Letter to the Editor: Dana put Derry on the map

Dear Sir,

I am getting in contact after watching ‘Dana - The Original Derry Girl’ and I want to put on record how Dana put Derry on the map.

I was there in the Bogside with my then girlfriend, now wife, and I remember that night when Dana returned from the Eurovision in 1970 and the crowd was huge. There was great celebrations and after she came back she really went on to do well.

Derry has always been a talented city, and at that time there was Phil Coulter, who was involved in writing ‘All Kinds of Everything’ and before that there was the Little Gaelic Singers from the Nazareth House who used to go to America. Then you had James McCafferty as well.

I used to work in the hostel in Derry and this woman would come down and stay every few weeks. She lived in Belfast/ Larne direction and when I asked her why she always came down it turned out she was one of the singers and she just wanted to come and visit and thank the nuns .

Later on the brilliant actress Roma Downey, and all of them with Dana and Phil Coulter put Derry on the map around the world.

I was watching the documentary and as far as I am concerned Dana should have won when she ran for President of Ireland but she was crucified because of what she believed in, and maybe also because she was ‘a wee girl from Derry’.

A lot of people were very unfair to her.

Dana not only won the Eurovision in 1970 but she sang twice for the Pope in America.

She connected not just with people across Ireland but also with people across the world, but she got a raw deal when she stood for election.

When you look at Dana and Phil Coulter and all the talent we have in Derry it really is unbelievable.

Your Sincerely,

Tommy Mullan.

*The documentary ‘Dana - The Original Derry Girl’ premiered earlier this week and will be screened again tonight (Friday)on RTÉ One at 11.15pm and on BBC Four at 11pm. The documentary charts Dana’s life from her historic win during the early years of the Troubles and the amazing and varied career she would go on to have in music and politics.

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