The Old Derry Docks Story.

Historian Seamus Breslin tells the story of Derry’s docks. Full of innovation, humanity and sometimes tradjedy, the story is timeless.
Gavin Patton Films.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Gavinpattonfilms

[Applause] he so welcome once again the Gavin Paton films and I’m shus breaston from FR of der City cemeter and I know the several films we already have online on YouTube have been very popular people are requesting more so we’re done today we’re going to we look at the the

Waterfront the key side and J tell you some stories about all we went on uh it’s an never evolving uh uh Waterfront you can see now it’s totally different than what it was when even when I was growing up and so hopefully we can entertain you with have a few stories as

We go along about the tragedies the tales the murders uh industry the hardworking Dockers are linked to America and the world even though the great hunger the famine and the SS London da a huge tragedy here in a ship when over a 100 people women and

Children died on board Etc and uh so if you thought the follow us uh well tell the tales and walking talk as we go along so across from us is uh our last remaining railway station with our one Railway line the uh bont but back in the

Day this was a hugely important Railway Junction hugely uh strategic in the whole infrastructure of Transport in Ireland up here with the railway here the tuy the Dublin over here with the one Tu up the straban down here with with the the railway that served the key

Side and it also went down down there on the Don and when it’s done on the Don it it junctioned off up on there on the SH now I went down to L keny so with huge migration huge transport links where the the livestock and all the products were

Coming from all around the world via Dublin or via this key site the city and actually Craig Aven Bridge here that has two decks the bottom deck was purposely designed for Railways only and it actually was only converted from a railway under deck the uh uh uh car uh

Transport in 1964 the year I was born so recent times so we’re not at the bottom of John Street in the bottom of Bridge Street Bridge Street looks pretty innocent now but back in the day Bridge Street and Sugar House Lane over here and F Street

In general was a pretty rough tough area along the dark side and brid Street in particular uh fishing The Fountain and brid Street was a staunch nationalist area fishing The Fountain and so basically up here brid Street in the fountain in the 1920s and before that

Was possibly a k to the Falls Road in the shanle road it was DA’s interface hard to believe now when you get up it’s so uh peaceful in fact one of the one of the most brutal killings in in the 1920s and 40 people died during the Civil War man Civil War sarian

Conflict here was a man called dolbin and he actually threw on the river here at the railway station he was a Protestant and the Catholic Nation threw him in and uh when men tried to go and save him they fired shots and says get away leave him to die this man then says

Go uh f yourself and he dived on him went out and got went to doans and got him and uh doans is reported at the inquest said I’m a Protestant and uh the man that dived in to get him says I don’t care what you are you’re being and

He got him and brought him in and then he was ticking but sadly he died he’s brought out in GL hermit so it’s just one and this the railway station up here right up the 1950s a crashed a uh a train in there during the Border campaign under that railway station and

In the 1920s uh up there that would have been the direct length to Dublin so there was a lot of uh uh robberies and there was a lot of uh politics went on at the railway station and burnings and uh the the transport workers would have went

And strike and refused to carry trip trains in that uh during the the war Independence 199 uh 21 and so there was lots happening you can only imagine the sounds and the noises and all that around here as regards as a railway so this here was a wooden morph

And along here would have been uh all different types of Industries you had the butter markets cattle markets and you had especially you had coal yards cuz coal was a huge thing if you look at even the houses now in cloudon Street and great James Street I can actually

See the factory up here and it must have about 40 chimney PS so coal was the source of heat and there was a lot of Ships coming in with the coal so it’s hard to imagine but all along here was the Worf and it wasn’t just called the key it had different

Names you had King’s key Queen’s key you had princess key and that and it was a hive of activity and you had all these different uh hand cranked uh uh cranes for bringing stuff off and then there was a tool on the bridge so it was hand there sometimes just to take

A fairy so he had boot me here and one of the bootman here uh was called Hume and Hume uh that In 1902 and Christmas Eve just as he was packing up his boot he fell in and he drowned and what’s remarkable about you mck story is just here what had happened

Is the man had actually got certificates from the Royal Humane Society for diving in that water and saving 15 people and there himself on Christmas Eve uh it wasn’t the be there was nobody there for him uh and he died so there’s a rumor or there’s a Muth or whatever an urban

Legend that the the River foil is supposed to claim so many lives uh per Year so the lengthy here in America and the rest of the world are enormous unbelievable like we all think it happen on jet planes now there was the shanan airport the he through airport of its Day the place where you the departures and if you couldn’t afford even they get

To America or Canada and you had just enough money you might have made it to Liverpool and then hope to uh get a job there and maybe then move on a lot of the immigration was actually where you would save up in the family because it cost money and these ships liveing here

The mccarel and the cooks were some of the finest ships in the world the manah from da was actually stopped people at work coming up the Huds in in New York and they say there’s the green yacht from da so anybody tells you this nonsense about coffin ships and D

They’ve been very disrespectful to the people and the the the Mariners of Da and the ship owners and that but you had to PID half dollar so what You’ have done is you would have paid saved up your family and you have sent the strongest son and maybe the smartest

Daughter over to America Australia or whatever even England Scotland and then you would hope that they would do well and what they do then is that they would return the money and prepay the passage for your brothers your sisters and even your mothers and fathers to come along so there was a structured

It brings us here to our first information board along the key and it’s uh detailing the huge enormous role that uh der played in the battle of the Atlantic in World War II over here was the barracks that was called HMS faret and at one time there was 20,000 20,000

Imagine that young fot healthy servicemen here and you’re all in women from the shirt factories and my father used to say about the third world war and I says there was no third world war this say Sunday at the first world war the second world war and he says every

Friday and Saturday night up the town when all them Sailors the Americans and the the Marines and they’re all money and they all good these it was like the movies uh Hollywood come to da it is the locals were getting their eyes wiped so there was murder they sure but throlls

And people getting batoned down and the Wonders getting smashed you want to see the court kisses tell you some ex but these men brought the W Churchill NIS the only thing wored them during the second world war was the the Atlantic the padly Atlantic and people say only

For the rule of the city during that time uh could have lost a war uh Germans could have won we just Lo on the bus steples behind us here and the main we would no no fil streight pretty quiet pretty respectable but bad reputation back in the day

Especially at night time especially when all these Sailors were about and that and uh I think when der got his first bus uh bus service it was a huge thing at the time uh an omni buus and if I’m remember correctly the first bus rout in da was

I’m talking here motorized because you also had tramways and horse tra I think it started at Dale’s Corner in the water side progressed through the city and it concluded at the rosem factory up in rosem and that was our bus it was also a huge sensation whenever uh DA got its

First uh fire engine and fire pump which was fueled by thing and it was the Envy of uh the rest Ireland cuz I think it was the first Ste powered one and it cost a lot of money and it was involved in a huge incident here in Fall Street

When the soldiers protected during the RS in 1920 Mook they mistu armed men uh over here with rifles and they Mook them for uh uh somebody was going to attack them nationalist or whatever and they fired and shot and killed them and it turned out that it was actually

Beast specials it was actually uh bman and then our brand new fire engine that we were all so proud of there’s a great picture it been display just down here at the guilt Hall and the lon media even we’re going look at Dair Lon da they’ve got this great fire engine was very

Progressive Forward Thinking whatever and at the ended it didn’t last very long the end for it was burnt during the RS over outside MC Granny’s house in the lcky road in 1920 that’s about yes so there’s very little left of the old key side and the old wooden War cuz

This was all wood the whole way down along here and you would hear the water lapping on it and it was actually quite a dangerous place cuz you had to watch yourself cuz there were no railings or guards like that there you went over you were scared one of your friends might

Give you an old he and thrw you in for a bit of fun but you could also just blend in amongst all the activities were happening the doctors be standing there doing their work You’ be standing talking them you weren’t locked out commercial bton over here uh one of the

Few bton going way back there and this was the center of tradeing industry where everything happened uh and the guilt Hall all right so they actually preserved a lot of the tumbers from the the Worf they get what stories they would tell with the we plaques giving you all

Information G on somebody forgot that they preserve them which is sad but that’s what the old woodn’t worth was a whole way long there lot of tumber that tumber would have came in probably from Canada and not real hardwood because there no point putting softwood near

Saltwater over here is the side of the city Hotel City hotel was uh part of a uh was regarded as been one of the finest hotels in Ireland it would have been uh DA’s equivalent of the shelburn hotel it was bombed anyway during the troubles the 30 years of conflict I

Remember it been boarded up and that we used to sneak in and the ballroom everything was left just probably for insurance purposes but anyway there’s a peace park on the site and we’ve got our new iconic paace Bridge uh which is uh I think it’s fantastic cuz I’ve never been

In some cols Park as often in my life since that bridge was built it makes it so easy for the two communities and the two sides of the bridges and the two ends of the river they meat it’s actually quite Pleasant to they eat so columns park over here rins of the

Old ST Breen Church going back to our ancient times and over there we had the United States nille Bas right up until 1977 uh it used to be a great place was us Sovereign territory lot of local gears married uh Sailors and uh once you went inside the P everything transferred

Us in dollars and was all American it was Sovereign territory uh behind us here as you can see when you had all these Ships coming and all these people leaving you all these agents along here for people uh there was actually the United States it’s sort of like a we

Money Embassy here in Canada and that where you could uh get your people at destination for going to America ah there’s the train pulling out from there y c know anyway over here we have the customs house so wherever you’ve got people and you’ve got trade and Industry

You’ve got Customs there’s nothing in this life as uh certain as what taxes are so the customs house was here for they collect all the taxes and see who was arriving who was departing make sure everybody was paying their way and it was also important because people didn’t

Have watches and clocks in the houses back in they know the time so we have a clock over here in aington we have a clock up here in the guilt Hall we have a clock up here in the commercial the customs house and we used to have a

Clock up here and the and revolving doors on a nice sping up at the corner here at the bottom of Orchard Street so there some of the most beautiful architecture in Ireland the guil hall and St colums Hall Abington barricks and I’m of some of the ugliest here’s the BT

Bolon people when they come here visitors I take them turn around it’s an ugly Buon I say but you have to realize when these buing were built in the 1970s a lot of the thought with the architecture was keep as minimal glass as what you can make them as bombproof

As what you can because a lot of building didn’t survive too long around here during the 1970s this part of the key actually holds great memories for me because this was the this was the this was the hive of activities this is where it all happened this where the scotch boot left

The a lot of Da all immigrants in it you cattle down below and stage and then you had the people up above getting the smells of the cattle but I got you to Glasco and I got the Glasco people here lot them used to come on holidays and

Then here you had cattle boats you had the lpol shed and you had all these sheds we used to get them we used to close the doors and we used to have spuds to tis and we used to throw them up on at the pons the pons were there

Cuz there was lots of that grain in the middle came of speed stuff and uh It All Happened Here the the Dockers not the Dockers but the key workers had their own we place over here beside cattle pens and uh we used to get and sit with

Them and they let us warm ourselves at the fire and then when it came in the time for the boat they used to be have actually their names was their occupation were coow wipers so I’m saying what what’s your job I’m a CO wer they would actually the Cs up the

Gang Plank and then uh the D flying out and all that so somebody then must have realized that that was a bad thing doing that because all the work then was over in England and Scotland where the cattle were going so now we have foil meats and

All and we have all the poultry processed here keep the jobs here which is good somebody was telling me and I never seen it myself but the pigs and the geese and all that they had to be walked all along here that used to put

Oil and tar on their feet they make sure they didn’t get damaged but it was all live getting exported another big thing was potatoes spuds and what happened was the the cycle is I think it still is to this day that you grow these spuds in Ireland they’re pretty they’re pretty watery and

Green and brown and that but the many spuds in the the the the small ones are exported to places like Cypress and Spain where they then become the new potatoes the new spuds that come back to us so what goes out actually then comes back it’s sort of like the trade for the

Immigration what happened was is the ships would live here and it would take people to America take them to Philadelphia Boston New York uh and in uh Southern States but then there was no people to come back cuz Americans people over there weren’t looking to come back

Here so what they would bring back then would be cotton and tumber and Grain and all different stuff that you needed in there it was good economics and there’s a story that with a shirt industry here in Dair and the cotton replacing linen that uh the shirt factories in Dair actually made the

Uniforms for both the blues and the Grays during the American in Civil War so there’s economics Fe they were supplying the uniforms to both sides using the cotton that actually came from there so abon bars over here was a hive of recovery full of soldiers and then full of

Sailors when it was a Navy parks and that and as you can see the bridge is way up there and there tool on the bridge and sometimes it was just hand there have you had a big function on on the guilt Hall here and a dance or

Whatever what you would have had then I would have stated on it that the dance ends at 11:30 in the guilt Hall and the ferry leaves at 11:40 here and you would go down and the ferry would take you straight over the Aon bars imagine it oh

Boy the men were all poing here living on the bog side and the brand and up the fountain uh but these soldiers and all they’re all money check yeah you sort of different aoch generations of the the the departures the immigration and the trade from Dair and the first one is

Sail so you all these sailing ships and the sailing ships because Dair is the nearest port to America was economical for to leave here so we had the sailing period where there was dependent on the tide and the Ws and that then you had the the the Steam and the iron stage and

That but the ones with the the sail and that were able to come right up on here to the key and tie up here and you up the G place but once it came in they Steam and oil and uh metal ships and the iron ships and the big liners then they

Were too big in that for to come up the the Narrows of the foil so was you would have had tenders here small paddle boats uh like something You’ see in the Mississippi River one them called the seore one I’m called America and you would board here in the tender would

Take you to my up at the deep water where that you would then join the ships like the Cameron these ships started in glasow stopped here picked up at maville and then next stop was say New York some of my relatives left here in the 1920s

The hon a bra thing it turns out that one of the sensible things to do cuz it was an expensive business as immigration in the 1920s and the SS cameronia up here was they try and plan of your wife was pregnant for the birth to be on

Board the ship cuz it had a surgeon and it a better medical facilities and it was part of the package and so the H done that and one of their children was born on board and the tradition is if you’re born on board the ship they name

The child after the ship so one of my relatives the hon was born on board the cameronia so it was called cameronia and when we met the hon family in rent times in New York they thought was funny growing up that she was in all these Irish Catholic schools and Irish

Catholic institutions and everybody was called Margaret and Mary and Bridget and there she was called cameronia her nickname was C I’ve heard there recently of a man here called Ethiopia and I say what’s a man in Dara called Ethiopia imagine we called Ethiopia D well the

Thing was you were born on board the steam ship Ethiopia living there so if you’ve got a strange name in Dar L it could be do to been born on board uh a vessel so a great cycle path along here too and if you cycle or walk you can right up to

The Donal border it’s actually quite a pleasant walk and as you go out of the city you’re actually going away from the traffic fumes and that and it’s actually quite a healthy walk well anyway want to greatest tragedies I could tell you about drownings down here and tragedies

Down here hundreds of them over the years but I could also tell you about great a of heroism on here just like Q McGee people were without a seconds notice jumping on there after people even right up until the nto ships were coming on here in submarines and uh one of the greatest

Tragedies that ever befell this city was there was a ship called the SS London da right and this is pretty ironic he called it the SS London da but it was actually leav in SLO it was loaded up with cattle and all the things and that and most of the the steerage passengers

The passengers being the cheapest trying to get away as cheap as they can we think I was going to Liverpool hoping they get the Liverpool and there if they do settle in laner get work in the Mills and that they were head on the America l

Frog on over but they say long there had a storm off the coast of Don go it seems in that the captain ordered that all the passengers 100 plus women children man get put on the hold they put on the hold and then the waves were crashing around

It and they prevent the vessel from sinking they then ordered them they place a tpin over it and SE the Tarpin they sto the water getting in whenever the storm rolled up it they pulled the Tarpin off and all the people were suffocated Ling fixated uh with children

And that with arms around one another and so the nearest Port was Dairy and they put on here the Dair they put on hey Dairy and uh they couldn’t believe it that was something it seems it was to and utterly shocking what happened and there was a whole inquiry and they were

All about manslaughter charges against the crew and against the captain in that but one of the sidelines of the things that I thought was around was that they couldn’t find anybody that was willing to go down and bring the bodies out such was a distress that would left you and

That so they got a loot of Dockers and a bodied men and they pled them full of drink and so they went in half cut to bring them out then there was a dispute then about where they were going to be buried this was before the city cemetery

Open up in 1853 so it seems then that this is well only place we can 100 plus is over in the the workhouse the the yard behind the workhouse was always used as a a as a cemetery Whenever there was nothing else available so they were

Buried there in the 1980s and when they were renovating and buing houses in the land over there and covered the remains of these poor human beings that were on the SS L der and I think fun DA they led the campaign and the council and whatever stepped in and they reentered

Them and had funerals for them and they’re buried now out at B own uh thing I don’t think the captain was ever prosecuted but at uh a lot of people lot people up here from SLO and they they had never heard it so it’s sort of come a we B

Forgotten so we have you have green coming on here and you have you have got all these exports and imports you have to have things to facilitate them so don’t along here was M Coral’s Mills and all these grain mills and that I used to actually come along here with selling me

Belfast telegraphs and stop and chat to the Dockers cuz it wasn’t a Clos down docks where you weren’t allowed it was pretty open you walked up and down and chatted the people coming on and off the boats and sometimes even went on had we chat with Sailors and walk around you’re

Young boy and get away with things like that but uh you to see Dockers there covered in dust and you seen them sweating all coming off with spuds on their back and coal and big cranes and all getting uper it it was a hi of activity and all the smells Associated

And all the sounds associated with and uh there was a lot of skull dog went on too bu open bags to get some spuds for your family and letting things fall in the water and coming down ler they collect them and all sorts of going on

Strikes but I must say that I have researched over years and years and years and I said the most dangerous a patient it was even more dangerous than joining the Armed Forces it was more dangerous than being a fireman was being a doctor there wasn’t a year past where

Doers were dying and falling into the holes getting hit by cranes overcome by fumes and they were the most generous people in the world all you ever sees them the money this the money to that and uh right up until my generation there was always the Dockers the Dockers

You know doers and whenever there was political conflict or somebody was ever in need and needed help or anything they left work and they would March up there was a protest and maybe the police were getting out of hand and these big strong men doctors would land on this thing the

Changed the whole scenario so I don’t think they get the credit they deserve think my father’s cousin uh one of the Millers actually T down here in the 7 one on a a cran for so don’t along here we also have the electric there is First Electric it was

A huge thing electric coming the da cuz before that they all depended either in candles paraffin oil or the gas yard now the gas yard because of the smells in that were kept near the city for the cool Supply on that but far enough away to take the smells away just like the

City cemetery near enough but still far away but the electric station was here uh do along here for the uh obviously get the oil and the coal before that supplies just off the ship and under the the electric station so as we got down further down

Towards where the dry dock used to be well hearing that there had a very rich ship building and people were proud of the ships and they were proud of the ship Boulders and they were proud of the trades people they were proud of the innovation that they were always

Innovating and uh bringing in new types of Engines new types of propellers even back in the days of Salem M corkal and Cooks uh were all about having copper bottoms and they were using the finest tumbers from Canada so I hit this nonsense of people bringing down our

Maritime Heritage by saying that the coffin ships left here and they all died and all nonsense but anyway the ship bolon was a big industry and so you needed skilled people if you were going to build ship so they had to go over and they had a train recruit skilled

Builders from Scotland from on the C in Glasgow and uh entice them over here they come to our Shipyard and B ships here bring their skills with them so whenever they come over obviously they have to be a housed somewhere so the housing for them was up in the scotch

Quarter where’s the scotch quarter that this day are Gail Street Glasgow Terrace uh Hawthorn Terrace all associated with the Scottish community So all this trade and immigration and imports and exports and uh industry and commerce it was a lot of money we made it and the people that were making it uh Liv nearby too and this was our professional quarter up here cloudon Street Great James Street four stored

Houses the finest of the fine Admiral copen copen who made the finest ships corkman had copen house around here most people here might remember because of was the uh the brew that they had us offices but they loved up here and so the ship owners and that up here and up

At Crawford Square nice and handy the key nice and handy where the where their their businesses were uh some people that are on there where able they afford just like in New York and London and other major cities they commute down and from Fawn and ra uh Fawn and bana and uh

Places like that get away from the smells and the dirt of the city and all that and just commute down every day in the railways you can’t go wrong along the key or even a water side with uh all the different names like you call this the

Strand Road this is basically what it was the Strand just like the white strand or Bal lein strand this was Dairy strand now it’s the Strand Road it’s all B up and uh over in the box that you had uh Pilots row Pilots what the ships need

Ships needs Pilots to guide them in then you had nailers you need lots of nails for ships nailers R and then down with Stanley’s Walkers it was previously called ROP walk what did you need for sailing ships you needed loads and loads of rope so you have make rops We have the band going out on the Ross Bay and the beautiful new foil Bridge away a lot of traffic and we have the we boat there grounded but a modern tail that as they were hoping they turn it into an Airbnb and they sailed it around here

Get stuck in the Sands and it’s still stuck here so it’s hard to believe but the honorable to say as far as I know we’re still still own that land and they own that River so if you want to fish in that River you want to do shell fish on

It you want to sail on it you want to build on it if you want to extend out there or nothing it’s all still to do going back to S area and The Honorable Irish Society it’s more a charitable Venture now and then but it just still

Shows you the links that there is in there back day London there’s a big plane up there look at that once those planes came in under and jet planes took over the shipping industry here died immigration especially and what’s the correct down here then was we had uh along down here then we

Had a loot of pubs uh one them’s called the Alyan used to be popular with the Dockers up here was another one the claf bar now the cloudon bar think it’s shot now but I used to sell pippers on there and it was always covered with different

Currencies and monies and and things in that and momento that the sailors and all would uh would bring sort of this is where it all happened and made dairy caus napolitan in fact one of our great claims they Fame not lot of a lot of people knew it is that the

First uh copy of the American Declaration of Independence right George Washington or lemons whatever and even it was printed by a man dlap from Stan but the first copy of it they land in Europe was it was on board a ship was supposed to be going to King George I

Think in England and it had a storm and Annie Porton uh uh Annie storm and it pulled on at da so the newsletter the newspaper in Belfast was the first paper to uh to uh publish the American Declaration of Independence sometimes you had murders Along on

Here da being orand being a lot of they do with drinking there was these strict license and laws and all that and there was no drinking on Sundays or whatever but if you were on board a ship you could drink morning and night and day if

You were allow and then they used to have dead trips from here going up to mville and then back down again and the one of the reasons they were so popular was you could get your you could get a drink so if there’s now do or Sunday and

You couldn’t get a drink come down take an Excursion head up to mville on the on the boat pleasure boat have a good swall and then come back again uh as you can see now Marina bringing uh Sailors on we’ve got uh HG boats and they all time we get uh cruise ships

That are can come up here but most of the cruise ships will stop out at lah Hal and get busted on here but there’s a this was like our Highway this was the highway that brought people in here it took people away and it’s got sad stories it’s got so many happy stories

It’s got so many tragedies it’s all good Tales of heroism provided a lot of employment and there was a lot of Tears with people leaving and there was a lot of Joy when people were arriving in the boats from Scotland and elsewhere so we couldn’t cover everything I hope

We CAU got you a few interesting stories and as I say once again if you want any more interesting stories there’s a we and the link for of buers of coffee cuz we don’t get funded by anybody I like my history G hiss and he just turns over

And say let’s make a film so I think next one’s going to about the bridges what do you reckon the bridges the bridges are a good story and so I that might be our next one and uh I hope you enjoyed it and uh once again thank you very much for Watching