“I was born in Londonderry, I was also born in Derry City.”
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– The Divine Comedy, Sunrise.
Derry is a fun little town. Sitting on the Foyle River, right on the border of two countries that do not want anything to do with the place.
As you can guess, it has its baggage to be from “the place no one wants”.
Riots in Derry during the problems | Peter Ferraz / Getty Images
Most people outside Derry can barely understand a word you say, you get the odd ‘better not to let him leave his bag unattended’ jokes thrown in your way, and you also have ‘is it Derry or Londonderry?’ ” Exchange to handle, which is …
“Well, I call it Derry but some others call it Londonderry, you know, it’s ahh … it’s a complicated situation hey.”
Always fun.
Always asked for a few pints.
Usually followed by: “here I have to go to the bar – good chat to you”.
But of all this baggage, perhaps the heaviest burden of the party is a disturbing bitterness – the kind of bitterness that comes from a people being forgotten at the best of times, and told that they are not wanted in the worst of times.
To be “forgotten” was usually a university given to a small town instead of the second largest city in Northern Ireland, or a house given to a wealthy single woman instead of a poor family of eight who had shared a townhouse with a another poor family of eight. Finding out they did not want it was a day like Bloody Sunday, when 14 innocent young men were killed by British soldiers in the city.
Post-Bloody Sunday March | William L. Rukeyser / Getty Images
Understandably, these events have left emotional scars on the city that never have, and never will, heal. They sit in the subconscious of every Derry man and woman – they leave us with a bitterness towards the socio-political situation that allowed such tragedies to occur.
But the great thing about Derry is that despite all this – the problems, the politics, the poverty – Derry ‘wans’ have always found a way to lift themselves and their own small town; maybe know that no one would ever do it for them.
No, they do not let these “wans” who are not Derry tell them that they are not good enough, they just go out and prove that they are. They go out and make music, play in movies, write books and find something they should never really find: happiness.
A Guy King documentary entitled ‘Different League: The Derry City Story’ that aired on the BBC on Monday night tells the story of a gang of four Derry men who did just that in the early 1980s – not just to find their own happiness but to bring happiness to an entire community that needs something other than problems.
AROO CHA CHA? ⚪️? ⚽️
Different League: The Derry City Story pic.twitter.com/pHtFBymiNe
– Stray Bear Films (@straybearfilms) April 19, 2021
They did it through football.
The football-loving city had been without an older team for over a decade when a group of four ex-players decided that regardless of the cost, they would find a way to bring the sport they loved back to the city they loved.
“I always felt it was a football town. People were always talking about football and everywhere you looked you would have seen men play football on the street. So we just felt we needed senior football back in Derry.”
– Terry Harkin
However, as ‘Different League: The Derry City Story’ attests, it was no easy task to bring professional football to the city.
Now on BBC iPlayer for those who missed it. https://t.co/CHNwPWtcQI via @bbciplayer https://t.co/Rp14qRmUji
– Derry City FC (@derrycityfc) April 20, 2021
Many attempts had been made in vain during the decade after Derry City were kicked out of the Northern Irish league due to a Ballymena United team bus being attacked and burned out before a match. The license application, after the license application, after the license application was denied and the city was seen as a “no-go zone” by the Irish Football Association in Northern Ireland. Seen as a place too anxious, too violent, too war-torn for football.
However, Derry was more than just petrol bombs, and its people wanted to prove it.
“When you hear that something cannot happen, it is an invitation to make it happen.”
– Eddie Mahon
After a final emphatic no from the IFA, Derry’s “Gang of Four” – Tony O’Doherty, Eddie Mahon, Eamonn McLaughin and Terry Harkin – decided to head south outside the confines of a football movement.
Derry City fan | Independent news and media / Getty Images
Through countless meetings in Derry, Dublin and everywhere in between, a successful friendly against the biggest team in Ireland, Shamrock Rovers – led by proud Derry man Jim McLaughlin – and approval from IFA (the hardest part, as you can see in the documentary), they earned their lifeline.
Senior football was back in Derry. “The cloud had lifted from the city.”
And Derry ‘wans’ buzzed around.
12,000 fans would take part in Candystripe’s first home league match since the late 60’s, 3,000 would travel to Monaghan for their first away match, 19,000 (almost a quarter of the city’s population) would endure a 10-hour trip to Cork for an FAI Cup. quarter final.
Do you remember the bus trips? ANOTHER LEAGUE: DERRY CITY STORY Tonight 21:00 @BBCTwo @BBCOneNI pic.twitter.com/EdVx1WVdnU
– Stray Bear Films (@straybearfilms) April 19, 2021
The football they traveled around the country to watch was not bad either. In the late 1980s, Derry City won a first division, becoming the first – and only – team in Irish football history to win all three domestic trophies in one season and even welcome European heavyweights Benfica, who were then led by Sven-Goran Eriksson, to Brandywell.
Matchday was the holiday from the reality of the problems that the Derry people needed, a way to stop the riots on William Street on a Saturday (for a few hours anyway) and a way to open up the city to the outside world for the first time in decades.
“From the corner of the eye a hint of blue in the black sky. A ray of hope, a ray of light. An end of thirty years at night. The church bells ring, the children sing – what is this strange and beautiful thing? It is the sunrise.”
The Divine Comedy, Sunrise. Darry City Celebrates a Goal Against Bohemians | Independent news and media / Getty Images
It is difficult to say that the transformation of Candystripes was the ‘sunrise’ for the city that ended the conflict in Northern Ireland and led to the peace process.
It did not. John Hume was the man who did it for Derry (you can listen to my short play on John Hume here – shameless plug). What it did, however, is show the world that Derry was not just a place of political violence, a place of unimaginable poverty, a “no-go zone” and that it “restored the true spirit of the city”, according to Hume himself.
And at times like these, when football is ripped from societies by billionaires who want franchise clubs and pockets even longer (if in fact even possible), ‘Different League: The Derry City Story’ is a timely reminder of what the sport really is.
“What McLaughlin created was to bring home to the Derry people, they were winners. They needed it more than anyone from outside will ever know.” Different️? Different League: The Derry City Story pic.twitter.com/eiLv703j4X
– Stray Bear Films (@straybearfilms) April 19, 2021
A reminder that football is basically a sport that brings happiness.
A sport that brings people together.
A sport that can even stop the riot on William Street for a few hours on a Saturday night.
That’s what football really is – and the only place to find it today is in your small community-run club that plays just around the corner. Practical, huh?
You can watch ‘Different League: A Derry City Story’ on BBC iPlayer. You can also become a member of Derry City’s Football Club here.
