Richard AmmonDerry or Londonderry is a city in Northern Ireland. The picturesque old walled city of Londonderry lies on the west bank of the River Foyle with the location of old Derry on the east bank, the present city now covers both banks.It has a population of about 90,000, making it the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and Ulster, and the fourth largest on the island of Ireland.
During ‘The Troubles’, on Sunday January 30, 1972, 13 unarmed civilians were shot dead by British paratroopers during a civil rights march in the Bogside area. Another 13 were wounded and one further man later died of his wounds. This event came to be known as Bloody Sunday.
In the last 15 years there has been a drive to increase inward investment in the city, more recently concentrating on digital industries. Currently the three largest private-sector employers are American high-tech firms. Economic successes have included call centres and a large investment by Seagate, which has operated a factory since 1993. Seagate currently employs over 1,000 people in the Springtown premises, which produce more than half of the company’s total requirement for hard drive read-write heads.
On the northeast coast is the spectacular ‘Giants Causeway’, an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. (photos 27-32)
