DERRY JOURNAL Editorial: DNA Museum due to become a major asset for Derry
Bollards outside the old hospital in Ebrington indicate something is afoot.
Construction on the Derry North Atlantic (DNA) museum is getting underway. It has been a long time coming. At one stage it was suggested it would be ready for ‘Maritime City’ in 2016.
According to the Council work on the £12.7m facility could be completed by Spring 2027. The plans are fantastic. It will be hugely exciting to see them realised in the next two years. Derry’s rich maritime heritage is something to be rightly celebrated and the new museum will allow the city showcase this in all its glory.
The museum will become an asset for citizens. It will equally provide a major draw for tourists. Our seas and rivers were a highway for the earliest settlers in Ireland, as manifest by evidence of human settlement at Mount Sandel on the banks of the River Bann from as early as 7,000 BC.
Colmcille is reputed to have sailed up and down the River Foyle to the beloved Derry he founded in the sixth century. According to the Irish annals White Hugh MacNéill battled with the Vikings at Lough Foyle in the 800s. The Spanish Armada was wrecked here in 1588 with La Trinidad Valencera foundering at Kinnego Bay.
Waves of emigration from Derry helped shape the young American republic. The city became a major shipbuilding centre and went on play a pivotal role as a base during WWI and WW2. It is an amazing story and it will soon be told in a state-of-the-art attraction that honours that legacy.