The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-06-07
TW0s AUTO DRIVERS ESCAPE PROSECUTION
LONDONDERRY TN
 SONG AND STORY
Short Sketch of City With Long and Interesting
 History
STOUT RESISTANCE


 Putnam in Ireland prompted the National Geographic society to write something about that part Of the country which the Hartford Courant carried in its Sunday edi- tion:
 Londonderry, terminus of Ame- lia Earhart Putnams' transatlantic flight, long has been immortalized by a song the Londonderry Air. and by centuries of Irish lore and legend." says a bulletin from the Washington, D. C., headquarters of the Natoinal Geographic society.
 "The most northerly town in Ire land, and one of the most prosper ous, 1t nestles on the famous Foyle It is more commonly known locally as Derry; having received it's not altogether welcome prefix when James I granted lands in the vicin- ity to the city of London. In song and story the city Is the Maiden City of Ireland"
 City's Song
 The city's song, which Is sung all over Ireland on fete days. brief ly tells the citys' story: .,;' Where Foyle his swelling waters
 rolls northward to the main, Here, Queen of Erin's daughters,
 fair Derry fixed her reign; A holy temple crowned her, and
 commerce graced her street. A rampant wall was round her, the
 river at her feet
 "Along the two-mile quays of the river Irishmen jolly each other as they load and unload the foreign colonial and. coasting trade of the docking vessels. For the Foyle is wide and deep, and large tonnage ships sailing the flags of many na- tions bring their wares to her port. Busy looms in the city make linen, and then laughingly twinkle-eyed Irish girls make the linen into shirts before 1t leaves Londonderry. The salmon fishery on the Foyle is important and the town has tim Der mills, foundries, grain mills and shipyards..
 Saint Columbia.
 "But Derry has for the traveller a charm greater than its hustle and up-and-doing atmosphere - the story of a past replete with TO- nance, devotion to principle, and the exhibition of an indomitable spirit. Columba, the greatest of the Irish saints after Patrick and Brigid, in 546 looked on the oak clad hills and coveted them. Here he founded his abbey, known as Daire- re-Columbkille, or Columba s Oak Grove, within the shadow of the great fort on q ncighboring hill the stronghold of the Lord of Ty- rome. in order that hiss sanctuary might have the protection of the fort. But in vain did he reckon his chances against the Danes and Saxons, who time and again pushed their boats against his shores. Despite their plundering and burnings, the settlement grew and maintained its independence against even the English until 1909.
 Derry was then given to the Corporation of London, which tackled on the prefix London. The Irish society, to which Londonderry and much of the surrounding coun- try had been given, pledged itself to inclose Derry within walls and these four. are excellently pre- served to-day. Long ago they grew too small to encompass all the inha bitants of the hustling port, but they stand like stiff belt around the waistline of the hill on which the city is built.
 Seven Gates
 "The most inconvenient thing about them is that, though they are more than a mile in circumference there are only seven gates leading through them. Because the walls defended the city in the siege be- gun by James II, a busy man must make quite a jaunt out of his way to find a passageway through them but, true to Irish sentiment, he does 1t without a murmur. One 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 crowded old graveyard stands the quaint. squat cathedral with It's queer pinnacled tower. It Is called after St Columbia, all though 1t is not on the site of the old abbey built by the Saint II centuries ago.
 "On q high, inaccessible hill, in the distance, looms the stronghold of the Lords of Tyrone. It Is said that St Patrick came to the fort to baptize owen who first set him. self up to rule over the Province of Tyrone and St Columba visited 1t before his exile. Here, too, cap- tive Danes who had threatened the peace of the city were dragged in triumph.
 Though every trace of the old castle has been obliterated, the massive stone wall 14 feet thick and IS feet high, resembling the handiwork of cyclops. has stood out grimly against the centuries A small iron gate hangs across a two-foot doorway, the only en- trance 10 it's huge ampitheaterlike interior, which reveals further de- vices designed for the protection of the inmates"