We took a guided walking tour of the city this morning in order to try and get our head around the history of this town, and a lot of history there is too. Initially catholic, protestant settlers arrived in Derry in the late 1500s on a missionary quest and were responsible for building the walls of the city. The city was besieged for 105 days in 1688 by the forces of James II who was looking to establish a base in Ireland to retake his English thrown. However the siege was broken by the protestants. There after Cromwell scourged Ireland in punishment for the Catholic support of James II. These events seem to have pretty much cemented English (perhaps uneasy) rule over Ireland for the coming centuries. In the 20th century Derry was one of the focus points of the catholic struggles against English rule and we heard about the events of Bloody Sunday and visited the famous murals on buildings in the area known as the Bogside. Interestingly the name "Bogside" comes simply from the fact that originally the city was almost an island with water on 3 sides and a marsh or bog on the 4th. That 4th side was eventually reclaimed and is now - you guessed it - the area called the Bogside.

We also learned more about the struggle over the name of the city. The city government now has a catholic majority and therefore are keen to have the city name changed to Derry they have petitioned the UK high court on the matter, but the court decided that since the name Londonderry was granted by the crown, only the crown could change it, thereby shrewdly washing its hands of the matter. To date the crown has failed to respond to similar petitions from the city government.

Sadly the divide over the name is reflected also in the geographic divide of the population as the city is divided into clear catholic and protestant areas.