It’s all go at Derry Féile ‘Did Ye Hear About?’

The Connections Project’s Did Ye Hear About? myth-busting conversation series had a superb run with three very well-attended events over the past week and all within the realms of the annual Feile Derry 2025.

Organised by the Connections’ Chris McDonagh and hosted by former Derry Journal editor, Pat McArt last Thursday night saw a full house at the Culturlann in Great James’ Street in Derry to hear Linda Ervine give a riveting talk on Turas, the Irish language group which she has established and leads in the loyalist heartland of East Belfast.

In a highly entertaining presentation Mrs Ervine explained that her involvement with the Irish language began more than 15 years ago with a bit of curiosity about it, which led to a six-week introduction to Irish with the East Belfast Mission which was, she explained, a community development organisation founded in 1985.

With her appetite whetted to the possibilities of the language with this introduction, she then joined a beginners class at the cultural centre An Droichead on the Ormeau Road in Belfast.

And the rest, as they say, is history as Turas is now a thriving centre for language enthusiasts

On Friday, also at the Culturlann, Dr Cormac Moore gave a talk on the Boundary Commission which played a key role in the ongoing history of this island.

A Dublin based historian, Dr Moore’s recent book The Root of All Evil, gives not only a detailed account of the negotiations leading up to the setting up of partition but also the role of the boundary commission in copper-fastening it.

He highlighted three things as being key components – British duplicity, unionism’s obduracy – the ‘not an inch’ approach to all negotiations, and the incompetence of the Irish member of the Commission, Eoin MacNeill. Derry City, Fermanagh and Tyrone, with their large Catholic majorities, might well have been in the ‘Free State’ rather than the North had MacNeill been a more adept negotiator.

Linda Ervine, pictured at An Cultulann for the second of Thursday's 'Did Ye Hear About? Whose Language? events, as part of Feile 2025. Included from left are Chris McDonagh, Sharon Semple and Pat McArt. (Photos: Jim McCafferty Photography)

And on Tuesday last local man Jimmy Toye was in the Gasyard Centre to give his own unique take on the Battle of the Bogside which he witnessed as a 16 year old in 1969. Jimmy’s talk also took up to Bloody Sunday and what he also witnessed that day.

With his father owning a shop in the Bog, Jimmy explained that they were often at the centre of events, both good and bad. The fact that they had the only phone in the area was also a major attraction for both locals and, amazingly, a whole host of visiting journalists who would breathlessly enter the shop seeking to urgently phone through their copy to the various news desks.

In a poignant part of his presentation Jimmy talked movingly about a number of tragedies of local people, particularly the deaths of two young children in separate incidents involving British soldiers.

He got a rousing round of applause at the end, one member of the audience pointing out ”Jimmy, you have taken be back to many days and things I had forgotten..”

The mythbuster lectures are part of the Connections – A Peace Barrier Project, organised by the Neighbourhood Management Team and funded by the International Fund For Ireland.

IN PICTURES: Derry Féile ‘Did Ye Hear About?’ conversation series

The ‘Did Ye Hear About..?’ series is to continue over the coming months with a number of events taking place throughout the month of August.