Notes towards a Derry 2.0 column

Just looking up the dear old (1772) Derry Journal and I see that this blog, long forgotten about (April 2011, I see) is sitting third in the Google search results for the paper. Shome mishtake, Shirley. Perhaps we engaged a SEO guy back when newspapers had oodles of cash, and he's still busy pushing up the ratings and we'll get a big bill next week.
And last Thursday at the checkout in Eason's in Derry I met a Fermanagh woman who lives in Austria and has a house here. In the course of a conversation which continued for some time, and went on to involve a meal in the select surroundings of De Burgh Terrace (thanks Wolfgang), she said; "What's that quote from Voltaire on your blog?"
So maybe it's time to kick off again.
Of course, as the Voltaire quote was the product of a two minute search on Google, it was impossible to remember. And so another blogger is exposed for false advertising as a writer who has the works of the French masters at his fingertips.
This piece is getting a little long for the multi-media world of the early 21st century, so here's a pic of Voltaire to liven you all up (always keep one on the desktop) -

(feel free to ignore the quote)

As you can see, Voltaire had a considerable head of hair (with obvious possibilities for a good limerick, which won't detain us here), which rather undermine those writers making a big deal in the media today after Fellaini's performance against Man U last night.

Voltaire's hair was longer, I'm sure you'll agree.

To return to our (temporary) topic, Voltaire's name was actually Francois-Marie Aroet (from now on, your writer will answer only to the name Ampere) and brainyquote.com reveals that he was also known for his saying - "A witty saying proves nothing." I see he echoes Tolsoy - as we all know from our reading of 'War and Peace', bedside stuff you know - that "All murderers are punished unless they kill in numbers and to the sound of trumpets".

To clear up a trifle, and to announce that all future sentences in this blog will begin with the construction 'To [do something or other]', it might be pointed out that Voltaire (1694 - 1778) could hardly be said to 'echo' Tolstoy (1828 - 1910) (who, strangely enough, had a long beard

[sorry]

). So please bear this in mind.

To actually broach the topic announced for this blog, it's about time that a start was made on 'Derry 2.0' for Friday's Journal. The column, usually written by Mark Nagurski, looks at digital tech locally, but as Mark is taking a little break because of his commitments to the CultureTECH festival, coming up shortly www.culturetech.co/ , here's a go at a guest column:

DERRY 2.0

My first encounter with the avant-garde was as a rookie reporter doing a story on the renovations of Fortstewart, not the home of the 3rd infantry division and the largest US Army installation east of the Mississippi, but the imposing house which is the home of the Day family outside Ramelton, overlooking Lough Swilly.
One of the Day daughters was showing me around. I admired a ribbed ceiling, I think above the grand staircase, which had been painted in striking colours.
"Yes, it's rather avant garde, isn't it?" she said.
I could only agree.
I found out the term was a French equivalent of 'ahead of the posse', a Wild West phrase much more familar to a young man who'd spent his teenage years reading J. T. Edson, the English postman, and Zane Grey, the dentist.
Growing up in Raphoe, I wanted to be part of the avant garde, but sadly it was not to be. Whether it was the Raleigh Chopper or Bay City Rollers trousers, by the time I got there the world had moved on. It's a sad thing to finally put on the trousers trimmed with tartan and the stacked shoes and find that, far from being a trend setter, you're an object of ridicule. Phil Coulter has to share the blame.
In fact, it wasn't until I joined the BBC in Belfast in the 1980s that I finally got a taste of the life of an 'early adopter'. Previously, at the Derry People in Letterkenny, and later the Derry Journal in Derry, we were still using typewriters (invented - 1860s) and probably being told we were lucky to have them.
Ah, yes! It's hard to forget the thrill of running around the troublespots of the North carrying what looked like a heavy transistor radio with a handset on top - an early mobile phone. In those days, and probably in these, the Beeb always had the latest gear. The satellite phone was another gadget to bring out in the company of an attractive interviewee.
But as the wheel of life turns around, I seem to be regressing to my childhood in terms of the 'avant garde'. For various reasons, the spare cash doesn't seem to be there to move to the front of the queue for all the wonderful 'must have' accessories of modern life. It's all very well buying 'Wired' magazine and reading about the amazing developments in the digital world, but at some stage you would actually like to GET SOMETHING - and not in the 'Fantastic Reductions' section of PC World because it's past it.
My mobile is a perfectly respectable android HTC model - until you see someone enjoying their iPhone 4s 320GB. At home, the laptop is not a Macbook Pro with OS X Mountain Lion - it's actually an ten year-old Mac Defunct, as it has refused to turn on since we got back from France. And you can only spend so long playing the iPad in PC World in the Waterside before the staff start to look at you funny (great game that, where you slice the fruit with your finger across the screen . . .)
By the time I finally get an iPad (maybe at Christmas - hint, hint), the early adopters will be running around with pCelts, complete with inter-stellar travel and a 'quick fry' option for frozen chips.
Of course, there is a part of me that says 'So what?' Otherwise I might be squirreling away the odd bit of money for gadgets rather than wasting it on old-fashioned stuff like books. After spending hours on the computer at work, do you really want to be on an iPhone or iPad constantly in your spare time, looking after your virtual life while letting real life slip by? Uploading images and video clips from glorious Slieve League rather than 'living in the moment' and letting the memory banks do the rest?
For anyone who reads 'Derry 2.0' regularly, the answer to these questions may well be - 'yes'.
But maybe there's something to learn from the memories of those days many years ago, having races with toy cars and pitched battles with plastic armies, sticking stamps onto the 'Uruguay' page, or just running around the fields, instead of parading around town in tartan trousers. . .

Back in action

Hi,

Due to a top secret ('If I told you, I would have to' etc) assignment somewhere on the road between Derry and Fahan for the past six months, blogging has been impossible. Every spare moment has been spent doing, you know, stuff. However, having bought a book on the power of social media recently, the whole issue of blogging has come back to the fore. Especially on Tuesday, and, more particularly, Easter Tuesday.

The newsroom is quiet, the pic diary is quiet, the roads are quiet, even the babies are quiet (was just joking about this, but strangely our reporter Catherine Doran, still off on maternity, has just walked past saying she has to return to the car as her baby is sleeping. As they say, a wil' lot of coincidences lately. To stay with the language of the self-help, quantum physics, become a millionaire by this time tomorrow movement, and go with the flow, I'd like to share with you another moment from this morning. A visitor asked me to copy a sheet showing the layout of the building, which was bluetacked to the wall. Hadn't noticed one for yonks. Went into the kitchen and picked up a sheet lying on the floor - yes, another one. Obviously my future is in some deep and meaningful way connected to the layout of the Journal office. Excuse me while I make my way to the kitchen for a cup of tea . . .)

Derry is back in the news, and for the wrong reasons. The dissidents are increasing their share of media time, and we had Sky, BBC and more here yesterday for the 32CSM Easter commemoration. The threat to Catholic police officers got on the news, and indeed the front page of today's Journal and other papers. The Queen's visit another target. The Mirror carried a story that Derry could be the locus of an attack to mark the Royal wedding (nice word that, got it from that Paul Clements article today where he slipped in 'genius loci' - probably says that to all the cities).

Listening to Jude Collins and Fr Canny on BBC Radio Foyle this morning, the following thought was prompted - what if there were no dissidents? Another obvious thought strikes - what a blow to Irish freedom. It is a characteristic of the delusional - and editors' offices seem to be a magnet for same, both through letters and personal appearances - that they genuinely believe, despite all the evidence and the weight of public opinion to the contrary, that they are right. Everyone else is suffering from a false consciousness and it's only by the courage and sacrifice of the few can the veil be removed from our collective eyes. Unfortunately, Irish history, as we're frequently reminded, throws up the example of the 1916 leaders, jeered at on the streets and now hailed as visionaries and fathers (and the occasional mother) of the republic. The reply must be, as a letter-writer to the Journal last Friday pointed out, that these are very different times.

No, if we had no dissidents, the path to Irish unity, for those who want it (and a lot of people on both sides of the border may well think that the present 'two jurisdiction' arrangement, for petrol, taxes or whatever, is convenient enough), would probably be a lot smoother. Cross-border arrangements could be extended and deepened. We could focus on positive developments like the UK City of Culture 2013, rather than dealing with the depressing thought that a small group of people in the city will actually try to use the attention to do Derry down locally and internationally. We could have more festivals without wondering if some of the visiting artists or indeed punters will be scared off by explosions or attacks. We could put a lot more energy and money into promoting Derry as the tourist destination in Ireland with everything on its doorstep - from the Walls to the Giant's Causeway to the golden beaches of Donegal (and, before Geraldine comes out, Magilligan). We could try and address more of the social issues, such as unemployment and lack of facilities for young people, that the dissident groups actually try and feed off. Do they welcome these problems? 

A TUV speaker on Foyle this morning tried to make that link between dissidents and criminality. But, certainly in Derry and the North West, that doesn't seem to be the big problem. Like it or not, ideals are the driving force here. They look to the past for their vindication - whether that's the 1916 Rising or the IRA during the Troubles. As Paul Clements suggests today, the Derry of 1981 and the Derry of 2011 (can't believe it, the 20th century, that most modern of things, is very much the 'last century') are two very different animals. 10 lines in the Fodor's guide thirty years ago; ten pages this year. And the Ireland of 1916 and the Ireland of today, well . . .

Anyway, suffice to say that it's quiet in the Journal office today. Laurence is keeping the head down, Davy is doing his bits and pieces, the Sunday team are beavering away but seem to be similiarly cowed by the unfamiliar atmosphere, Sean is in the file room, maybe checking out more on that deValera visit in 1951 (how different was the city then), advertising are coping with the absence of a lot of business people on their Easter break (recession, what recession?). The editor, of course, is very busy indeed . . .

The late Frank Curran

News came through here in the office this morning of the death of Frank Curran. He sat where I sit now - in the editor's chair in the Derry  Journal. Although the paper's been going since 1772, it has had relatively few editors - just eight since 1882.
Frank joined the Derry Journal in 1942 at the age of 19. His interest in politics in this part of Ireland must have developed at an early age, as he produced an influential booklet called 'Ireland's Fascist City' in 1946, a 49 page publication from the Derry  Journal which carried a foreword by then-Nationalist MP and later Nationalist Party leader, Eddie McAteer. (I see a copy went up for sale at an auction in Dublin last year - would be a nice one to have).
According to the Journal's 230th anniversary supplement of 31st May, 2002, Frank took over as editor on the retirement of Tom Cassidy in 1977, and remained in the job until Pat McArt succeeded him in 1982. He was in charge when I joined the paper in 1980, although I was working in the Letterkenny office and mostly had contact with him by phone.
Reading his articles on politics in the North was an education, particularly for a Donegal man. He was still a presence in the Journal office on Buncrana Road when I went to work there later in the 1980s. I always thought he was a tremendous sports writer, with a rare talent for bringing the reader to the thick of the action, even if it was a sporting occasion from decades past.
When his responsibilities meant that he wasn't getting out to sports fixtures as much, he kept reporters on their toes on the big occasions by doing his own assessment, 'As I saw it on tv', which always threatened to be more atmospheric than the account from pitch or ring side.
A great series which I've remembered down the years was 'Golden Moments of NW Sport'. Perhaps we'll retrieve some of those from the archives in the memory of a great journalist. political commentator and sportswriter. RIP

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11452533

Back with a vengence

Okay, it's been a while. Life has been fast-paced. So much happening in the UK City of Culture, the land of the brave. Lots of positive developments to report, and hopefully not so much of the other stuff.
So what stimulated this return to action?? Hot off the email, the very latest -

VANI-T OFFICIAL ‘TAN OF CHOICE’ FOR MISS IRELAND 2010


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Contestants will arrive out looking effortlessly radiant, sun kissed and glowing from head to toe for the ultimate red carpet look.
The most believable, flawless, long lasting tan imaginable
Vani-T Tan set to take centre stage at Miss Ireland 2010 – see the results for yourself.

Vani-T is distributed by Bronze Couture in Ireland. For stockist information nationwide, please contact Kassy on 059 918 0477

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Remember - 'You read it first at . . .' etc etc

Of course last year's Miss Ireland was Laura Patterson from Derry.

Prompted off my seat . . .

by this exciting email today -

One sofa – endless variations

The Government

Want contemporary, classic style and functionality?

Why not try a Conservative - Liberal Democrat Coalition??!!

Indivi 2 from BoConcept is the most popular sofa from BoConcept. And for good reason. It's the ultimate modular sofa system and has a unique connection system for unlimited options. Try Nick Clegg for Deputy Prime Minister, or even Kenneth Clarke for justice Minister. Choose between a variety of seating units, leg designs and armrests. In the immortal words of Boris Johnston, you can even have "a kind of cross between a bulldog and a chihuahua" (but you must know how to spell 'chihuahua' to ensure correct delivery}And like this isn't enough, the solid wood frame and foam-core seat cushions ensure stable, comfortable seating and excellent durability. Yes, we can guarantee at least a full year of stable government.

The quality of real relaxation is given the pride of place. ['Brilliant' - Mr G. Brown] This is now possible with the new mega resting unit that gives Indivi 2 an even more modern and trendy expression. (yes, obviously words like 'modern' and especially 'trendy' are old hat, but we've already used 'contemporary' - see above)

Another way to renew the Indivi 2 collection is the new way to place legs. By opening up the possibility of fitting the legs under the seat units, an even lighter, floating sofa design is created. You can change the overall look of the sofa using different leg-positioning options. Specially designed for the Clinton adminstration, this is a 'must have' in government circles internationally.

[That's enough about sofas - Ed]

Bloody Sunday report - quelle surprise

There can be little surprise about the news that the publication of the Bloody Sunday report has been postponed until after the general election. As the BBC regional political correspondent Paul Rowley reminded us again on Radio Foyle this morning, he's been predicting 6th May as the date for the past year. This date has been long pencilled in on the government's timeline of events, and the little drama of 'It will, it won't' in relation to the Saville Report has been played out just according to the script.

That's all very well for the politicians, who always prefer to toss a hot potato in the laps of their successors in power, but it's cynical in how it deals with the families of those murdered and injured on Bloody Sunday. Once again their hopes have been raised and dashed, adding further to the anguish and strain they've suffered over many years.

Yes, it's been months . . .

.  . . and since I blocked those emails from the bathroomware company there doesn't seem to be much to report - other than real news, of course.

Belfast Telegraph were in touch today looking for some crystal-ball gazing in terms of the Foyle constituency. After considerable thought and research, one could only reach the conclusion that anything other than a win for Mark Durkan or Martina Anderson will be the shock of the election. Still, it would be some coup for Journal columnist Eamonn McCann to lift the Foyle seat at this stage of his political career.

Lots happening over in BBC Radio Foyle and a good bit of chat about the departures of The Voice of Derry, Paul McFadden, and another highly-experienced journo Eimear O'Callaghan. At the same time there's an advert in today's paper for 'Editor, BBC Radio Foyle'. Looks like the station manager's job, occupied so many luminaries over the years, Joe Mahon, Mickey McGowan, Poilin Ni Chiarain, Anna Leddy and others, most recently Paul McCauley, is no more.
Bit of a cold wind blowing along Northland Road at the moment . . .

Easter on the way, and with it lots of cappucinos, crisps and meat, sadly missed over the past six weeks (apart from that wee trip to Brussels - Lent doesn't apply on mainland Europe, done away with by the Reformation apparently). Might try to get to the Paul Brady concert on Saturday. Met Robert Peoples at lunchtime and he was telling me that Balkan Alien Sound are playing in Rodden's on Saturday night, so that could be an option for after. Great Sound it is, and further proof that Derry's getting more cosmopolitan by the minute.

Re-reading 'Four Iron in the Soul' (well, didn't realise I was re-reading it until after the first forty pages or so) by our own Laurence Donegan, the Guardian's golf correspondent whose career went so sadly downhill after he left the Tirconnail Tribune. Only play golf on Journal golf outings - which seem to be a thing of the past, is everyone that old? - but the book's still good fun.

What else is new? Well, our reporter Claire Allan was on BBC Radio Foyle (sort of theme developing here) this morning talking about how much she'd like to see a woman editor at the Journal. At which point a loud voice was heard over the station tannoy - 'Taxi for Allan'. Former Journal reporter Chris McCann, who initially sounded a bit nervous as the only man in a studio of woman discussing 'Women in Journalism', soon found his feet and counter-attacked along the flanks (or maybe that was the Arsenal v Barcelona game last night - 'What a first half display by Barca!', I heard a female voice intone while, as Chris mentioned on radio, simultaneously feeding the wain, vacuuming the living room, telephoning an old school-friend and re-reading 'A Room of One's Own'. If there's one thing men can't manage it's multi-tasking. . .)

Please hold there for a sec while I concentrate on this cup of tea.

Lovely. Anyway, there you have it, all the news that's fit to print. And in this multi-media world, here's a pic, yes, any pic . .

The winning shot in the Derry and North-West Frisbee competiton at the weekend, from Hugh F. Ough (silent 'g') of outer Moville.