The Town I Love So Well

(Fr. Tom’s “Courier” Newspaper Articles)

Each summer, as part of my summer holidays, I go to Derry. I have done so for the past 23 years and looking back, I am very grateful that my first appointment after my ordination was to Derry City.

First appointments always shape you for the future and one constantly refers back to the beginning. For the past 26 years my life as a priest has been greatly influenced by the time that I lived in Derry. Bishop Edward Daly, the priests and people of Derry were all very good to me and have helped me shape me into the type of person I am today as have my subsequent appointments to West Clare and Shannon.

The Derry that I lived and worked in during the mid-eighties is totally different, and for the better, today. My visit this summer was my first since the Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday was published. On Tuesday 15th June I was glued to the television as the findings of Saville Inquiry were announced. The report exonerated all those killed on Bloody Sunday and pointing the finger of blame squarely where it deserved to be pointed. The conclusions of the Saville Report were something that Bishop Daly and others had been saying for years.

The families who had loved ones murdered or wounded on that terrible day were offered the hand of friendship by Protestant Church Leaders and commended for their dignity, resilience and courageous determination to get to the truth of the Bloody Sunday events. The pain, tension and conflict that resulted from Bloody Sunday blighted many lives and seriously damaged community relationships but now a cloud that has been hanging over the city for almost four decades has begun to lift.

I took a walk thought the Bogside and I could understand the sense of pride with which Phil Coulter sang in “The Town I Love So Well”. Derry now looks and feels like a great place to live and visit. Gone are the barricades, checkpoints, British soldiers and bomb sites of my time in Derry. Gone are the same old people rattling on about the same old past. Gone is the fear and replacing it all is a sense of hope and pride. It feels now like the place it always should have been, but which was lost somewhere along the way.

Derry is one of the longest continuously inhabited places in Ireland and according to legend the monastery of Doire was established by the great Irish saint Colmcille/Columba. It feels like a place steeped in history and heritage; the only remaining completely walled city in Ireland, a gateway to the North and South, a place with a young, energetic community, and a place with an abundance of talent.

The people of Derry have always valued themselves, they are proud to be who they are. As Derry prepares to be the City of Culture 2013 the city has a renewed sense of pride, optimism and a great sense of place. Derry has once again started to have hope. Now with plenty of hotels once again, Derry City is a place with a vibrant future that is well worth a visit. I am sure that you will be greeted with the same warm welcome that I receive on every visit.