CITY OF LONDONDERRY. 
donderry, or Lotinoun-ooipe, which would mean in Irish what the English have really made 
the city—the “ship town,” or “ fortified town, of Derry;” and it may be worthy of remark that 
the name of an ancient fortress, a few miles higher up the river, was Dun na long, “ town of 
ships,” as it has been preserved to this day. 
Locality. —The city of Derry, or Londonderry, is situated 150 miles from Dublin, in 
latitude 54° 59' N., and longitude 7° 19' W. It is in the diocese of Derry and Raphoe, and 
the N. W. circuit of assize. 
The city is placed on the western or Donegal side of the river Foyle, about 5 miles above the 
junction of that river with Lough Foyle, and 14 miles below the town of Lifford. This situation 
is equally remarkable for its distinguished local advantages and picturesque features, being on a hill 
stretching out into a broad and navigable river, by which it is nearly insulated, and commanding on 
every side views of a country, which is rich in natural and cultivated beauty. This hill, which 
in troubled times was selected as the natural Acropolis of the North, comprised till lately within 
its limits the whole of the city and suburbs; but Londonderry, in its days of prosperity and peace, 
has expanded itself beyond its natural military boundary, and is now rapidly extending northerly 
towards the lough, along the champaign shore of the river. The “ Hill,” or “ Island of Derry,” as 
it is still usually called, is of an oval form, ascends to an elevation of 119 feet, and contains 199 
acres, 3 roods, 30 perches. 
HISTORY. 
BEFORE THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
Section 1 . —General. 
The history of Derry, anterior to the close of the reign of Elizabeth, is almost wholly 
ecclesiastical; and in relation to its state in Pagan times, nothing is recorded with certainty, 
except its name —Derry Calgach —and the fact of its being a pleasant eminence covered 
with oaks. The erection of a monastery here by the celebrated Irish Thaumaturgus and apostle 
of Scotland—Columbkille—is assigned by the best authorities to the year 546, at which period that 
distinguished person was in or about his twenty-fifth year ; and it is said that this was the first of the 
saint’s ecclesiastical foundations, from the great number of which be received the cognomen Chile, 
i. e. “ of the cells,” or “ churches”—usually appended to his name. The exact era of this founda¬ 
tion, as well as the various circumstances connected with that event, are, however, involved in deep 
obscurity. According to O’Donnell, Prince of Tirconnell, who wrote the life of St. Columb in 
1520, the locality of Derry was bestowed upon the saint by Aid, the son of Ainmirach, at that 
time a very young prince, who had there his residence. This Aid and the saint were of the same 
Connellian stock—the former being descended in the fifth, and the latter in the fourth degree from 
Connell Gulban (a son of Niall the Great), from whom the country of Tirconnell received its 
name. But it appears certain that Aid, if he were in existence, could hardly have been a power¬ 
ful prince at the period assigned to this donation, as it appears from authentic sources that his 
father Ainmirach, who was cousin-german to the saint, did not ascend the Irish throne till 568, 
that is, twenty-two years after, and he was himself slain in battle in 598—9, two years after the death 
of Columb at the age of 77. The foundation of the monastery at Derry must, therefore, as Colgan 
acknowledges, have been at a much later period, or the story told by O’Donnell must be regarded 
as a groundless legend. Waving this objection, however, which has been already made by Col¬ 
gan and Lanigan, there is another of greater weight, which has not hitherto occurred to investiga¬ 
tors of Irish history, namely—that it is contradictory to all our authentic authorities to allow that 
Aid, or any other Tirconnellian prince, possessed the power to make any gift of Derry, or the 
lands adjacent, which, as is shown in the country history, were then, and for nearly a thousand 
years after, within the territory of the Kinel-Owen, or descendants of Eogan, another son of 
Niall; and—as not even a shadow of ancient authority has been found to support O’Donnell’s 
statement—there is reason to believe that it was fabricated by that biographer, or some of 
the bards of his house, to support those claims to the possession of Derry and Inishowen, 
which had been fiercely contested by the Kinel-Connel with the O’Neills or Kinel-Owen, for 
upwards of a century previously. 
Of the history of the saint himself, as connected with Derry, but little is recorded. The 
village of Gartan, in Donegal, has, according to O’Donnell, the honour of being his birth-place. 
In 563 he sailed to Iona from Derry, to which place he returned in 590, when he assisted at the 
great national council of Drum-keat; whence, after visiting some neighbouring monasteries 
of his foundation, he returned to Iona, where he died on the morning of Sunday, the 9th of 
June, 597. 
