Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [563]
St Columb’s Cathedral
Built between 1628 and 1633 from the same grey-green schist as the city walls, St Columb’s Cathedral (Map; 7126 7313; www.stcolumbscathedral.org; London St; admission £2; 9am-5pm Mon-Sat Easter-Oct, 9am-1pm & 2-4pm Mon-Sat Nov-Easter) was the first post-Reformation church to be built in Britain and Ireland, and is Derry’s oldest surviving building.
In the porch (under the spire, by the St Columb’s Court entrance) you can see the original foundation stone of 1633 that records the cathedral’s completion, inscribed:
If stones could speake
Then London’s prayse
Should sounde who
Built this church and
Cittie from the grounde.
The smaller stone inset, inscribed ‘In Templo Verus Deus Est Vereo Colendus’ (The True God is in His Temple and is to be truly worshipped), comes from the original church built here in 1164 and dedicated to the city’s patron saint, Colmcille.
Also in the porch is a hollow mortar shell fired into the churchyard during the Great Siege of 1688–89; inside the shell were the terms of surrender. The neighbouring chapter house contains more historical artefacts, including paintings, old photos and the four huge padlocks used to secure the city gates in the 17th century.
The nave, built in a squat, solid style known as Planter’s Gothic, shares the austerity of many Church of Ireland cathedrals, with thick walls, small windows, and an open-timbered roof (from 1823) resting on corbels depicting the heads of past bishops and deans. The bishop’s throne, at the far end of the nave, is an 18th-century mahogany chair in ornate, Chinese Chippendale style.
The chancel and the stained-glass east window depicting the Ascension, date from 1887. The flags on either side of the window were captured from the French during the Great Siege; although the yellow silk has been renewed several times since, the poles and gold wirework are original.
OUTSIDE THE WALLS
Standing just outside the city walls opposite the Tower Museum, the neo-Gothic Guildhall (Map; 7137 7335; Guildhall Sq; admission free; 9am-5pm Mon-Fri) was originally built in 1890, then rebuilt after a fire in 1908. As the seat of the old Londonderry Corporation, which institutionalised the policy of discriminating against Catholics over housing and jobs, it incurred the wrath of Nationalists and was bombed twice by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1972. From 2000 to 2005 it was the seat of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry (see the boxed text, Click here). The Guildhall is noted for its fine stained-glass windows, presented by the London Livery companies. Guided tours are available in July and August.
The small, old-fashioned Harbour Museum (Map; 7137 7331; Harbour Sq; admission free; 10am-1pm & 2-5pm Mon-Fri), with models of ships, a replica of a currach – an early sailing boat of the type that carried St Colmcille to Iona – and the bosomy figurehead of the Minnehaha, is housed in the old Harbour Commissioner’s Building next to the Guildhall.
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DERRY-STROKE-LONDONDERRY
Derry/Londonderry is a town with two names. The settlement was originally named Doíre Calgaigh (Oak Grove of Calgach), after a pagan warrior-hero; in the 10th century it was renamed Doíre Colmcille (Oak Grove of Columba), in honour of the 6th-century saint who established the first monastic settlement here.
In the following centuries the name was shortened and anglicised to Derrie or Derry. Then in 1613, in recognition of the Corporation of London’s role in the ‘plantation’ of northwest Ulster with Protestant settlers, Derry was granted a royal charter and both town and county were renamed Londonderry. However, people generally continued to call it Derry in everyday speech.
When Nationalists gained a majority on the city council in 1984, they voted to change its name from Londonderry City Council to Derry