Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-07-17

The National Geographic Society has
issued from its Washington head
quarters the following bulletin about
Londonderry, Ireland:
Derry. or Londonderry. in Ulster.
known in song and legend as the
Maiden city of ireland. has the charm
of the CHEEKY, busy town and is truly
ing song which these Irish sing on
their days of celebration:
Where FoyI- his swelling waters rolls north
ward Ia the main.
Here Queen Of Erins daughters. fair Derry
hXei her reign:
holy temple crowned her and commerce
sraced iler street.
a rampant wall was round her the river at
her feet.
These four lines briefly tell Lon
donderry's story. Along the two-mile
cLiayS OF the river Irishmen jolly each
other as they load and unload the
foreign. colonial and coaSting trade
OF the docking vessels For the Foyie
Is wide and deep. and large tonnage
s1ips, sailing the flags of France.
Australia. Brazil. the United States
and India, bring their wares to her
port. Busy looms in the citv make
Hnen- and then Laughing. twinkly
eyed irish girls make the linen into
Snirts before il leaves Londonderry
The salmon fishery on the Fov.e is
Important and the town has TIMBER
mills. ioundries, grain mills and ship
yards.
Charm in Romance.
But Derry has for the traveller A
Charm greater than its hustle anr
up-and-doing mosphere-the story
OF a past replete with romance de
VotIon to principle. and the exhibi-
tion of an indomitable spirit. Co
iumpa, the greatest of the Irish
saints. after Patrick and Brigid. in
90
coveted them. Here he founded mis-
abbey. known as Daire-Columbk ilIe.
or Columba'S Oak Grove within the
shadow OF the great fort on neigh
BORING hill, the stronghold of the Lord
OF Tyrone, in order that his sane
tuary might have the protection of
the tort But in vain did he reckon
Els chances against the Danes and
Saxons. VINO. time and again. pushed
their boats against his shores De-
spEe their plundering and burnings.
the settlement of which he had made
the nucleus grew and maintained its
independence against even the Eng
liSh until 1899
Derry was then given to the Cor
poratIon of London. which tackled on
the prehX London. There years later
the irish Society. to which London
derry and much of the surrounding
country mad been given. pledged it
self TO lnciose Derry within walls,
and these walls. wide enough for a
coach and four. are eXcellentIy pre-
served today, perhaps TO the incon-
Venlence of the inhabitants but GER
tainir in accordance with their SEN
tIment and wishes Any one who ex-
pressed desire that they be taken
down would be treated as a traitor
Long ago they grew too small to en-
compass all the inhabitants of the
hustlinS port, but they stand like a
stun belt around the waist line of the
NIL on which the city is built The
most lnconvenient thing about them
Is that though they are more than a
mile in circumference there are only
seven gates leading through them
"Roaring Meg" on Wall.
Because the walls defended the citv
In the siege begun by James IL. a
ousy man must make quite d jaunt
out of his way TO find a passageway
through them, but, true to Irish SEN
tlment- he does il without a murmur
On one of the bastions of the wall an
old gun, affectionately known as
Roaring Meg points her nose over
the city.
Here. too. on the hill in the center
of a crowded old graveyard stands the
quaint. squat cathedral with its queer
pinnacled tower. 1t is called after ST.
COLUMBIA, although ii is not on the
site of the old abbey built by the saint
fourteen centuries ago.
On high. inaccessible hill in the