LONDONDERRY, a city and port in the parish of TEMPLEMORE, and county of LONDONDERRY (of which it is the chief town) and province of ULSTER, 69¾ miles (N. W. by W.) from Belfast and 118½ (N. N. W.) from Dublin;
| It was originally and is still popularly called Derry, from the Irish Doire which signifies literally "a place of oaks," but is likewise used to express "a thick wood." By the ancient Irish it was also designated Doire Calgaich or Derry Calgach, "to oak wood of Calgach;" and Adamnan, abott of Iona in the 7th centry, in the life of his predecessor, St. Columkill, invariably calls it Roboretum Calgagi. About the end of the 10th centry the name Derry Calgach gave place to Derry Columkill, from an abbey for canons regular of the order of St. Augustine founded here by that saint; but when the place grew into importatnce above every other Derry, the distinguishing epithet was rejected; the English prefix London was imposed in 1613, on the incorporation of the Irish Society by charter of Jas. I., and was for a long time retained by the colonists, but has likewise fallen into popular disuse. The city appears to be indebted for its origin to the abbey founded by St. Columbkill, according to the best authorities in 546, and said to have been the first of the religious houses instituted by that saint; but the exact period of its foundation and its early history are involved in much obscurity. |  |
The DIOCESE of DERRY originated in a monastery founded by St. Columb, about 545, of which some of the abbots at a very early period were styled bishops, but the title of the bishop of Derry was not established until 1158, or even a century later, as the bishops, whose see was at Derry, were sometimes called Bishops of Tyrone. Derry, so called from the oaks with which the banks of the Foyle here were anciently clad, was founded by St. Columba in 546. This famous missionary Saint, through whose labours and those of his followers Scotland and Northern England were converted to Christianity, was born at Gartan, Co. Donegal, on December 7th, 521. He was a member of the reigning family of Ireland and of British Dalriada. Censured by an Irish Synod for having stirred up strife, he left his country, with 12 companions, in the yeare 563 and settled in (Hy) lona off the coast of Scotland. But to the end, his love for Derry was intense. No traces of his monastery remain, the site of which is now occupied by the Long Tower Roman Catholic Church. Here also stood the ancient Cathedral, the Teampul Mor (i.e., Great Church), built in 1164.
A Cistercian Nunnery was built on the south side of the city in 1218, a Dominican Abbey and Church on the north side in 1274, and Augustinian Friary and Church, where Saint Augustine's Church now stands, about the end of 13th century, and a Franciscan Friary , the date of which is uncertain, where Abbey Street now runs. S. Brecan's Church inside the grounds of S. Columb's, at the Waterside, is the most ancient ruin inside the city boundary. It was used by Primate Colton at his visitation in 1397. Unfortunately Derry proved attractive to the Danes, both on account of its ecclesiastical treasures and its safe harbourage. The Irish Annals record a number of their onslaughts between 832 and 1100. They also relate the burning of the city on at least seven occasions, by accident or in strife, before the yeare 1200. After the Danes came the Anglo-Normans, whose mania for plundering churches is frequently referred to by the old annalists. In 1195, 1197 and 1198 John de Courcy and Rotsel Peyton plundered the churches of Derry. But, alas, our own countrymen were little better, for in 1197 a Mac Etig of Co. Derry robbed the altar of the Cathedral of "the four richest goblets in Ireland," and in 1213 Thomas MacUchtry and Rory MacRandal from Coleraine plundered the town. After the de Courcys came in the 13th century de Lacys, and in the 14th de Burgos, who built fortresses - Green Castle, White Castle, etc.- on the shores of Lough Foyle.
In 783 and 812 the abbey and the town were destroyed by fire, at the latter period, according to the Annals of Munster, the Danes heightened the horrors of the conflagration by a massacre of the clergy and students. The place must have been speedily restored, as in 832 the Danes were driven with great slaughter from the siege of Derry by Niall Caille, King of Ireland, and Murchadh, Prince of Aileach. In 983, the shrine of St. Columbkill was carried away by the Danes (to Tipperary and Waterford ?)by whom the place was also thrice devastated about the close of the 10th centry; in 1095 the abbey was consumed by fire. In 1100, Murtagh O'Brien arrived with a large fleet of foreign vessels and attacked Derry, but was defeated with great slaughter by the son of Mac Loughlin, prince of Aileach. Ardgar, prince of Aileach, was slain in an assault upon Derry in 1124, but on the 30th of March, 1135, the town with its churches was destroyed by fire, in revenge, as some state, of his death; it also sustained a similar calamity in 1149.
In 1158, Flahertagh O'Brolchain, abbot of the Augustine monastery, was raised to the episcopacy, and appointed supreme superintendent of all the abbeys under the rule of St. Columb, by a synodical decree of the Irish clergy assembled at Brigh-mac-Taidhg, in the north of Meath. O'Brolchain immediately commenced preparations for the erection of a new church on a larger scale; and in 1162 he removed more than 80 houses adjacent to the abbey church, and enclosed the abbey with a circular wall.
In 1164, Temple More, or "the great church," was built and the original abbey church was thenceforward distinguished as Duv Degles, or "the Black Church;" the new edifice was 240 feet long and was one of the most splendid ecclesiastical structures erected in Ireland prior to the settlement of the Anglo-Normans; its site was near the Black Church, outside the present city wall, and is now chiefly occupied by the Roman Catholic chapel and cemetery; both edifices were entirely demolished by Sir Henry Docwra, governor of Derry in 1600, and the materials used in the erection of the extensive works contructed at that period; but the belfry or round tower of the cathedral served till after the celebrated siege, and has given name to a lane called the Long Tower.
In 1166 a considerable part of the town was burned by Rory O'Morna; and in 1195 the abbey was plundered by an English force, which was afterwards intercepted and destroyed at Armagh. In 1197 a large body of English forces having set out from the castle of Kill Sanctain on a predatory excursion came to Derry and plundered several churches, but were overtaken by Flahertach O'Maoldoraidh, lord of Tyrone and Tyrconnell, and some of the northern Hy Niall, and a battle ensued on the shore of the adjoining parish of Faughanvale in which the English were defeated with great slaughter. In this yeare Sir John De Courcy came with a large army and remained five nights; and in the following yeare also, having made an incursion into Tyrone to plunder the churches, he arrived at this place, and during his stay plundered Ennishowen and all the adjacent country; while thus engaged he received intelligence of the defeat of the English at Larne by Hugh Boy O'Nial, which caused him to quit Derry. In 1203 the town was much damaged by fire; and in 1211 it was plundered by Thomas Mac Uchtry and the sons of Randal Mac Donnell, who came hither with a fleet of 76 ships, and afterwards passed into Ennishowen and laid waste the whole peninsula. This Thomas and Rory Mac Randal again plundered the town in 1213, carrying away from the cathedral to Coleraine all the jewellery of the people of Derry and of the north of Ireland.