What I learned today meandering in Derry

One of the musicians at the Derry Song Fest said that the traditional songs in Gaelic are lots of little pictures strung together with music – different from English ballads that tell a story.

I rambled, explored today and here are thoughts and impressions, little pictures on a cloudy day in Derry.

Awakened early. sleazy stomach after intense heat and questionable sandwich yesterday in Letterenny. Explore Derry.

Bus through Bogside – first mural Martin Luther King. A civil rights hero in Bogside in the 60’s as the destitute Catholics started a process of social justice. Very emotional for me. These past weeks I have visited lots of ancient battle grounds in Scotland, but this one is so recent.

The Troubles. In the 1980’s 30% of the buildings were damaged or destroyed. Partition.

The Foyle River divides the City – east and west, rich and poor, Protestant and Catholic.

Bridges until very recently were armed checkpoints. The walls of the walled city can now be walked again. During The Troubles people on opposite sides turned their backs on each other and also turned their backs on the river. The bridges became armed check points.

The Protestant neighborhood has homes for wealthy and then rows of houses that until the peace process had sidewalks and fences painted red, white and blue, Union Jacks flying and murals with “no surrender’ slogans. Now one side of a corner shop has been painted over by children and has numerous multi-colored butterflies.

The peace process has been intensive dialogue sessions to draw people together to find common symbols and historic memories and locales that both sides can relate to. Art is used – murals for example – to let them be witnessed.

Some green woods are still around and stories of fairies. But the large oak grove at the top of the hill is gone. Derry in Gaelic – doire – means oak grove. In the 6th century it was forest and a monastery.

Derry was a significant port during WWII, ironically a less contentious time as there was a common enemy to fight. 30 German U-Boats surrendered here and were destroyed.

It also was the water passage where many of the nine million Irish emigrants departed. Parts of that pier are now made into a public art piece shaped like the New York skyline.

I walked the Peace Bridge mid day back and forth. Opened in 2011, it is serpentine in shape with two poles close to either end – one pointing up stream and the other pointing down stream. It connects the Guild Hall area with what was the army barracks that has been reclaimed as a community center and park.

There was a busker on one of the curved benches. I sat near him and harmonized on a few songs – One More Cup of Coffee, Take a Load Off Sally, Good Night Irene and Happy Birthday.

When you view the Peace Bridge from a distance, the two poles jutting out look like they are in opposition. But when you step onto the bridge and follow the serpentine pathway, they seem to come together into an arc above your head. Must be fairy magic.

A rest, a light meal and then off to Ulster University for a premiere of the contemporary Fidelio Trio in an interdisciplinary newly commissioned piece called ‘The River Still Sings’ by Frank Lyons inspired by a poem by Seamus Dean. Cello, viola and piano – dissonant, haunting and effervescent sounds with a digital backdrop of abstract film shots under Foyle River bridges and sound waves from attachments to the instruments.

Without floating on or swimming in the Foyle River I have been carried along by it today and drawn into the many pictures it has revealed.

Was it Herman Hesse who said, “The river is everywhere at once.”