The names of the city and county of Derry or Londonderry in Northern Ireland are the subject of a naming dispute between Irish nationalists and unionists. Generally, although not always, nationalists favour using the name Derry, and unionists Londonderry. Legally, the city and county are called "Londonderry",Weatherup 2007, §§ 33, 41 while the local government district containing the city is called "Derry City and Strabane". The naming debate became particularly politicised at the outset of the Troubles, with the mention of either name acting as a shibboleth used to associate the speaker with one of Northern Ireland's two main communities. The district of Derry and Strabane was created in 2015, subsuming a district created in 1973 with the name "Londonderry", which changed to "Derry" in 1984.Weatherup 2007, § 17
History Origins of the name The earliest Irish name for the site of the modern city was , Old Irish for "oak wood of Calgach", after an unknown pagan.Lacey 1990, p.10 John Keys O'Doherty, the Catholic Bishop of Derry from 1889 to 1907, sought to identify Calgach with Agricola's opponent Calgacus, whereas Patrick Weston Joyce says Calgach, meaning "fierce warrior", was a common given name. A Celtic Christian monastery was founded at in the sixth century;Lacey 1990, pp.15,19 Adomnán names Saint Columba as founder. The name was changed to Daire Coluimb Chille, "oak wood of Columba", first mentioned in the Annals of Ulster for 1121.Lacey 1990, p.34 As the monastic site grew in prominence, the name was reduced to just Doire (now pronounced ). This was later anglicised to Derry. In 1604, "Derrie" was granted its first royal charter as a city and county corporate by James I of England.Lacey 1990, pp.76–7 The settlement was destroyed in 1608 by Cahir O'Doherty, Irish chieftain of Inishowen.Lacey 1990, pp.78–9
The London connection During the Plantation of Ulster by English and Scottish settlers, a new walled city was built across the River Foyle from the old site by the Irish Society, a consortium of the livery companies of the City of London. In recognition of the London investors, the 1613 charter stated "that the said city or town of Derry, for ever hereafter be and shall be named and called the city of Londonderry".Weatherup 2007, § 1; Lacey 1990, pp.91, 93 The county was created by the same charter, largely based on the previous county of Coleraine, and named "Londonderry" after the new county town.Lacey 1990, pp.81–3 A new city charter in 1662 confirmed the name "Londonderry" for the city.Weatherup 2007, § 5 The Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 reformed the municipal corporation and renamed it from "The Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of Londonderry" to "The Mayor, Commonalty, and Citizens of Londonderry".; Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 Schedule A. Under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, the city of Londonderry became the county borough of Londonderry,Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 s.21 and Schedule Two and the rest of the "judicial county" of Londonderry became the "administrative county" of Londonderry.
Pronunciation of Londonderry Historically, Londonderry was pronounced in Ireland as , with primary stress on the third syllable and secondary stress on the first syllable. In England, it was pronounced , with primary stress on the first syllable and the third syllable reduced or elided. This latter is still used for the Marquess of Londonderry's title; otherwise, the usual pronunciation now is with primary stress on the first syllable and secondary stress on the third syllable. In 1972, Lord Shackleton commented, "I very much hope that Ministers will stop talking about 'Londond'ry'. If they do not call it 'Derry' they might at least call it 'Londonderry'."
Historical usage Before the outbreak of the Troubles in the late 1960s, the name was less contentious. While "Londonderry" was the official and formal name, most people in Northern Ireland called it "Derry" in informal speech. The name became a shibboleth when sectarian tensions increased. Samuel Lewis' 1837 Topographical Dictionary of Ireland said "It was originally and is still popularly called Derry ... the English prefix London was imposed in 1613 ... and was for a long time retained by the colonists, but has ... fallen into popular disuse". The 1837 Ordnance Survey Memoir of the area concurs, and remarks "this mode of abbreviation is usual in Ireland, whenever the name of a place is compounded of two distinct and easily separable words; thus ... Carrickfergus is shortened into Carrick, Downpatrick into Down, ... etc." Occasionally, acts of the Irish (pre-1801) or UK (post-1801) parliaments referred to the city19 & 20 Geo.3 c.23 s.5, Irish Universities Act 1908 s.13(1)(b) or county13 & 14 Geo.3 c.18 s.12, 21 & 22 Geo.3 c.35 s.12, 23 & 24 Geo.3 c.53 s.15, Grand Jury (Ireland) Act 1836 Schedule (S.) as "Derry".
Administrative subdivisions of various types were named after the city, including the barony of North West Liberties of Londonderry, townland and poor law union [PLU; later superintendent registrar's district] of Londonderry, county districts of Londonderry Nos. 1 and 2, dispensary [later registrar's] districts of Londonderry Urban Nos. 1 and 2, and poor law [later district] electoral divisions of Londonderry Nos. 1 to 5 Urban.; ; All these were obsolete by 1972. In the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, the two-seat Westminster county constituency of Londonderry was split into two single-seat county divisions. The use of "Derry" rather than "Londonderry" in their names was proposed by Frank Hugh O'Donnell, who said he thought that "at the time when the London Companies were despairing of retaining their hold upon Derry this Amendment would be accepted by the House. The Amendment would be welcomed in the North of Ireland, where the county in question was always spoken of as Derry, and not as Londonderry." This amendment was defeated, on the basis that a county constituency name ought to match the official county name; but T. M. Healy then proposed keeping the county name but changing the division names, thus: Londonderry (North Derry division) and Londonderry (South Derry division). Only David Plunket opposed this, noting "the City of Londonderry was spoken of both as Derry and Londonderry. The name of Derry was given when it was spoken of as a separate division of the county." The Stormont constituencies of North, South, Mid and City of Londonderry were so named by statute in 1929, although a 1935 Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland map uses "Derry" instead of "Londonderry" for these. In the Stormont debate on the Electoral Law Act 1962, the Nationalist Party proposed to rename the "City of Londonderry" constituency to "City of Derry"; Brian Faulkner called the proposal "frivolous" and the claim that any unionists would support it "absolute nonsense".
The Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) was agnostic on the partition issue and sought votes from Catholic and Protestant workers; its affiliate in the city was officially named the "Londonderry Labour Party". In 1938, Paddy Fox left to form the more nationalist "Independent Derry Labour Party" (from 1945 the "Derry Labour Party"). In 1946 the NILP's constituency branches for City of Londonderry and Foyle formed a steering group called the "Derry Central Labour Party".
In 1952, the Irish and Northern Ireland governments agreed to establish the Foyle Fisheries Commission via parallel acts of their respective legislatures with largely identical texts; one difference was a reference to "the county of Londonderry" in the Stormont act as opposed to "the county of Derry" in the Oireachtas act.Compare
The "Foyle Area" under jurisdiction of the commission combined the "Londonderry District" in Northern Ireland with the "Moville District" formed in 1926 from the part of the original Londonderry District which was now in the Irish Free State.
In 1958, when the newly launched made a courtesy visit to its namesake port, nationalist councillor James Doherty protested that it was "a foreign warship which had been called after a version of the name of the city".
In 1963 the BBC commissioned from Terry McDonald A City Solitary, a documentary about the city scripted by John Hume and narrated by Brian Hannon. It ends by suggesting that Protestant [unionist] and Catholic [nationalist] citizens can together "build the bridge for Derry's future. A first symbol of that bridge could be the future full acceptance of the term Londonderry, for in it is summed up the two great traditions of the city: London, the fort of the ships, the siege tradition; Derry, the oak grove of the native Irish." This implicit acceptance by Hume of Londonderry was recalled in later decades when he was a leading nationalist politician.
In 1965, Eddie McAteer of the University for Derry Committee expressed the hope that the rare common cause between local unionists and nationalists would force the Stormont government to reverse its decision not to base the New University of Ulster there: "The Government might be able to slap down the men of Derry. They might even be able to slap down the men of Londonderry. But they cannot slap down the united men of Derry and Londonderry".
In 1984, Peter Robinson of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) commented in the UK House of Commons:
District council The Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971 and the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 abolished the councils of the counties and county boroughs, and the lower-level county [urban and rural] districts.Weatherup 2007, § 11 These were replaced by 26 new districts based around towns and cities. The geographical areas of the county and city no longer correspond to local government areas, but retain a legal existence as lieutenancy areas for ceremonial purposes. One of the 26 new districts comprised the areas previously in the county borough of Londonderry and the adjacent county district of the same name. This new district was initially also named Londonderry, and, being based on a city, its council was named "Londonderry City Council".Weatherup 2007, § 14 Nationalists accounted for the majority of the population, and nationalist political parties were elected to a majority of the council seats. In 1974 Fergus McAteer of the Nationalist Party first raised the question of the name at the city council. In 1978, now in the Irish Independence Party (IIP), McAteer tabled a motion "that this council wishes that the official name of the city be restored to the original and more common name of Derry". It was passed with Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) support, on the understanding that no immediate action would be taken. When McAteer raised the issue for a fourth time in 1983, the council passed a resolution to officially change the name of the district from "Londonderry" to "Derry", consequently changing the name of the council from "Londonderry City Council" to "Derry City Council". Andy Pollak said that the vote symbolised the SDLP's shift from co-operation with the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in the 1970s to confrontation after the 1981 republican hunger strike, and that the SDLP was worried about Sinn Féin taking seats in the 1985 local elections. Pursuant to its resolution, the council applied under section 51 of the 1972 act to the Northern Ireland Department of the Environment, which was under direct rule from the Northern Ireland Office in London, with Chris Patten as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in charge of the department. On 24 January 1984, Patten decided to accede to the name change, which was effected by a statutory order commencing on 7 May 1984.Weatherup 2007, § 16; Centre for European Policy Studies, accessed 6 October 2007