Derry Journal Review Of The Year 2025: February - Fears for pharmacies
February
As February began, the Derry owner of numerous community pharmacies warned that planned national insurance hikes combined with other rising costs was putting opening hours and jobs at risk.
Community pharmacist Liam Bradley, who runs pharmacies in Derry, Tyrone and Enniskillen, and others called for greater investment and exemptions to offset soaring costs facing community pharmacies, at a time when they were shouldering increasing responsibility for frontline medical care.
Meanwhile, the First and Deputy First Ministers praised developments across Derry as they announced a further funding package for the Bogside, Fountain & Bishop Street Urban Renewal project.
During a visit to the city, Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly confirmed they had signed off on a further £9million investment to allow for the Urban Villages Initiative to develop four new capital projects in the north, including The Realm Project in Derry.
Brave Buncrana woman Christine Gill featured in the Journal ahead of her appearance on a TV show ‘Brain Doctors: Inside Neurosurgery’ to raise awareness of neurofibromatosis (NF), the relatively little known genetic condition she has lived with from girlhood.
Vinny Cunningham was remembered as a ‘gentleman’, a talented film-maker and photographer and a man above all whose life was ‘a testament to the transformative power of love and kindness’.
The well-known cameraman’s Requiem Mass took place in St. Mary’s, Creggan, following his sad passing.
A large office complex on Derry’s quayside was purchased as teaching accommodation for the expansion of Magee and families of the victims of the Omagh Bombing paid tribute to their loved ones as the inquiry continued.