Derry Journal Review of the Year 2023: November - Poignant tributes, new jobs and a stern warning

The expansion was announced at the former Fruit of the Loom base, which has been taken over by Veritiv’s E&I Engineering. The highly-skilled jobs cover a range of disciplines in the company and Managing Director of E&I, Philip O’Doherty, said they are especially keen to employ more women to create a ‘diverse and inclusive’ workspace.

There was widespread shock and sorrow following the death of two teenagers in a road traffic collision in Inishowen in November. At their funerals mourners were told that Alana Harkin possessed a ‘magnetism’ that drew everyone towards her and that ‘to see her was to love her’, while Thomas Gallagher was described as having ‘packed a lot into 18 years of life’. “He was looking after everyone else from the moment he was born,” mourners were told.

The family of 15-year-old Kathleen Feeney, who was shot and killed by the IRA when she was just 14-years-old, recalled their ‘funny, witty’ sister on the 50th anniversary of her death in November.

Kathleen was from the Bogside area and was buying sweets on her way to Long Tower Youth Club when she was shot by an IRA gunman, who was aiming at British Army troops on November 14, 1973. For years, the IRA denied any involvement in the killing but, in 2005, issued a public statement in the ‘Journal’, taking accountability for the St Cecilia’s pupil’s death.

Kathleen’s sister, Mary Feeney-Morrison spoke of how she had come to reach a place of forgiveness.

Also in November, the new Undertones mural was unveiled and became an instant hit, while thousands gathered for the Christmas Lights switch on. Derry rescue service Pet FBI announced that it was with ‘great pain and immense sadness’ that it had decided not to renew its lease on the dog kennels in Pennyburn.

A local judge meanwhile in November addressed the ‘prevalence of drugs related offending’ while sentencing a local man.

He warned: "Those who are involved in supplying drugs in this city will, in all but exceptional circumstances, receive significant custodial sentences.”