Tag Archives: Derry

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship QF Derry 5-13 Clare 2-8   An anti-climactic finish to the Clare footballers memorable All-Ireland Senior Championship adventure as five timely goals eased Ulster champions Derry into the last four. Despite being Clare’s second outing in Croke Park in the space of three weeks, it was Derry who appeared far more familiar to their new surroundings as the renowned defensive kingpins got to show off their offensive ruthlessness as well. Two first quarter goals effectively tore up Clare’s gameplan as having frustrated Derry to four early wides, Colm Collins side coughed up two goals in the space of four minutes through Benny Heron and Conor Glass at 2-2 to 0-0 by the 13th minute. Clare finally got off the mark through an Eoin Cleary free two minutes later but any glimmer of hope flickered out for the Banner just before the break when a Pearse Lillis goal in the 33rd minute was wiped out in injury-time …

Owen Ryan speaks to Derry native and Shannon resident Charlie Morrison about the horrors of Bloody Sunday ON a wall in Charlie Morrison’s back garden the slogan ‘You Are Now Entering Free Derry’ is daubed on a wall, while a tricolour flies from a flagpole. His kitchen table had the latest copy of The Derry Journal upon it last Friday morning, while all around are pictures of both family members and republican iconography. Still very much a Derry man although he has spent most of his life in Shannon, Charlie was chosen to speak at last Sunday’s Bloody Sunday commemoration in Ennis. He was actually supposed to be in Derry on the day of the massacre, and was a friend to two of those killed. “I was supposed to travel up there on Bloody Sunday itself but I couldn’t get away. I’d come down in 1970 to set up a factory in Newcastle West. I’d had to go up to …

THE late John Hume was a man with a “vision of justice for all”, according to Ennis’ Parish Priest Fr Tom Ryan, who came to know the Nobel Peace Prize winning politician while working in Derry in the 1980s.   Following his ordination in 1984 Fr Tom was appointed to St Eugene’s Cathedral in Derry, where on Wednesday Mr Hume was laid to rest. Sharing his memories of the prominent politician who played a leading role in talks which led to the Good Friday Agreement, Fr Tom told us, “Over the years I would have gotten to know the family. John was the politician who was on the go all the time, and his wife Pat was the one who kept the show going on the ground in many ways. “He was the man who had the vision, and who wanted to implement his vision of justice for all. He had a great sense of justice, and he was aware of the …

Ahead of her upcoming appearance at the annual Scariff Harbour Festival next month, Derry born author, journalist and broadcaster Susan McKay tells Carol Byrne that Brexit “is an unnecessary block that has been put in the way of peace in Ireland but it will have to be overcome”. SUSAN McKay has said “It is important to realise that awful as Brexit may be it is not the end of the world” and while economically is will be “disastrous for the North” the people of the island of Ireland will still be able to work together afterwards. “Brexit, economically is just going to be disastrous for the North. It’s going to be problematic in terms of North South communications. My own preference would have been for a new referendum at a much earlier stage than this, but it all seems to be hurtling towards a pretty bad end at this point. But I think it is important to realise that awful …

  In this weeks Champion Report we discuss the sad passing of HPV vaccine campaigner Laura Brennan, the stepping down of Shannon Group CEO Matthew Thomas, an unusual confession practice which had been operating in Cratloe, and our special guest this week is Shannon resident but Derry native, Charlie Morrison who discusses Bloody Sunday. https://soundcloud.com/clarechampion/championreport8

SHANNON resident and Derry man Charlie Morrison was a friend to two of the Bloody Sunday dead and this week he said he is “absolutely disgusted” that just one British soldier will be prosecuted for their role in the atrocity. Charlie has lived in Shannon since 1970 but has always maintained close ties to home and had been there just a few days before the ill-fated march, at which his two friends were killed. “I was in Derry the week before on business and I knew the march was taking place but I had no intention of joining it. I thought it would happen and that would be the end of it. Two of my very good friends were Barney McGuigan and Gerry McKinney. There is a famous photo of Barney lying on the ground with a big pool of blood around his head. I met Barney and he had just started a new job because the factory we had …

The President Michael D Higgins has led tributes to the former Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, who died early this morning. Mr McGuinness, a former IRA leader in Derry, emerged as a key Sinn Féin political figure in the North and played a significant role in the peace process and forging the Good Friday Agreement. “The world of politics and the people across this island will miss the leadership he gave, shown most clearly during the difficult times of the peace process, and his commitment to the values of genuine democracy that he demonstrated in the development of the institutions in Northern Ireland,” the President said. He added, “As President of Ireland, I wish to pay tribute to his immense contribution to the advancement of peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland – a contribution which has rightly been recognised across all shades of opinion. “Our paths have crossed many times in recent years at official events, including most …

FOLLOWING their three league defeats in 2016, all away from home, Clare won their subsequent games. Their reaction to those losses is why they are currently playing Division 2 football. A similar reaction is now required if Clare are to avoid a struggle to hold their current status. Outside of the panel and management, very few Clare people expected them to beat Galway in Salthill last Sunday. However, there was a definite expectation that Clare would compete hard for the hour and 10 minutes and, at the very least, push Galway. That did not happen, which was the most disappointing aspect of their display. In most of their league and championship games, over the last three seasons in particular, Clare have brought an honesty of effort to the field. Whatever the result, that effort level has not often dipped. It did last Sunday, though. Their tackling, tracking, support play, decision making when in possession and a cutting desire to win …