Beleagured and often forgotten by their co-religionists in
other parts of Northern Ireland, the brave Protestant people
of the Fountain in Londonderry continue to witness for their
faith and for their allegiance to the Union, writes an 'Orange
Standard' correspondent.
On a recent visit to the Maiden City, I spent a couple of
hours strolling around the Fountain, the adjoining city walls,
and the Rosemount district, and then returning to the city
centre.
The visit confirmed what I have been told by many people
who know Londonderry and its people really well, namely that
it is nothing short of astounding that the Protestant people,
probably around 1,000 in number, have been able to maintain
a presence on the city side, surrounded by some 60,000 Roman
Catholics and nationalists.
The plight of Londonderry's Protestant population has been
highlighted before in the Standard and also in sympathetic
papers like the News Letter and the locally based Londonderrry
Sentinel.
But people living in 'safe' areas like North Down can have
little conception of just what it is like for Protestants
to have to exist in a city like Londonderry. In Bangor, Newtownards,
Comber, Holywood and other places, people go about their business
each day, free of the fear of thugs attacking them and especially
their children, for no other reason than the fact that they
are Protestants.
That is the all too familiar experience of Protestants living
in the Fountain, the last remaining loyalist enclave in Londonderry's
west bank. Most of the Protestants have left the city side
- some 18,000 of them since 1968 - and they left without headlines
and hardly noticed, in an exodus which took them to the estates
of the Waterside, to towns like Limavady and Coleraine, and
even further afield.
Television cameras were not there to record this exodus,
one of the most profound since the Second World War, and that
still rankles with Protestants in the North-west. They point
to the well-oiled propaganda machine of nationalists and republicans
which spotlights every grievance, real or imagined, experienced
by their community and blasts it across headlines, and in
BBC programmes like 'Spotlight'.
Protestants do not object to stories being publicised about
Roman Catholics being attacked, but they certainly feel that
reporters are not nearly as keen to record their stories -
stories which happen on a regular basis in Londonderry.
Protestants in the Fountain have come to dread things like
the 'Old Firm' football matches between Rangers and Celtic.
Victories by Rangers in these tense affairs invariably lead
to the Fountain and its people being attacked.
The Fountain is only a few hundred yards from the bustling
city centre and its fine new shopping malls. But young Protestants
in the estate would take a great risk if they were to venture
into the city centre wearing football tops which would identify
them as supporters of teams with a Protestant ethos.
Indeed, according to some Protestant parents, their young
people hesitate to go into the city centre wearing their school
uniforms in case this leads to attacks.
The vast majority of Protestants living in the Waterside
do not cross Craigavon Bridge to shop on the city side, and
their young people give it a wide berth. Recently, a Protestant
youth pursued by a gang of nationalist lads had to flee into
a public house on the city side in order to escape a beating,
and to plead with the staff to contact the police.
Yet the morale of Protestants in the Fountain is extremely
high, and they certainly have no intention of moving from
their famous area. On a stroll through the estate I was impressed
by the way in which the families keep their houses, many of
them with lovely gardens and occupied by people who have a
great pride in their district and their city.
There is a flourishing youth club catering for the young
people, and children were playing happily in the primary school
playground as I walked past. It was a peaceful happy scene,
and, thankfully, there was no incident on that particular
day.
But the high fence on the interface facing Bishop Street
was a reminder of the constant pressure on the Fountain. And
the empty houses in some of the terrace streets running off
the estate provides proof of the difficulty in attracting
families to an area which should be an ideal base, situated
so close to the city centre and the tourist attractions.
But the Fountain is alive and is still a vibrant community.
Alas, as far as Protestants are concerned, that no longer
is the case in other parts of the city side where they lived
in large numbers up until 1968.
The Rosemount area is the most notable example of this, and
it is in this thickly populated district with its fine houses,
its maze of terraced streets, and its fine Brooke Park, that
the transformation is most apparent.
Up until the late 1960s there was a Protestant majority in
the Rosemount area, and both communities lived happily side
by side, completely integrated. Today, just over three decades
later, a stranger walking the streets of Rosemount would find
it difficult to realise that Protestants once lived here in
large numbers.
Park Avenue and Rosemount Avenue, the hub of the area, are
now almost completely Roman Catholic, and the same is true
of the streets running off them. The names of these streets
provide the clue that this was once a place where Protestants
predominated - Wesley, Epworth, Argyle, and Glasgow are just
a few of the names of the streets.
Here the people once flocked to Protestant churches, but
in the past 35 years these have been steadily closing. Claremont
Presbyterian, once a strong church, is no longer a church,
but used for other purposes, while Epworth Hall, once a Methodist
amenity, closed its doors a few years ago.
Fifty years ago Her Majesty the Queen received a rapturously
loyal welcome in Brooke Park as she visited Northern Ireland
shortly after her Coronation. Thousands packed the park, and
adjoining Park Avenue and other thoroughfares to cheer the
young Queen.
Today, a half-century later, it is hard to visualise this,
given that the walls of streets in Park Avenue and other streets
carry pro-republican slogans as well as warnings to 'touts'.
Londonderry's industrial surge in the 1870s and 1880s, its
development as a major centre of population saw many Protestant
families move into Rosemount to work in these industries -
shipbuilding, shirt-making, linen, and other industries. They
contributed enormously to the prosperity of the city, and
it is sad that their descendants no longer live in places
like Rosemount, but have had to move elsewhere.
The city centre presents a picture of bustling activity,
but chatting to several locals, the writer was told that it
is a brave man or woman who would walk the streets after dark,
especially at week-ends when drink and violence on the part
of many young people are all too common.
It was noticeable that many young men in the shopping centes
were waring Celtic and Republic of Ireland tee shirts, clear
evidence of their allegiance, although in fairness I did see
several wearing the colours of Derry City.
Perhaps things are improving, if only slightly. A Fountain
resident said that trouble following the most recent 'Old
Firm' fixture had been a lot less than in previous games,
and attacks on young people from the area had eased.
But he was understandably cautious and remarked that time
will tell whether there is a new willingness on the part of
nationalists to accept and tolerate Protestant, Unionist and
Orange culture in the city.
When Protestants feel happy to buy houses in the Rosemount
again, and to return in large numbers from the Waterside to
shop and attend social functions on the city side, then, and
only then, will Protestants feel the modern 'siege' has ended,
and they can play their full part in the affairs of this great
city with its marvellous history and traditions.
From talking to people from the Fountain, and the great strongholds
of the Waterside on that recent visit, the writer has no doubt
at all the Protestants will only be too happy to play their
full part, if the majority community in the city extends the
true hand of friendship.
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