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.

“The house that I live in in Derry was built before the walls I believe," the folk group sang.

But the Housing Executive – established under pressure from the civil rights campaign – got them a house in a new estate on what was then Derry’s northernmost fringe. The address was 2001 Carnhill and that was the name of the song.

Capturing the sense that the new housing scheme was beyond the city limits the narrator quips ‘they sent a map and a compass as well’.

Thirty priests walked in procession from Carnhill Primary School for the celebratory Mass. They were preceded by lay parishioners who carried a banner portraying St. Brigid.

placeholder image — Thirty priests walked in procession from Carnhill Primary School for the celebratory Mass. They were preceded by lay parishioners who carried a banner portraying St. Brigid.

As housing supply in the Creggan estate – built in the 1940s – evaporated Derry’s growing population spread north.

They first went to Shantallow and then to the new estates in Carnhill and Galliagh.

In response to the growth of the communities in what had until then been sparsely populated countryside the Bishop of Derry, Most Rev. Dr. Edward Daly decided – in what one of his first actions as bishop – on a major parish reform.

Instead of just one parish of St. Patrick’s in Pennyburn there would be four – with new ones at Shantallow (Our Lady of Lourdes), Galliagh (St. Jospeph’s) and Carnhill (St. Brigid’s).

The scene during concelebrated Mass at the dedication of the new Church of St. Brigid on October 31, 1976, at Carnhill. From left — Rev. M. Doherty, Rev. J. McGonagle, Rev. S. Farrelly, Rev J. Carolan, Rev. A. Mulvey, Rev. S. O'Connell, Most Rev. Dr. Daly, Rev. P. Doherty, Very Rev. J. McGaughey, PP, Rev. M. Keaveney, Rev. M. Collins, Rev. J. McCullagh and Rev. C. Keaney.

Three local architects were commissioned to build new chapels – each to cater for congregations of 800 to 850 and to cost no more than £100,000.

This was duly accomplished and on October 31, 1976, St. Brigid’s was officially dedicated by Bishop Daly.

Thirty priests walked in procession from Carnhill Primary School for the celebratory Mass. They were preceded by lay parishioners who carried a St. Brigid’s banner.

The 8th Derry Cubs and Scouts, 5th Derry Cubs and Scouts and 16th Cubs of the Pennyburn unit formed a guard of honour as the procession entered the chapel.

Two years earlier Bishop Daly had blessed a new temporary church in Carnhill and observed many of the new parishioners were from the Bogside, Brandywell and Creggan, arriving from the Long Tower and St. Eugene's and from ‘all over the city of Columba’ to form this new community.

They had 'come from all over the old city to form this new city' he said.

These same parishioners had now gathered again at a permanent new church.

Bishop Daly, told them: "This new modern church has been build through the aid of many of the gifts that God has given us.

St. Brigid's chapel at the time of its dedication on October 31, 1976.

"We now offer this building to Him and ask Him that through His blessing it may become a home of salvation and peace to all who use it.”

Dr. Daly said the day marked the completion of the third new church in that area of Derry in 1976.

"That was the last of the three new churches that were commissioned late in 1974 to serve the people of that area. That church was dedicated to St. Brigid, the Patroness of Ireland.

"In that area, formerly served by St. Patrick's, Pennyburn, there were now three parishes, Our Lady of Lourdes, Shantallow, St. Joseph' s, Galliagh, and that parish of St. Brigid’s, Carnhill. However, the completion of a church mean that the real work in a parish had only just begun,” Bishop told the congregation.