View Points of Derry

A recent call for View Points of Derry by artist Seamus Nolan attracted many fascinating submissions.

One such View Point was that of local man Kevin Burns, who submitted this photograph of Derry’s peace bridge and the following description of what it meant to him.

The view of Derry’s pyramidal cityscape from the ‘Peace Bridge’ entry to Ebrington seems to show a kind of immensity of urban space not often associated with this city, not least by those of us who live here. The brutal, bomb-proof architecture by the river gives way to the rising profile of the old city, with the spires of cathedrals both commercial and religious jostling for position; Austin’s and St Columb’s compete for parishioners.

I like to just stand a look at it, but particularly at dusk, when the blood-coloured skies makes more alien what is already a kind of foreign scenery. Being from the background that I am, I’m not used to looking at Derry from the Waterside, much less being in the Waterside at all. The city-side views are full of memory, of my grandparents house in the bogside and of walking home from school; when I look at Derry from Ebrington, I’m making memory, rather than being informed by it.