History of County Derry.

The city of Derry is said to have been founded in 546 AD by St Collumcill on land given to him by his cousin the Prince of Aileach. The name comes from the Irish Doire, meaning oak grove. It was in all possibility a place which was sacred to the pre Christian Gaelic people. The saint said that 'the angels of God sang in the glades of Derry and every leaf held its angel.'

The Vikings raided Derry in 783 and 812 in the latter case the monks and students were slaughtered. Samuel Lewis writes, "The place must have been speedily restored, as, in 832, the Danes were driven with great slaughter from the siege of Derry by Niall Caille, King of Ireland, and Murchadh, Prince of Aileach In 983, the shrine of St. Columbkill was carried away by the Danes, by whom the place was also thrice devastated about the close of the 10th century: in 1095 the abbey was consumed by fire".

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Mac Lochlainn clan ruled the settlement, this was a period of prosperity and growth, many prestigious new buildings were erected, and the monastery and school associated with it thrived. With the decline of the Mac Lochlainn's Derry too began to lose its importance. The arrival of the Normans in the late 1100's saw the building of a fortress by the de Burgos, at Greencastle near the the entrance to Lough Foyle.

In the second half of the sixteenth century Queen Elizabeth I's aim was to conquer Ulster which was the only part of Ireland outside English control. A garrison was established at Derry in 1566 but it only lasted a few years. In 1600 during the 'Nine Years War' another garrison was established which proved more successful. When the war ended in 1603 the town was given the status of City and a trading settlement was established. All went well until 1608 when the city was attacked and almost wiped out by Sir Cahir O'Doherty. O'Doherty had previously supported the English cause.

This attack came about shortly after the 'flight of the earls' (1607) when the O'Neill and O'Donnell chieftains, together with their principal supporters, set sail from Lough Swilly for the continent, leaving Gaelic Ulster leaderless. James I of England acceded to the throne in 1603 he decided on a revolutionary plan to subordinate Ulster.

After the flight of the Earls, England confiscated their lands. The City of London Companies a group of rich merchants were granted all the lands between the Foyle and the Bann rivers. They undertook to build up the towns of Coleraine and Derry, renaming it Londonderry and to spend 20,000 pounds in developing their grant.

Derry / Londonderry was enclosed by massive stone and earthen fortifications, it is one of the few towns in Ireland which retains its original street layout, it was the last walled city to be built in Ireland and is the only one to retain its walls almost intact. Among the city's new buildings was St. Columb's Cathedral built in 1633. This is one of the most important seventeenth century buildings in the country and was the first post Reformation Protestant cathedral erected in these islands.

Derry became Londonderry by royal charter on the 29th March 1613. After 'The Flight of the Earls' The City of London Companies were given all the lands between the Foyle and the Bann rivers. They undertook to build up the towns of Coleraine and Derry (renamed Londonderry) and to spend 20,000 pounds in developing their grant.

The city in the 1680's had a population of 2,000 the largest in Ulster, yet it was slow to prosper suffering as did the rest of the country, during the rebellion of 1641 which lasted for ten years.

James II's accession to the English throne in 1685 raised hopes in the Irish Catholics that he would allow them to recover their lands. In 1688, the English people deposed James and offered the throne to William of Orange, a Dutch prince who was married to James daughter Mary. James fled to France, returning in the following year, to Ireland with French support, in the hope that the Roman Catholics there would help him to recover his throne. The Protestants proclaimed their allegiance to King William III and fortified the towns of Londonderry and Enniskillen

James arrived at the gates of Derry on April 18 1689, and called on the city to surrender. His invitation was declined and actually fired at by some of the more determined defenders. The Jacobite forces outside the city settled in to Siege the city into submission. This siege was to last for 105 days.

James's artillery rained cannonballs and mortar-bombs on the city, as time progressed the inhabitants suffered appalling conditions, as famine and disease took its toll. Outside the walls conditions were little better, and many people died, both inside and outside the walls. Finally at the end of July, a relief ship The Mountjoy broke the barricading 'boom' which had been stretched across the river, near where the new Foyle Bridge now stands.

The governor of Derry during the siege the Reverend George Walker issued a price list for food within the city.
Horse flesh 1s 8p LB; quarter of a dog (fattened on the body's of the slain Irish) 5s 6p LB; dogs head 2s 6p; Cat 4s 6p; Rat 1s; Mouse 6d.

(1 August 1730–8 July 1803)
Bishop of Cloyne from 1767 to 1768 and
Bishop of Derry from 1768 to 1803.

Frederick Augustus Hervey, the Earl of Bristol,was Bishop of Derry (1768-1803). It was Hervey, the so-called Earl Bishop, who was responsible for building the city's first bridge across the Foyle in 1790. Hervey lived at Downhill a mansion on the north coast, now in ruin, Mussenden Temple built by him on the cliff edge close to the mansion, survives it was originally a library, dedicated it is said to the Bishops cousin Lady Mussenden with whom he is reputed to have had an affair.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the port of Derry became an important embarkation point for Irish emigrants setting out for America. Some of these founded the colonies of Derry and Londonderry in the state of New Hampshire. By the middle of the nineteenth century the textile industry brought much employment and prosperity to the town, giving the city many of its fine industrial buildings. Four separate railway networks met in the city, the interesting history of which can be explored at the Foyle Valley Railway Centre.

Derry found itself in the world spotlight in 1932 when Amelia Earhart landed there becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Her connection with the city is celebrated in a display at the Amelia Earhart Cottage at Ballyarnett. In more recent times the city has become known worldwide on account of the 'troubles'