Posts tagged ‘North West’

: Ambition for Derry – Padraig Canavan

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
Londonderry Chamber of Commerce President Padraig Canavan shares his aims for the economy with Peter Cheney. Padraig Canavan’s time as chamber president has been “busy” with “lots going on,” he quips. The founder and chief executive of IT firm Singularity, established in 1994, was elected to the post in March. Singularity was established in 1994 and is a major business process management software company. It employs 250 people worldwide, including 80 in Derry. As always, the chamber’s first priority is providing services to its membership but it also promotes education, digital...[full story]

: A digital champion – Mark Nagurski

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
As Digital Champion for Derry, it is Mark Nagurski’s job to “make a lot of noise about digital content”, he tells Peter Cheney. Promoting the benefits of the North West as a location for digital businesses is the main aim of ‘Digital Derry’. The project was established by the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce with the support of Derry City Council and ILEX, and includes representatives from private sector companies, the University of Ulster, the North West Regional College and various support organisations. Initiatives supported by the project seek “to create the best place...[full story]

: Altnagelvin funding

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
Cancer patients and politicians have roundly welcomed Edwin Poots’ decision to push forward plans to build a £56 million radiotherapy unit in Derry, meaning people in the North West will no longer have to make a 200-mile trip for treatment. Making a u-turn on the decision to build Altnagelvin’s treatment centre was Edwin Poots’ “first priority” and within hours of being appointed as Minister he met with cancer patients at Stormont. He then spent his first week in office meeting patients and medical staff at both Altnagelvin and at the cancer centre in Belfast before giving...[full story]

: Representatives

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
Following the Assembly elections, agendaNi profiles the region’s political representatives at Stormont and Westminster. Foyle Mark Durkan MP Party: SDLP MP since 2005. Former SDLP leader (2001-2010), Foyle MLA (1998-2010) and Derry City councillor (1993-2000). Finance and Personnel Minister (1999-2001) and Deputy First Minister (2001-2002). Martina Anderson MLA Party: Sinn Féin MLA since 2007. Appointed as OFMDFM Junior Minister May 2011. William Hay MLA Party: DUP MLA since 1998. Former Derry City councillor (1981-2010). Assembly Speaker since 2007. Mark H Durkan MLA...[full story]

: Co-operation across the border

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
How the North West region benefits from North/South Co-operation. Health Co-operation and Working Together (CAWT) is the main health co-operation body in the region, taking in the border counties of the South’s Health Service Executive and the Southern and Western Health and Social Care Trusts here. The body’s main purpose is to improve the health and well-being of population “with a particular emphasis on the border”. In February the body established a project to target obesity in the region. Funded through Interreg IVA programme to the tune of £788,000 the aim is to tackle...[full story]

: Bridge over troubled water

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
“An embrace in the centre of the river” is how the Peace Bridge has been described by its designers. agendaNi takes a look at the impact the structure is expected to have on the maiden city. With the potential it has to unite the Cityside and Waterside communities on either side of the River Foyle, the Peace Bridge will be an ‘S’ shape made from two identical curved suspension structures connected to opposing banks and overlapping in the middle. Ilex Urban Regeneration Company managed the project and construction on the £13.5 million project began in January. The contract awarded...[full story]

: Painting history

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
Peter Cheney explores the Bogside’s famous murals. Unlike many of Northern Ireland’s murals, those along the gables of Derry’s Rossville Street tell a place’s history rather than taking sides in the Troubles. The work of The Bogside Artists – Tom Kelly, his brother William, and Kevin Hasson – has changed the face of the former trouble-spot over the last 16 years. The street was the scene for the Battle of the Bogside, where the Troubles began in August 1969. Free Derry Corner also dates from that time; it was firstly written in graffiti before being properly painted. Bloody...[full story]

: What Derry means to me

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
The Maiden City scales the divide and means all things to all people. Rich in history, it saw the siege in 1689 but also the birth of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Three figures acutely associated with the walled city tell agendaNi what it means to them. Mark Durkan “Yes!” is the greeting in Derry. So it is a positive city. A border city Janus-like, in Brien Friel’s phrase. Looking into two states and wanting better for and from them both together. Also able to look both backward and forward and both inward and outward. For a small city, denied much, it has always had...[full story]

: The town we love so well

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
A programme of cultural activity, drawing on Derry’s links with Saint Colmcille, Brian Friel, The Undertones and other significant cultural themes, has been drafted in a bid to win the UK City of Culture 2013 title, writes Meadhbh Monahan. The winning city will be one that is able to deliver a substantial programme of cultural activity which leads to a “demonstrable step-change in their area, and a lasting legacy,” according to a spokesman from UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which shortlisted Derry, Norwich, Birmingham and Sheffield for the title. It would then be...[full story]