Nostalgia: Brothers set to claim Rockall! (August 1992)

A number of leading traders in Derry city centre are planning to close tomorrow - and suffer the loss of valuable business on one of the main shopping days of the week - as loyalist Apprentice Boys march through the city on their annual Relief of Derry march. Thousands of loyalists are expected to take part in the march, and despite a cool reaction from some local traders, the Governor of the Apprentice Boys, William Moore, has said he is anticipating a peaceful day in which the entire city - nationalist and unionist - can participate. The parade will proceed on its traditional route.

Brothers to claim Rockall!

Letterkenny brothers, Philip and Fergus Gribbon, leave the Donegal fishing port of Burtonport this weekend for the rocky, windsept Atlantic island of Rockall - to claim it for the Republic! The Gribbon brothers, who have been preparing for their £20,000 invasion for the past ten years, plan to paint out the Union Jack on one side of the island - just 63ft high and 100ft across - and replace it with a Tricolour. Weather permitting the Letterkenny men leave Burtonport this weekend with a crew of two and on reaching the rock, 300 miles west of the Scottish Hebrides, intend to stay for around 24 hours.

Derry men’s ‘Trail of Tears’

Next month a group of Irish people, including five Derry men, travel to Mississippi where they will take part in a walk known as the ‘Trail of tears’, hosted by the Choctaw nation.

The main purpose of the trip is to fund-raise money for a Dublin-based organisation known as AfrI - Action from Ireland.

AFrI is a well-established Irish charitable organisation concerned with issues such as world poverty and human rights and is also responsible for organising major events such as the Great Famine Project and Saint Brigid’s Peace Cross.