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The illustrated Talk
covers the fascinating links between the City of London and Northern Ireland.
Where in the City can you still see the red hand of Ulster? The Talk traces the
beginnings of Londonderry, how Northern Ireland became part of Great Britain,
and the involvement of the Corporation of London and the 12 Great Livery
Companies - a link still very active today.
The history of Northern Ireland begins on 6th December 1921 when under the Treaty concluded between the British government and the IRA leader Michael Collins, the foundations were laid for Ireland to be divided into two separate areas.
The most northern
point in Ireland, Malin Head in County Donegal, was and still is as a result of
that treaty, not in Northern Ireland at all but what is known as The South.
Perhaps the geography rather than the history of Ireland is a more relevant
point as to why Ireland is what it is today.
The Talk looks at its 800 years of attention from London, but there were some 8,000 years of human life in Ireland before that. Ireland is used to shocks in its history. The first one was the coming ofSt Patrick and Christianity, the second, the Vikings, and the third the Norman knights invasion in 1170 at County Wexford, and this last one was the reason for attracting the attention of the King and London. By the 17th century the City of London was very reluctant to get involved in Ireland, but King James I of England thought the best people he could trust and who also had the money to invest were the merchants and the Great Livery Companies of the City of London.
Londonderry or Derry has a beautiful setting by the River Foyle, and the only City in the United Kingdom with its ancient medieval wall still intact.
The restored
Guildhall is situated outside the original walled City and not far from the
River Foyle and here you can see the reproduction of Follingby’s painting The
Relief of Derry. The neo-Gothic style building is constructed of rock-faced
sandstone and has one of the largest four-faced clocks in the British Isles.
St Columb’s Cathedral is the first in the British Isles to have been built after the Reformation and is Gothic in architecture. When first built, the Cathedral had a wooden spire covered with lead but this was removed before the Great Siege. It is said that the lead was later turned into bullets and cannon shots that were fired from the Cathedral roof during the siege. The beautiful wrought iron gates were donated by the Blacksmith’s Livery Company from the City of London, a reminder of its present links.