This article documents numerous traditions of Derry City Football Club, including the culture associated with and surrounding the club, and its supporters.
The club's name When the club was first founded in 1928, it named itself Derry City Football Club, as opposed to using the official name of the city - Londonderry. Nationalists generally refer to the city as 'Derry', while unionists call it 'Londonderry'. At the time of the club's naming, however, the dispute would not have been as politicised as it is in the current day and those who founded the club specifically decided against using the name of the city's previous primary club, Derry Celtic F.C., with the aim of offering a more inclusive support-base to football fans in the city. Including "Celtic" in the club's name might have been perceived as being a strong statement of Irish nationalist identity and could have alienated Protestants in the city.
Colours and jerseys
Derry City wore claret and blue jerseys with white shorts for their first season of football - 1929–30. These were the identical colours to those of Aston Villa, who were a globally renowned footballing power at the time. This scheme lasted until 1932, when the club's first change of colours saw the club directors decide that white jerseys with black shorts should be worn by the team for the 1932–33 season. The style, like that which had come before it, lasted just two seasons and was replaced by the now-traditional red and white "candystripes" with black shorts upon the club's changing of its official colours to that of the modern day for the beginning of the 1934–35 season.
The current colours of the red and white striped jersey with black shorts are derived from an early connection with Sheffield United, who wear the identical pattern. Specifically, the colour-change should be attributed to Billy Gillespie. Gillespie, a native of nearby County Donegal, played for Sheffield United over a twenty-year period from 1913 until 1932, and scored over 137 league and cup goals in 492 games for the South Yorkshire side, as well as captaining them to FA Cup success in 1925. He was the club's most capped player with 25 for Ireland and had started out with Derry Celtic before embarking on a career across the Irish Sea. The man was held in such high regard in his home country that when he left United in 1932 to replace Joe McCleery as manager of Derry City, the club changed their strip to red and white stripes within two years of his arrival in reverence to him and his time at the Blades.
Derry have remained in the red and white stripes since, except for the seasons between 1956 and 1962, when the club's players donned an amber and black kit. Derry had been performing poorly and it was felt that a change of colour might help rejuvenate the team. At the time, the colours were strongly associated with Wolverhampton Wanderers, who were a power-house of English football during the 1950s. However, the colours brought Derry no such luck and were unpopular with the fans who sought a return of the by-then traditional red and white stripes. The seasons were a lean time for the club, with an Irish Cup final defeat to Glenavon FC in 1957 being the highlight.
A re-introduction of the "candystripes" for the 1962–63 season saw the fortunes of the club improve as Derry entered their most successful spell in the Irish League. The colours have been retained ever since. Jerseys over the years, although in keeping with the red and white tradition, have varied slightly in the sense that certain seasons saw Derry wear thinner stripes while others saw thicker or stripes with varying thicknesses being worn by the players on the field.Derry now wear white socks when sporting their full home rig, while they originally wore black ones. Similarly, the club adopted white shorts instead of black ones for a spell in the early 1970s and later in 1985 for their initial season in the League of Ireland. The club's away tops have varied in colour from plain white, to navy and green stripes, to white and light-blue stripes, and to black.
Derry have had their kits supplied by various manufacturers over the years, including Adidas, Avec, Erreà, Fila, Le Coq Sportif, Matchwinner, Umbro, Spall and currently, O'Neills. Commercial sponsorship logos to appear on the front of shirt have included Northlands (a local alcohol and drugs treatment and awareness organisation), Warwick Wallpapers, Fruit of the Loom, Smithwick's, and AssetCo. Other sponsorship logos to have appeared on the sleeve have included the Trinity Hotel, Tigi Bed Head and Tigi Catwalk. For the 2007 season, the logos of local media, Q102.9 and the Derry News, appear on the back of the shirt just below the neck, along with the logo of Meteor Electrical on the jersey's front.
Crests
Although the club did not traditionally sport a crest on the club jersey as the concept had not yet become popularised (probably due to the complications and vast time-consumption involved in mass-producing intricate designs before greater technological advancement occurred), throughout the years playing in the Irish League - and for most of the first season in the League of Ireland - Derry City used the coat of arms of the city, rather than having an exclusive crest of their own. This crest often appeared on club memorabilia such as scarves, hats and badges. The symbols on Derry's arms were, and still are, a skeleton, a three-towered castle, a red Saint George's Cross and sword. The sword and cross were devices of the City of London and, along with an Irish harp embedded within the cross, demonstrated the link between the two cities (The city's official name under UK law is, of course, Londonderry), in particular, the association with the Honourable the Irish Society which had been granted lands in and around the city in the past. The castle was thought to relate to a 13th or 14th century keep belonging to the local native chieftains. There were many theories about the skeleton; the most popular being that it is that of a Norman de Burca knight who was starved to death in the castle dungeons in 1332. This was accompanied by the Latin motto, "Vita, veritas, victoria", meaning "Life, truth, victory."
In April 1986, just under a year after the senior rebirth of the club and its entry into the League of Ireland, the DCFC ran a competition in local schools to design a new club crest. The winning entry was by John Devlin, a fourth-year student at St Columb's College, and made its début on 5 May 1986 when Derry City entertained Nottingham Forest at Brandywell Stadium for a friendly match. The crest depicted a simplified version of the city's Foyle Bridge, which had opened 18 months previously, the traditional red and white candy-stripes associated with the shirt of the club bordered by thin black lines and the year in which Derry City was established as a club, as well as a football in the centre representing the fact that the club is a footballing entity. The club's name featured in Impact font. This crest lasted until July 1997, when the current crest was unveiled at Lansdowne Road when Derry City played Celtic in a pre-season tournament. The modernised crest, once again, featured a centred football, the club's name and the year of founding. The famous red a white candy-stripes were present along with a red mass of colour filling the left half of the crest, separated from the right by a white stripe. Known cultural landmarks or items associated with the city are absent from the badge. The origins of this crest are not fully known and the reason for the change in 1997 has never been explained by the club, although it is likely that the club simply wished to develop a fresher, more contemporary image with a minimalist design and also because the Foyle Bridge was no longer as novel, trendy or innovative a feature as it were in the mid-to-late 1980s.
Rivalries
A friendly rivalry is currently maintained with County Donegal club Finn Harps. While both have encountered times of financial trouble in recent years, they have often been helped by the other in this regard. Their success cannot be said to have occurred without this. Finn Harps were one of the major proponents of Derry's joining of the League of Ireland in 1985. Phil Coulter is known as a fan of both sides, and has been instrumental in keeping them as operational football clubs. With Derry now consistently staying in the top-tier and Finn Harps having a hard time maintaining top-flight status, their much-anticipated Northwest derby is now a rarer affair than it once was. Derry also share a northwest derby game with Sligo Rovers, although Sligo is not in as close proximity to Derry as Ballybofey is.
The mid-eighties saw Derry's biggest rivalry coming in the form of Dublin's St. Patrick's Athletic - a side which contained former Republic of Ireland international and Middlesbrough defender, Curtis Fleming, TV3 pundit Paul Osam and ex Derry manager, Pat Fenlon. In recent years, Dublin's Shelbourne FC were seen as top-of-the-table rivals with games between the two often being crucial to the ultimate winning of the league. In turn, these games were often very exciting six-pointers.
There is another club in Derry known as Institute FC, but because the clubs play under different associations no intense footballing rivalry exists, although Institute generally take their support from the city's Protestant or unionist community, as opposed to Derry City, who generally take theirs from the Catholic or nationalist one.
During Derry's time in the Irish League, south Belfast's successful Linfield FC were commonly viewed as the team to beat. Derry also enjoyed an intense rivalry with fellow North West club Coleraine FC. A number of Protestants from Derry follow Coleraine. In 1995 Coleraine and Derry played a two-legged, cross-association Irish News Cup semi-final. Coleraine won the first leg at the Brandywell 2-0 before a scoreless draw in the second leg at Coleraine. Coleraine brought a huge support to the Brandywell but Derry fans chose to boycott the return leg at the Showgrounds for one reason or another.
Match-day programme
Cityview is the name of the club's official match programme. Since 1985, League of Ireland match-day experiences at Brandywell stadium have been augmented by the programme. Every league, FAI Cup, League Cup, and European fixture over the past 22 years has been catered for from the day the late Paddy Doherty put pen to paper in the summer of 1985 right up to the articles which are currently being created for the 2007 season.
Cityview provides loyal Derry City fans and supporters of opposition clubs visiting the Brandywell with information on current affairs within the world of Irish football; League of Ireland, Irish League, Setanta Cup, European, and world football news; player profiles, statistics and interviews; team news and information on player injuries and suspensions; fan views and opinion pieces from long-serving contributors; a fan focus; a regular message from the manager; a half-time quiz; a layout of Brandywell stadium and safety directives; Derry City's history and honours; under-21 and under-18 sections; and an editorial on the game and opposition.