Londonderry and Monreagh

To begin our first full day in Nothern Ireland, we visited the Ulster-Scots Center at Monreagh which is an old converted house that is now a museum sharing the history of the Ulster-Scots in Northern Ireland and in America. We received a tour of the site and the church next door by local historian. We also looked at the various surnames of the Ulster plantation whom many immigrated to Appalachia.

After we visited the Ulster-Scots Center, we drove into the town of Londonderry, also referred to as Derry, where we met up with a playwright friend of Dr. Threadgill and Dr. Schmied and went to the Siege Museum. The Siege Museum is a museum about the siege that took place at Londonderry between the Jacobite army of King James and the Protestant citizens of Londonderry. Many people gave up their lives to protect their freedom of religion and the siege was eventually lifted. The museum is run by the group the "Apprentice Boys" who work to sustain the memory of what happened during the Siege of Londonderry. Their name comes from the group of young men who closed the gates at Londonderry essentially beginning the Seige. The organization today works to preserve the history of the Seige and they throw two parades each year: one when the Seige began and when the Seige ended. 

Here is a diagram of Londonderry today. You can see the historic walls that still lay around the city.

Once we left the museum, we went on a walking tour of the walls around the city of Londonderry. We focused on the Troubles and how the Troubles effected the city of Londonderry throughout the years. We saw some of the walls that were put up to separate the Republican and Loyalist communities and that are still up today. We also discussed how the Troubles effected daily life in Northern Ireland. It was also interesting to see some of the places that the Siege Museum taught us about in real life like the Bastions, which are sections of the wall pictured below. 

 Pictured above is the Cathedral which has been around before the Siege of Londonderry and still stands today. During the siege the Cathedral was used as a mass burial site for the deaths from the city. 

Fun History Fact: The county of Londonderry is actually the birthplace of a spy from the American Revolution, Hercules Mulligan.