Potential for future economic renaissance to reunite families in Derry & north west - View from the Foyle

The Spaniards really value family. They arrive on the beaches armed with cooler boxes and parasols and set up their family camp before the mass exodus at 1.30pm where they go and eat together for three hours before returning to the sand, which by that time is close to molten. They reappear as a familial group around 9pm and spend a couple of hours strolling the Playa Paseo.

We’re on the Costa because it has been a significant birthday for the better half. We’ve been surrounded by family with the youngest and his girlfriend travelling from Derry and the two eldest making their way from Sydney in Australia with their partners (both are English, but they’re dead on!). Tears were shed on their arrival and ultimately their departure. Happy tears. Despite the wonders of technology, ‘facetime’ just doesn’t replace sharing time on the same piece of ground.

The two in Oz have made great lives for themselves. Very good careers in a beautiful, vibrant, and diverse city. Like most must in Sydney, they’ve created and enjoy a network of friends who mutually support each other. If some have family arriving, the friends move out and create the space for the family to be together.

That tells its own story. It’s recognition that even one of the world’s greatest cities, with its amazing environment and seemingly endless opportunities, has nothing as valuable as having your family around you.

We do have a cross-border city region with two growing universities, our City Deal is signed and under development, a deep sea port with significant green innovation potential and an airport with links to Britain and the returning connection to Dublin.

With a scalable metropolitan population of 450,000, we have the critical mass of people required to compete nationally and internationally.

Whilst we’ve had some great spells of weather this last few months, it’s unlikely Benone or Ballyliffin will compete with Bondi or that we’ll be strolling the Foyle Paseo, so for now those further fields still look greener.

But maybe someday, when the plans for Derry’s economic renaissance are finally realised, we’ll see our families reunited once more.

Stephen Kelly,

CEO Manufacturing NI.