They were all made up for disabled people - just in case - so the stairs were wide and everything was wide, and the place had iron wrought fences, etc. It looked really good. That was very nice. In the Park Bar, there was only standing room. It is not in town, so there are mostly locals who go there. However, it is central enough so that CAN go there. There was a lot of loud conversation and laughter. People of all ages - well ok, mostly blokes - and from all backgrounds were jostling away, cheek by jowl. You had your young IT professionals and the old war horses, all drinking with each other. All crammed into a bar, whose walls, if they could talk, would tell great tales. Derry has outlived sieges, famine, bomb blasts, internment, Operation Everything, and open warfare, and it has still stood here. Sometimes I wonder if the Derry Wans realise what heroes they are. They probably do, actually, and that is both part of their charm and why they are so infuriating.

In other words, Derry is really exciting - or can be really exciting. But the truth is, that while I lived there people struggled a lot of the time to survive. There is the long running feud with Belfast and the decision to make Coleraine the University Town will always be proof perfect that the government of the day, the Unionists, made a sectarian decision - and continue to do so. Even when I was there, the conversation veered to how Invest NI was siphoning money away from Derry, or the North West. We are ignored, no one loves us, is the rallying cry of the Derry people. Once I said, when I was very drunk, at a party, in Belfast to some Republicans, although this was not a Republican party, I said I love Derry people, but sometimes I just want to tell them get off the cross, someone needs the wood, you know. This was deemed very callous and insulting.

However, life IS hard in Derry. Well it was when I was there. Jobs were difficult to come by and even yesterday I spoke to someone who told me there were no jobs to be had there.

So there is the romance, and then there is the reality.

Or maybe there could be both. There is a good activist population in Derry. I know that. I know that they are really good at what they do. I also know that they are doing a lot around waste and the environment. I know that much discussion about Transition Towns is going on around there. I have often thought that it is the perfect place for a Transition Town. But the City Fathers don't really see it that way. Every now and then they will wheel out this graphically enhanced picture of Derry with skyscrapers where Fort George used to be, and I would think, why in the wide world would they want to do this to Derry? Every now and then they will insist on talking about building on the internationally important mudflats and I will think, they have not got a hope in hell of doing that, why do they talk about things they (a) cannot do (b) will destroy the place (c) is not what Derry is about in the first place? It is a great place for LA21 to take root. It could really be something, you know.

But I hope that these activists could do something. Something will come of their efforts.

Once I asked Oisin, do you ever think you are from Derry?
No, why would I think that?
Belfast... or Singapore even, but never Derry. I have spent more time in Germany than I have in Derry, he laughed.

It sorta made me sad. One day, maybe when he comes to read the history of the Troubles, he will know. In fact, I think he is probably old enough to start learning Irish History. A long tale of woe and misery and stubbornness. When I think of Irish History, I think of the Donald Trumps and the David Camerons and the Lee Kuan Yews of this world, and I think, well, you will never succeed because you know there is a place called Derry. It is real, and beautiful and its people are warriors, in the truest sense of the word, every last one of them.

It is a beacon on the hill and the light, its light and the light of its people - which are all of us, the adopted children of Derry - that will NEVER be put out.