m .. '7?t ;...... -·~ 'f 1-1 E Cl'fY LoN·ooND Of RRY Owing to its long history and its geographical position the city of Londonderry has a distinctive and attractive life of its own. •, lt was bo!n over fourteen hundred years ago. when St. , Columba founded a monastery in the 9ak grove, on the hill where later the walled city was to stand. It began. therefore. as an ecclesiastical community. surviving for centuries frequent burnings by· plundering Northmen and native .aTmies. Then in the sixteenth century, when Ireland became involved in European wars and politics, the position of 'Derry at the mouth of one of the great rivers leading directly into the heart of Ulster led to its fortification as a garrison town. important strategically. So it became a walled city, numbering two sieges in its long and laden story, and the ~e::ond of tre<e makes one of the greatest chapters of history. To anyone interested in olden times Derry has a constant fascination. Its ancient walls still stand and everywhere the present meets the past. There are quaint ,glimpses in unexpected places of stately Georgian doorways and windows. Old muzzlebading cannon look down on a modem warship at the quay side l\.\lhere descendants of Columba's gulls are still crying and calling. Yet it has its own modern life, its clashes of standards and cvlture, its own intere;ting economic and social problems. One of its greatest attractions is. perl:aps, the ease with which one can exchange the country for the city. To the West are the hills of Donegal; down the broad lough to th~ East the headland of Benevenagh stands out against the sky; while to th~ . South-East rise the rounded peaks of the Spen'in mountains.
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