Irish Counties - Derry

County Derry (Contae Doire or Doire Cholm Chille in Irish) is a county in Northern Ireland. The city of Derry is often called the Maiden City. The old walled city of Londonderry lies on the west bank of the River Foyle, but the city now covers both banks and is connected by two bridges.

In the 6th century A.D. a Christian monastery was founded on the hill of Derry. The site was allegedly granted by a local king who had a fortress there. A similar kind of fortress can be seen at the spectacular Grianan of Aileach, a few miles west of the city in County Donegal. According to legend the monastery of Derry was established by the great Irish saint Colmcille/Columba (521-597). Colmcille founded many important monasteries in Ireland and Scotland, including Durrow in the Irish midlands and Iona on an island off the west of Scotland. The claim that he founded Derry is less certain, although that monastery definitely belonged to the federation of Columban churches which looked to Colmcille as their spiritual founder and leader.

Throughout the second half of the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I's military leaders tried to conquer the province of Ulster, the only part of Ireland still outside English control. The English first came to Derry in 1566 but the garrison established there at that time lasted only a few years. A second, more successful garrison returned in 1600 during the 'Nine Years War' against the Gaelic O'Neill and O'Donnell earls. On this occasion the English managed to hold on to Derry and, when the war came to an end in 1603, a small trading settlement was established and given the legal status of city.

The city was rebuilt in the 18th century with many of its fine Georgian style houses still surviving today. George Berkeley, Ireland's most important philosopher, was Dean of Londonderry (1724-33), and another well-known and eccentric cleric, Frederick Augustus Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, was Bishop of Londonderry (1768-1803). It was Hervey, the so-called Earl Bishop, who was responsible for building the city's first bridge across the River Foyle in 1790. During the 18th and 19th centuries the port became an important embarkation point for Irish emigrants setting out for North America.

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• Derry People
• Derry History
• Derry Travel

Writers associated with Co. Derry include:

• Cary, Joyce novelist & poet
• Heaney, Seamus poet, essayist & dramatist
• McCafferty, Nell
• O'Reilly, Sean short story writer

Towns and Villages:
Arghadowey, Ballykelly, Bellagy, Castledawson, Coleraine, Derry, Desertmartin, Draperstown, Dumananagh, Dungiven, Eglinton, Feeny, Garvagh, Kilrea, Limavady, Maghera, Magherafelt, Moneymore, Portstewart, Springhill