100 Years of Derry

by Roy Hamilton

Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Inishowen mountains, Derry has one of the most beautiful and panoramic locations of any Irish city, with its steep streets rising high above the River Foyle. Dating from a small monastic settlement in the sixth century, its strategic position meant that by Elizabethan times it was a fortress city, making it witness to some of the most bitter conflicts in Irish history, right down to the very recent past.
All of this has given Derry and its people a unique, robust identity, an identity that is vividly captured here in over 200 black and white photographs of the city in the twentieth century. Accompanied by lively, informative captions and text, and arranged by decade, the photographs depict emigrant ships leaving for America, hiring fairs, the First World War, the depression, the Second World War (when Derry welcomed American troops and saw the surrender of U-boats), visiting showbands, civil rights agitation and the outbreak of the Troubles, Bloody Sunday, Clinton's visit and the recent regeneration of a city now poised self-confidently on the threshold of the new millennium.

174 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2000