The famous cities of Ireland . CHAPTER VI DERRY Derry is to one-fourth of Ireland a kind of holycity, a symbol, a flag, rather than a mere group ofhabitations. And althouo^h much that it has cometo symbolise is distasteful to Ireland as a whole, yetno good Irishman will grudge Derry its peculiarpride, its honest fame. Here we are in a stratum of history wholly differentfrom any which has been illustrated by the townsso far studied. In Derrys history the Norman hasno part. The place has very definite associationswhich go back to the early days of Christianity inIreland; but nothing exists to li
The famous cities of Ireland . CHAPTER VI DERRY Derry is to one-fourth of Ireland a kind of holycity, a symbol, a flag, rather than a mere group ofhabitations. And althouo^h much that it has cometo symbolise is distasteful to Ireland as a whole, yetno good Irishman will grudge Derry its peculiarpride, its honest fame. Here we are in a stratum of history wholly differentfrom any which has been illustrated by the townsso far studied. In Derrys history the Norman hasno part. The place has very definite associationswhich go back to the early days of Christianity inIreland; but nothing exists to link the earlier his-tory with the later, except rock, earth, and water, theconfiguration of the ground, and enduring names thatkeep alive the memory of a great saint, a great glance should be thrown backwards to those far-offbeginnings of a common civic life on that isolatedhillock by the Foyle, for these are the memories thatunite. Doire, Derry, or the Derry, as it was long called, 168. I70 THE FAMOUS CITIES OF IRELAND ch. means the oak wood; and it was here that Columbaestablished his first monastery; it was from this abodethat he set out on his missionary journeys; it was forDerry that (in the poignant Ulster phrase) he* thought long in lona. Verses are attributed tohim : — Ah, rapid the speed of my cuiraghAnd its stern turned to Derry:I grieve at my errand over the noble seaTravelling to Alba of the ravens. And again in another poem: — Derry mine ; my own oakgroveLittle house, my cell, my love. Whether the authorship of these verses in veryancient Irish be truly ascribed to Columba is matterfor question, but not in question is the record ofColumbas life. Archbishop Healy says: — * Columba was the greatest saint of the Celticrace; and after St. Patrick he is the most strikingfigure in our Celtic history. What is stranger still,monk and priest though he was, his memory ischerished not only by Catholics but by Protestants,and even by Presbyterians also. . H
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectcitiesandtowns, booky
