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 enterprise, tourism, the arts and culture.

On the City of Culture, he remarks: “We need to maximise the benefits of that to local businesses and to the local community.”

“Clearly, by any measure the city is struggling in the current downturn. That said, there is an increasing level of optimism, an increasing level of awareness that to move forward we need to do more ourselves and maximise the opportunities that come our way.”

He finds the city becoming more confident, partly due to its creativity. The Peace Bridge and Ebrington Barracks symbolise this change.

Furthermore, the chamber wants to see Derry become a ‘university city’. An expansion in student numbers at the University of Ulster’s Magee campus “would allow us to be far better engaged in 21st century industry”. Very few Derry students, in particular, return to the city once they leave for university. More local places would benefit them, as well as serving the “greater good” by encouraging more Northern Ireland students to stay at home.

“Education sets you free,” he emphasises, describing it as a “great equaliser” and “especially in the information age, it’s the thing that helps you reach your full potential.”

Canavan brings an understanding of global business to the role; most of Singularity’s trade takes place outside Northern Ireland. When setting up its Indian office in Hyderabad, he spent a whole day with the IT Minister’s Permanent Secretary who was “extremely knowledgeable” about the sector.

Northern Ireland is operating in a “globally competitive world” and he adds: “There’s plenty of people out there looking to each our lunch.”

Geographically, Derry benefits from its location between the USA and Europe and on the border of the sterling and euro zones. That flexibility is not readily available elsewhere. The area’s natural beauty attracts tourism and “the quality of life here, weather apart, can be very high.”

When Canavan worked in London, his daily commute was one hour. In contrast, it’s three minutes in Derry, which frees up a lot more time for both working and leisure. Technology, though, makes location less important: “It’s more to do with creativity and competitive spirit that will differentiate businesses and regions.”

A lower corporation tax, he notes, would add considerably to the case for investment. Responding to the trade unions’ opposition, he says: “I can understand their trepidation but the clear benefit that the Republic of Ireland got from reducing its corporation tax was actually felt here in the opposite direction.”

As well as reversing that relative disadvantage, the cut would “grow the size of the cake.” More inward investment and the creation of new local enterprises would increase the overall tax take.

Asked about the City of Culture’s legacy, he expects it to put the North West on the map in the UK, Europe and further afield. That attention and the networks of contacts built up in 2013 will last much longer than the year.

He thinks that the new Executive needs to provide more investment but all MLAs are “well-disposed” to the City of Culture status. “Clearly, it’s difficult to pay for a lot of things at the moment but this will pay dividends in the end,” Canavan remarks.

Ultimately, he wants to see Derry making a significant contribution to the economy. Its cultural heritage and growing digital sector can combine to make it a regional economic centre.

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 on the island of Ireland to start and build a digital business.”

Nagurski works with start-ups in film, TV, animation, mobile and web content and games. He advises them and “points them in the right direction.”

Some 1,500 students are currently enrolled in further and higher education digital courses in the North West region. Because of the interest, he also meets third level students and school pupils, and finds that they have a passion for all things digital.

“Every time I am speaking with students there’s just as much enthusiasm for getting into the sector and they’re literally just chomping at the bit to get into a company,” Nagurski comments.

That eagerness must be “translated into entrepreneurship”. He hopes to encourage students to think: ‘Now’s the time for me to have a go at starting my own business in this space.’

Digital Derry

“There’s a huge amount of talent” in the North West’s digital sector Nagurski contends. “A lot of people have good experience and good expertise in this space.”

The main digital attraction in the region is Project Kelvin, a submarine telecommunications cable which will link North America to Northern Ireland, with a point-of-presence in Londonderry.

“Kelvin’s always been about potential,” says Nagurski.

Project Kelvin “offers the opportunity to speak to major companies moving around huge amounts of data” and could encourage multi-national companies to set up data centres in Derry, Nagurski believes.

The existing North West Business Complex at Skeoge is “second to none in the UK and Ireland,” he points out.

In addition, BT has agreed to allow access to high-speed fibre optic broadband from autumn 2011 to 6,000 businesses and 21,000 households as part of its sponsorship of the 2013 City of Culture bid.

“The BT broadband pledge, combined with the potential of Kelvin will make Derry one of the best connected cities in the UK or Ireland,” Nagurski states.

The University of Ulster campus is close by and includes a £20 million Intelligent Systems Research Centre where scientists of international caliber from across the world conduct research in the areas of computational intelligence, virtual worlds, computer gaming, neuro- engineering and bio-inspired computing.

Various forms of business support within the region should also attract new businesses. These include Digital Circle, Go For It, Northern Ireland Spin Out (NISPO) funds and InvestNI. Derry’s proximity to the Republic means that digital start-ups could also benefit from cross-border collaborative projects and EU funding programmes.

Starting a business in the digital sector can be relatively inexpensive: “the same price as a nice summer holiday,” the Digital Champion claims.

Because “digital permeates pretty much everything these days”, it is important for start-ups and existing companies to expand and make the most of the benefits of Derry’s City of Culture designation.

“Many companies are looking for access to talent, attractive tax regimes and rates relief,” remarks Nagurski.

To him, City of Culture means “having a community of like-minded people around who can help and support the new start- ups in the city.” It will allow Derry to be an “infrastructure test-bed.”

His concluding message is that “digital is a lot broader than the tech industry. It covers education, elements of healthcare and tourism.” Ultimately, businesses must become comfortable with breaking digital “out of the tech field” and incorporating it into all areas of their infrastructure.

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 the unit the go- ahead.

In March, the then UUP Health Minister Michael McGimpsey said plans for the treatment centre would have to be shelved.

The party maintains that its Minister faced three problems, which resulted in the deferral:

• the business case being held up by DFP;

• insufficient financial support from the Irish Government;

• insufficient funding to run the unit.

“If the new Health Minister has identified funding with which to both build and operate the radiotherapy unit then that is indeed good news,” MLA Basil McCrea remarked, “but there will be some concerns as to where exactly the money is coming from and whether or not that is likely to create hardship elsewhere with regard to closures of cutting services.”

The McKinsey report, a consultancy document commissioned by the Health and Social Care Board, suggests that savings can be made within the Health Service by reducing, charging for and consolidating services. The report suggests that required funding for 2014-2015 could be reduced by £600 million.

Answering Assembly members at Stormont, Poots said cancer is “not something about which we can be complacent.” In 2009-2010, there were 56,286 people in Northern Ireland living with diagnosed cancers or other tumours.

The Minister said that the Irish Government will “fully fund” its €19 million share of the project and reassured members that “the establishment of this facility will not have, and never would have had, a detrimental impact on any other health service.”

He confirmed that money is available for both building the centre and dealing with the running costs: “I have now thoroughly reviewed all the relevant information and I have decided to make the necessary funding − both current and capital − available. This amounts to £56 million being made available to build the unit and an estimated additional £9 million being made available over current service provision for running costs.” The start-up costs for the project, in advance of opening the facility, will amount to £14.5 million including the costs of training. However, Poots said there are also plans to identify a further £30 million in savings on generic drugs in general.

While Poots recognises there are pressures on the Health Service, he said: “We have to make best use of the resources that we have”.

When asked by Alliance MLA Kieran McCarthy whether other cross-border health initiatives will be implemented to make savings, the Minister said he would be “prepared to look at all of them” if they will provide a better Health Service at a reduced cost.

He added that getting the facility ready as soon as possible is “critical” as the cancer centre in Belfast City Hospital is expected to reach capacity by 2015: “It is anticipated that construction of the new centre will be completed by 2015 and the facility will be available in early 2016.”

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
Party: SDLP

Elected in 2011. Derry City councillor since 2005. SDLP Health and Social Development Spokesman.

Raymond McCartney MLA
Party: Sinn Féin

MLA since 2004. Sinn Féin Northern Justice Spokesman. Deputy Chair, Justice Committee.

Colum Eastwood MLA
Party: SDLP

Elected in 2011. Derry City councillor since 2005. SDLP OFMDFM Spokesman.

Pat Ramsey MLA
Party: SDLP

MLA since 2003. Former Derry City councillor (1985-2010). SDLP Employment and Learning Spokesman.

East Londonderry

Gregory Campbell MP MLA
Party: DUP

MP since 2001. MLA since 1998. Former Derry City councillor (1981-2011). Regional Development Minister (2001-2002) and Culture, Arts and Leisure Minister (2008-2009).

John Dallat MLA
Party: SDLP

MLA since 1998. Former Coleraine Borough councillor 1997-2010. Deputy Speaker since 2007. SDLP Environment Spokesman.

Cathal Ó hOisín MLA
Party: Sinn Féin

Elected in 2011. Limavady Borough councillor since 2005. Sinn Féin Northern Culture, Arts and Leisure Spokesman.

David McClarty MLA
Independent

MLA since 1998. Coleraine Borough councillor since 1989. Formerly UUP. Independent since January 2011.

George Robinson MLA
Party: DUP

MLA since 2003. Limavady Borough councillor since 1985.

Adrian McQuillan MLA
Party: DUP

MLA since 2007. Coleraine Borough councillor since 2001.

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 the mounting concern of childhood obesity. Although the project will be directed mainly at children under the age of five, kids who are aged between eight and 11 who are obese or overweight will all be targeted.

Alcohol harm has also been highlighted as a problem in the region, working between the North West Alcohol Forum in Letterkenny and Derry Healthy Cities, a 20-year old organisation designed to “drive forward the health and improvement agenda” in the region.

Sexual health services in the area also have a cross-border tinge. In February, CAWT said that an extra 5,000 GUM patients will be treated over the lifetime of the project. An additional clinic will be provided in Letterkenny to cover the region. The exact services are not yet up and running but are “in the process of development” and will be agreed by the CAWT partners.

Transport

Northern Ireland got a break in 2009 when Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan confirmed that £400 million would still be set aside for road projects in the North.

The flagship project, of course, has been the Aughnacloy A5 dual carriageway but it had been expected that some of that money could fund the new A2 road between Maydown and Derry City Airport, just north of Derry City. However agendaNi understands that there will be no funding contribution from the South on this particular scheme.

At a cost of £25 million, the route will become a 6.2km dual-carriageway, forming part of the Northern Key Transport Corridor which connects Derry with Belfast.

The existing ‘corridor’ is a mixture of motorway, dual and single carriageway. The scheme began in April 2009 and is due to finish late this year.

Indeed the airport itself has also received a boost as new routes have been added. The daily Dublin flight has been put back to 7.40am to allow for business customers to use it more readily. Services to Manchester and Edinburgh have also been added.

Tourism

The Republic’s National Spatial Strategy, which runs from 2002 to 2020, identifies both Derry and Letterkenny as “gateways” to the North West.

The National Development Plan, due to end in 2013, sets the ambitious target of attracting 10 million visitors. The North West Cross-border Group is seen as the lead in supporting economic development in the region.

Fáilte Ireland North West also naturally has a role to play in the region, outlined in the North West Tourism Development Plan, running from 2008 to 2010.

Among the priorities for product development in the region are creating new attractions and programmes to increase visitor spend and dwell time.

Tourism initiative Destination North West II exists to “increase the competitiveness and sustainability” of tourism in the region. However, its £2 million funding is currently pending from Interreg.

That money would be spent on “promoting key products of the region”.

“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 to County Down company Graham Construction, who have also built the city’s Foyle Bridge, the Belfast Cross-Harbour Bridge and the Dargan Bridge in south Dublin.

The bridge will link the former military base at Ebrington to the Guildhall and cyclists and pedestrians should be able to cross it in October this year.

The EU Peace III programme financed the bridge, and, along with the Special European Union Programmes Body, chose the name Peace Bridge. The SEUPB believes the structure will tackle problems of separated communities by creating genuine new shared space. However, an unofficial online campaign on Facebook has been set up by SDLP MLA Conall McDevitt and press officer Ruairi O’Kane calling for the bridge to be called the Hume Bridge as a tribute to the city’s Nobel Peace laureate John Hume who they say “worked tirelessly to build bridges between our divided community.” It has generated 675 followers. Commenting on whether another name would be considered, a spokeswoman from Ilex said: “That is entirely within the gift of the European Union who funded the project.”

Since construction began in January eight jobs and four apprenticeships have been provided for local workers as part of the ‘Kickstart to Work’ employment programme.

For every £1 million of the project value a job will be created and for every £2 million an apprenticeship will be created because Ilex included a social clause in the construction contract. This is a welcome development according to the city’s Mayor, Paul Fleming who commented: “I am very pleased. Social clauses in construction contracts under the sustainable agenda are a concept that all government departments should be prioritising during their internal tender processes to ensure that communities benefit economically from the public and private investment in Derry over the next five to ten years.”

Martin McGuinness said it was his “sincere hope” that the bridge “will be a catalyst for change and will help transform this city and the local community in the widest sense.” He claimed that the Foyle has “for so long” been viewed as a boundary between communities on either side of the river.

“It will bring Ebrington into shared, public use for the first time in almost 170 years. Most importantly, it will enable the local community to reclaim this prime riverside location for their own enjoyment,” he added.

Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie said: “This is great for the people of the North West. This new foot and cycle bridge will encourage all the citizens of Derry to have a renewed sense of pride in their city centre. On a practical level, it will create a safe, attractive and convenient route into the central area for pedestrians and cyclists.

“But in addition, the new bridge will literally bring people in the city together and underline our resolve to create a shared future in Derry and the North.”

Chairman of Ilex, Sir Roy McNulty, hopes the bridge will add to the ongoing regeneration of the walled city and revealed that a time-capsule will be placed in the Ebrington site to mark completion of the “iconic project” and to “represent the city’s history, its people, and their aspirations for the future.”

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 Sunday then took place around the same area less than three years later.

“In 1994, we had a vision that we would do a series of murals along the length of Rossville Street in the Bogside. Rossville Street, we would consider in the context of the history of the conflict in Northern Ireland as probably one of the most historical streets,” says Kevin.

The artists have always been first and foremost an arts group, although they have had to paint political content to cover the area’s history properly. They have also been heavily involved in cross-community art work, including painting a Siege of Derry mural in the loyalist Fountain estate at the height of the Troubles.

An 11-year old boy with a gas mask and petrol bomb was the first scene depicted on the street; it was prepared in time for the 25th anniversary of the Battle of the Bogside back in 1994.

Kevin recalls: “The Battle of the Bogside is held in very high esteem in this community, not glorifying violence or celebrating violence, but a lot of people will see that in the community as a moment where, for want of a better word, they made their stand.”

To the artists, the challenge was to see if they could actually do the project on the 30-foot walls. However, they and the local people were pleased with the final outcome.

A lot of previous murals had been “fly-by-night” and linked with paramilitaries. In Kevin’s words, The Bogside Artists are not there to wave anyone’s flag or beat their drum.

“What we set out to do was simply to try and tell the story of this community in a very visual way, not to glorify violence,” he states. All three men lost relatives in the conflict so the subjects have a deep personal meaning for them.

Once the idea to paint along the length of the street was formulated, the artists collected a petition of 2,000 signatures in support. The Housing Executive, in turn, rendered, smoothed and plastered the gables so they could start work.

One mural would be erected each year. The artists would go around with an A4 sketch of the latest addition and show it to local people, asking them to make a contribution if they liked the content. The response was “totally overwhelming” with residents also storing paints in their back gardens and sustaining the men with cups of tea.

In their reconciliation work, the artists knew that sometimes young people from each community went away to workshops but then never saw each other again. They therefore brought the same group of children from Protestant and Catholic areas together over several years, to paint bottles, banners and murals. Some of them went on to forge lasting friendships.

When they reached the far end of the street in 2004, the end result was a peace mural designed by Protestant and Catholic schoolchildren.

“We felt throughout the series of murals that we depicted on the street here telling the story about this community broadly spoke to everyone within nationalism regardless of their own political thinking,” Kevin comments.

Tourists often stop by to view the murals, the French and Italians noting there was nothing like in it their illustrious art history while German and Dutch visitors enquire about planning permission and red tape. Most have made their way from Belfast and remark on .how different the murals look compared to that city’s republican and loyalist ones.

For them, the most powerful is the Death of Innocents, showing 14-year old Annette McGavigan, who was shot dead by the British army in September 1971.

“It’s a mural that’s dedicated to all the young children that has lost their lives in the Northern Ireland conflict whether they were Protestants or Catholic or English or Irish,” Kevin remarks. It was not possible to paint them all as so many young lives had been lost so Annette was used as a symbol.

Her death “sent shockwaves” through the Bogside at a time when the province seemed to spiralling out of control and hers was reportedly the largest funeral in the city’s history. It is also an art piece with global significance as most fatalities in most wars are civilians.

When it was unveiled in 1997, journalists asked why the butterfly on the mural was coloured grey but the plan was to paint it in full colour when “true and lasting peace” came. As they returned to give it that finishing touch three years ago, the street also has something to say about future hopes as well as history.

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 natural cultural riches. Great traditions in singing, dancing and other performing arts – well encouraged by the feisty Feis Mothers.

We had a university denied but are still university-destined and determined.

Derry endured the suffocating shock of Bloody Sunday and suffered other atrocities. But it still nurtured power-sharing through the strains and divisions of bad times. It was blessed by good leadership, not least pastoral leadership which is too often unacknowledged.

The IRA may have bombed the heart out of the city centre, but Derry never lost its good civic heart.

Derry’s people show resilience and rapport. Not just bearing their lot with good humour, but seeking change with a spirit which underpins so many examples of its strong self-help ethos.

It is a place of character and characters. Whether its citizens call it Derry or Londonderry we all share a special sense of pride in our people and place.

Martina Anderson

Derry is home in every sense of the word. Obviously it is my family home but Derry has often been described as being akin to a big village because of its intimacy and friendliness which makes visitors think that everyone knows each other. Despite the adversity faced by the people of Derry since partition – discrimination in housing, jobs and gerrymander – their spirit was never broken and their humour never dampened. The people are the heart and soul of Derry.

In the great scheme of things, Derry is a tiny city but it has always punched above its weight and produced leaders in every field.

In music, you had people like Josef Locke, Dana, Gay McIntyre, the Undertones, Phil Coulter and now Nadine Coyle flying the flag for Derry. Actresses like Roma Downey, Bronagh Gallagher and Amanda Burton. Writers like Seamus Deane, Nell McCafferty, Jennifer Johnston and Susan McKay.

Sportspeople like Liam Ball, Charlie Nash, Tom McGuinness, Fay and Liam Coyle and now John Duddy, Darren Gibson, Paddy McCourt and Shane Duffy.

And of course we never had any shortage of politicians. Older people will remember Hugh and Eddie McAteer and Stephen McGonagle and of course we have Martin McGuinness and John Hume, just two of the statesmen to emerge from Derry.

But for every Derry person who went on to become a household name, there are countless unsung heroes quietly getting on with rearing their families, building their communities and changing their own wee bit of history. They are what Derry means to me.

Without them, Derry would be just like any other city. With them, it is somewhere different – somewhere special.

Gregory Campbell

Londonderry has a proud and distinguished cultural tradition that stands strongly alongside any other city in the United Kingdom.

Londonderry was one of the first planned cities in the nation. This is reflected in the architecture of St Columb’s Cathedral, one of the focal points for the annual Maiden City Festival: the tablet inside the cathedral porch reads: “If stones could speake, then London’s prayse should sound, Who built this church and cittie from the grounde”.

The uniquely British character of the architecture and history of the city has been undiminished over the years. Of course, growing up in Londonderry history was never far from your front door. I was acutely aware from a young age of the key role that the city and its iconic walls played in the defeat of absolutism and arbitrary power: that is why I joined the Apprentice Boys.

I feel a strong sense of pride in the achievement of people from Londonderry who secured the Williamite Settlement and with it civil and religious liberty. In fact, many would say if the siege outcome had been different the entire development of parliamentary democracy would have been stunted and held back.

Londonderry can fairly claim to be the place where modern liberal democracy was conceived. In the past attempts to celebrate and commemorate this achievement were faced with hostility, but I am pleased that is no longer the case and the Maiden City Festival has become an enormously positive event for the city.

In more recent times the city has given the world such culturally significant figures as Josef Locke, Phil Coulter, Richard Doherty and dare I say it, Nadine Coyle! In seeking to be the United Kingdom City of Culture, I am certain we have a strong case to make and am hopeful for success.

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 in a strong position to stage shows such as Sports Personality of the Year, the Turner Prize and the Brit Awards.

Until recently two-thirds of the city was derelict as a result of conflict and economic underperformance. Derry City Council believes that if it wins the bid, the city will benefit from an 18 per cent growth in residential visitors and a 20 per cent growth in day trippers in 2013 and 2014.

The council’s Director of Development, Oonagh McGillion says: “There’s a great energy and vibe in the city presently and everyone is talking about the richness of our cultural talent and how 2013 is our year. We will galvanise this air of confidence and self belief and translate it into the winning bid.”

Winning the title would raise the city’s international profile and McGillion adds that: “as part of our legacy we want to achieve the recognition of a must-see European destination city.”

As well as improving the city’s image, winning could bring new infrastructure developments, job creation and a growth in creative industries.

The bid recognises that the city has experienced conflict and that sections are divided between the Catholic and Protestant communities. It pledges that “a programme of joyous celebration and purposeful inquiry” will be held, whereby debates and discussions will deal with “multiple stories of identify, conflict and divisions.” Indeed, the bid recognises the city’s links to institutions such as the London Guilds and the Apprentice Boys of Derry, and buildings such as the Museum of Free Derry, the Guildhall and St Columb’s Cathedral.

An urban regeneration project worth £100 million is currently underway and will include the restoration of key civic buildings, an extensive public art programme and the development of new cultural spaces and facilities at the Ebrington and Fort George barracks.

Structured around the themes of ‘people, place and past to future’, suggestions in the bid include: encouraging the diaspora to return; using the river as a cultural asset by hosting a water-based ‘theatre spectacular’ telling the story of Colmcille; carrying the 2012 Olympic torch from Derry to Glasgow; hosting the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann which is traditionally held in the Republic; having The Undertones and other local musicians perform at a ‘legacy concert’; celebrating the four-hundredth anniversary of the Plantation of Ulster and the building of the Walled City by the livery companies of London; and inviting cultural representatives from countries throughout the world who have experienced conflict to live and work in Derry in 2013.

Girls Aloud singer Nadine Coyle who hails from the city is among the famous names supporting the bid. She said: “Derry’s a beautiful city. When you go away and come back, you can see it for how beautiful it really is.”

Seamus Heaney, one of the city’s most famous patrons, wrote in the executive summary of the bid: “It is good to know that ‘the town we love so well’ [is being proposed] as the 2013 City of Culture. Even in darker times, there was always something tonic about the spirit of the people here, but prospects of a better future have strengthened resolve, and signs of progress are evident in all spheres of life, not least in the cultural area, where the presence of a world dramatist like Brian Friel is a source of pride and enterprise, and the legacy of the great John Hume is inspiring and pervasive.”