{"id":4618,"date":"2019-09-20T21:00:44","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T21:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bracketyackrc.wpengine.com\/?p=4618"},"modified":"2019-09-20T21:00:44","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T21:00:44","slug":"derry-girl-for-a-semester-chapter-1-in-which-i-become-acquainted-with-the-city-of-derry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/?p=4618","title":{"rendered":"Derry Girl for a Semester, Chapter 1: In Which I Become Acquainted with the City of Derry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Charissa Roberson<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

After months of anticipation, it\u2019s surreal to look out my window and see the huge River Foyle flowing through the city of Derry, splitting it in two.\u00a0 I only arrived two days ago, and as you can imagine, I was eager to explore.<\/p>\n

Amazingly, the weekend I arrived was also the weekend of EHOD.\u00a0 What\u2019s that? Turns out there\u2019s certain days, called European Heritage Open Days, where tours and museums are free!\u00a0 So while the day was still young, I headed out to explore my new home. What with visiting museums, admiring the buildings, walking the streets, and taking a tour of the city walls, I ended up spending about 7 hours wandering about (oops).\u00a0 Turns out, Derry is even more fascinating than I had thought from afar.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conflict, a deep-running theme in the city\u2019s history, is etched into the very physical make-up of Derry. The River Foyle is used to separate the two communities of Catholic Nationalists and Protestant Unionists, those who want to be part of Ireland and those who want to remain in the UK.\u00a0 Now, the city has literally built a bridge across this divide\u2014a spectacular piece of architecture, aptly named the Peace Bridge. It stretches across the river and links both sides of the city.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Memories of the decades of trouble are still clearly visible wherever you look, from the Irish and British flags flying over different sections of the city, to the striking murals emblazoned on the walls, to areas that are still locked up as a precaution against violence.\u00a0 While these indications of tension stand out boldly, so do the markers of peace. An eternal Peace Flame stands beside the magnificent Guildhall, surrounded by pledges from the people of the city to uphold peace, love one another, and strive for a brighter future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The future of Derry looks bright indeed.\u00a0 In 2013, it was named the City of Culture, and with one of the youngest populations in Europe, Derry is a vibrant and lively place, full of people who are ready and eager to take on the years ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Charissa Roberson After months of anticipation, it\u2019s surreal to look out my window and see the huge River Foyle flowing through the city of Derry, splitting it in two.\u00a0 I only arrived two days ago, and as you can imagine, I was eager to explore. Amazingly, the weekend I arrived was also the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-folks-at-noke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}