Derry Journal

Legions of fans turned out to cheer their Derry City FC heroes as they left from Ryan McBride Brandywell stadium bound for Dublin ahead of tomorrow’s FAI Cup final match against Waterford F.C.

When novelist, poet and playwright Dermot Bolger asked me to write a chapter, for a New Island publication, on what it’s like to be a fan of Derry City FC, I suggested he ask someone younger. Dermot insisted.

​Mention of soccer in Celtic Park wouldn't have raised an eyebrow for your average Derry sports fan of the early 1920s. Nor would talk of greyhound racing, tennis, boxing, political rallies.... or even marching brass bands if said fan was of a certain vintage.

In the 1970s The People of No Property wrote a song from the perspective of a resident in the overcrowded housing of the old Bogside.

Children and young people in Strabane are set to benefit from a new community sensory space thanks to funding from the Housing Executive.

This Sunday, I will lay a white wreath at Derry’s Cenotaph. It is a gesture that I know may prompt questions, particularly as an Irish nationalist, and as someone who holds deeply rooted anti-war beliefs.