When I was little, nobody went to Derry. At least, not where I come from.
Growing up in Dublin in the 90s, I was the same age as the ceasefire babies, the generation born in Northern Ireland in the years leading up to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.
Back then in the Republic (down south, as we call it), Derry was synonymous with brutality and sectarian violence, a dark place that had been the tinderbox of the Troubles.
As a child, even the word felt sinister. Nobody considered that tourists would ever want to visit.
But today, with years of hard-won peace in the rearview mirror, the city shines as it always deserved to, with complicated but fascinating history, a blossoming culinary scene, and serious craic at every turn.
There’s a lot in a name
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When Ireland was divvied up between the North and the Republic in 1921, Derry’s expansive River Foyle was a logical border.
But, for reasons we won’t spend time on here (we’d be here all day), the Protestant Unionist North held on to all of this predominantly Catholic Nationalist city. The two sides have fought over its status since, and even its name is a source of dispute that depends on your persuasion.
To Unionists, it’s Londonderry; to Nationalists, it will always be Derry.
‘I say to everyone, there’s only one true name. Legend-Derry,’ booms Pat Cooley, a local guide with Derry City Tours.
It was founded by the late trailblazer Martin McCrossan at a time when the idea of tourists in the city felt like a fever dream. Since then, Derry has been named the UK’s first City of Culture (2013) and the best ‘low-cost city’ for a city break (2024). What a difference a few years can make.
History remembered
Our tour starts in the shadow of four schoolgirls and a boy with a mop of black curls.
We are standing, of course, by a huge mural of the Derry Girls cast, painted on the back of Badgers Bar just outside the 17th-century city walls, a necklace that encircles the historic centre.
Over the next two hours, Pat takes our group through his hometown’s complex history and how it has grown into a modern destination with a bright future.
Joining us are travellers from Palestine, America, Iran, and France, plus, just like in Derry Girls, one Englishman (my boyfriend). It’s a diverse mix that reflects just how far tourist interest in the city has come.
We pass cannons, cemeteries and the 400-year-old St Columb’s Cathedral. We stop by the imposing Guildhall, home to the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the late John Hume, and a restored stained glass window shattered by an IRA bomb in 1972.
We see the Fountain, one of the last remaining Protestant enclaves in the predominantly Catholic Cityside. We see the Bogside, a Catholic neighbourhood just outside the walls that saw some of the darkest days of the Troubles.
During a peaceful march protesting the imprisonment of civil rights activists without trial, the British Army’s parachute regiment opened fire, and 13 protesters died. Known as Bloody Sunday (1972), it ignited an inferno of violence that took decades to cool.
After the tour, we visit the Bogside and the murals that commemorate the lives lost, painted along the stretch of road where the march took place. Deeply moving and thought-provoking, they run either side of Free Derry Corner, a beacon of political liberty for over half a century.
An emotional end is the Museum of Free Derry — of all the museums in the city, and there are many, this one will stay with you.
Warm spirit
While most stories about Derry start with tanks and bombs, more should start with world-class musicians.
This place has given us The Undertones (of Teenage Kicks fame), acclaimed Irish composer Phil Coulter and the balaclava-clad DJ Próvaí (JJ Ó Dochartaigh) of Kneecap, so we plug Google Maps with a local institution known for old-school music magic.
After a stroll across the Peace Bridge, a symbolic landmark opened in 2011 to connect the walled city on the west bank of the River Foyle with the east, we arrive at Sandino’s, a punk venue recommended to me by Derry-born journalist, Aoife Moore.
Over a Guinness and a packet of cheese and onion Tayto, we watch regulars banter with each other in lilting Derry upspeak.
It’s warm, it’s welcoming, and it perfectly encapsulates the creative spirit of this resilient city.
A group carrying Palestinian flags from a protest for Gaza good-naturedly goad a traffic warden clamping cars across the street.
In place of ‘free, free Palestine’, one of them shouts: ‘Free, free parking signs!’ The pub erupts with laughter, and the warden laughs back.
Derry Girls
Well-acquainted with the city, we go to find out more about the TV show that changed its trajectory.
In the Tower Museum is the Derry Girls Experience, full of props and tales from the filming of Lisa McGee’s hit series. It’s good fun, and the impact it has had is clear.
‘People say it put Derry back on the map, but more importantly, it put it in a different frame,’ Amanda, the exhibition coordinator, tells me.
‘Now we can say ok, it’s not just associated with the Troubles, and it shouldn’t be. We’re so much more than that.’
I ask her why she thinks the show has been so universally successful. What makes people relate to the complexities of Northern Ireland in the mid-1990s?
‘I had a girl come in here from Spain recently, she stayed two hours and bought about £400 of merchandise, then went straight back to the airport to fly home. She came just to see this, and when I asked her why, she just said “Derry Girls saved my life”.
‘I didn’t push it, she was quite emotional, but I’ve seen the show resonate with people in so many ways. Whether it’s the family dynamic, the experience of growing up in political instability, the friendships or the relationships…it means something to a lot of people.’
Causeways and Wild Atlantic coasts
Derry’s border location and proximity to the coast make it an easy access point to Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way and Northern Ireland’s Causeway Coast.
And after whizzing through the city’s highlights (rounded out with a nice bit of street food at Pykes’n’Pommes), it’s time for a change of pace.
Around an hour’s drive is the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Giant’s Causeway. If it’s your first time in Ireland, go and see it, but personally, I think the £18 entry fee borders on the ridiculous.
Something well worth your time and money, however, is the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge (£15 for adults, £7.50 for kids). We walk the looped trail looking down over turquoise ocean, and on a sunny day, I think this is one of the most beautiful places on the island.
Appetites worked up, we refuel with coffee and cake at Bothy White Park Bay before strolling the spectacular white-sand beach, powerful waves crashing against the rocks.
Then it’s on to Bushmills for a tour of the famous distillery (we see, but don’t taste, a whiskey that sells for £5,000 a bottle). On local recommendations, we drive to Lir, a tide-to-table seafood restaurant that has just won an Irish Restaurant Award for sustainability.
On arrival, its location at the back of a corporate car park doesn’t fill me with excitement. But my preconceptions vanish once we’re through the door.
Founded by Rebekah and Stevie McCarry, Lir began as Native Seafood and Scran in an old boat club in the Coleraine marina in January 2020. When Covid hit, they found themselves jobless with a young family to support, and they were forced to get creative.
The couple linked up with fishermen trawling off the North Coast and put 25 lobsters up for sale online. They sold out in minutes, and the rest is history.
‘When we started, the kitchen was the size of a Renault Clio,’ Rebekah tells me over a dinner of mackerel croquettes and Irish margaritas, made with poitín.
‘In some ways, it has been a case of build it and they will come, but we couldn’t have done it without the support of the local community and other businesses. The winters are long here, so you have to pull together, you have to support each other.’
It feels a fitting end to our time in Derry and its surrounds — against all odds, a place that endured years of dark winters is finally seeing the sun.
How to get there and where to stay
Logan Air flies direct from London Heathrow to Derry, but fares are expensive, with return seats starting from £262 in September.
A cheaper way to travel is to fly to Belfast and drive about 90 minutes. EasyJet flies direct from Stansted and Luton to Belfast for approximately £100 return.
For a weekend break, a good place to stay is the Maldron Hotel (for a central base) or the Everglades (a little further out).
For more information, visit Ireland.com.
Alice Murphy was a guest of Tourism Northern Ireland and Tourism Ireland.