The ‘Orange Standard’ has been one of the few newspapers
– the ‘News Letter’ is another – which
has consistently spotlighted the plight of the Protestants
living on the city side, or west bank of Londonderry.
That being the case, the ‘Standard’ is delighted
that the story of the forced removal of some 16,000 Protestants
from the city side since 1968 was highlighted in the BBC programme
‘Exodus’ on January 9.
Down the years this newspaper has called on politicians,
and the media to turn the spotlight on what was, until the
civil war in Yugoslavia, the biggest exodus of population
in any European country since the Second World War.
The ‘Exodus’ programme not only provided statistics
which are impossible to ignore, but allowed people to give
their personal story of the pressures which forced them to
move from parts of Londonderry that their families had lived
in for generations.
Today, there are only 500 Protestants living on the city
side – about 300 of them in the Fountain area, and most
of the others in the Culmore district.
Since 1968, the streets of Rosemount, Park Avenue, Templemore,
Northland Road and other areas have been emptied of Protestants.
Gone is the once thriving Protestant community close to the
Foyle, in streets like Mountjoy Street, Lower Bennett Street,
and Abercorn Road.
The Protestants have moved to Waterside, to estates like
Rossdowney, Kilfennan, Nelson Drive, Tullyally, and Newbuildings,
but they have never forgotten their city roots. The ‘Exodus’
programme will have brought the memories and nostalgia flooding
back for these good people.
It is vital for the city of Londonderry that the small remaining
Protestant community on the city side is allowed to live in
peace in the Fountain and other areas, without the constant
threat and fear of attack.
Republicans and nationalists in Northern Ireland’s
second largest city must go beyond mere words, and prove that
they are prepared to allow a small Protestant community to
exist in their midst without threat.
In that way they would prove that there is a new era dawning
in this province, and it would be the best way of encouraging
more Protestants to return to live in the Fountain and other
city district – surely something which all decent people
would welcome.
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