Cultural and Literary Derry/Londonderry

Throughout its tumultuous history, the city and region has produced fine artists, singers and writers. Londonderry is famous for its traditions of choral excellence; old and young get a chance to perform at the annual Derry Feis, held in the city at Easter each year. The city is also home to the "Derry Air", popularly known as Danny Boy, the unofficial anthem of Northern Ireland and sung nostalgically by millions of Irish exiles around the world. Latterly, the city has produced singers of high pedigree and one - Josef Locke - emerged from poverty in the city to become one of the great singers of his day. Dana warbled her way to success in the Eurovision Song Contest and used her famous victory as a springboard to all kinds of everything, including recent political fame. The Undertones are remembered by a generation of teenage kickers, who were more than happy to see them reform briefly in the summer of 2000.

The influential novelist Jennifer Johnston (How Many Miles to Babylon?) has made her home in the city; and the region has also produced Nobel literature laureate Seamus Heaney, born in the village of Bellaghy and educated at St Columb's (which he immortalized in his poem 'The Ministry of Fear'); the novelist and scholar Seamus Deane, who painted a vivid picture of the city in his great novel Reading in the Dark; and dramatist Brian Friel, who bases his influential works in Donegal. His play The Freedom of the City emerged from the trauma of Bloody Sunday, while Translations is popularly regarded as one of the most important works of drama to emerge from Ireland in recent years. The 1980s saw the cultural energy and vibrancy of the city become harnessed by the Field Day Theatre Company, headed by Deane, Heaney, Friel and Stephen Rea. The premiere of Translations in the Guildhall in 1980 - the very darkest period of the 'Troubles' - electrified the culture of the city and of Ireland; it was also an explicit vote of confidence in a city beaten down by years of civil unrest. Today, the cultural life of the city is flourishing as never before - and the opening of a new civic theatre and cultural centre in the autumn of 2001 holds yet more promise.