Latest news with #Londonderry
BBC News
2 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Londonderry: Football clubs urged to hold gangs behind violence to account
Politicians have called on Derry City and Bohemians football clubs to hold rival gangs involved in Friday night's violence in Londonderry to account.A teenage boy and a man in his 20s needed hospital treatment for injuries after clashes outside the Ryan McBride Brandywell stadium. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) are trying to identify those involved in the violence on the Lecky Road and Lone Moor Road, which they believe was "pre-arranged". Two large groups attacked each other with sticks, bats and iron bars and caused damaged cars and property. Further disorder also continued during and after the match, which had to be stopped at one point after a flare set fire to the pitch. Footage on social media also shows fans ducking and running as fireworks explode around them. Sinn Féin MLA Ciara Ferguson told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme: "The clubs need to hold these young people to account."She said the priority now was to identify those who orchestrated and carried out the violence and bring them to justice."We saw masked youths armed with weapons fighting on the street and then turning on the PSNI," she said."It was just terrifying for local residents, including children, who witnessed these events but, ultimately, any footage that is available needs to be sent to the PSNI." 'Deeply upsetting' SDLP MLA Mark H. Durkan, who was at the match, said it was "imperative" that both clubs meet and take measures to ensure there is no repeat of the described the scenes outside the stadium as "disgraceful" and "deeply upsetting" for local people and "genuine supporters"."Many of them were leaving early, they were afraid," he said. "I've never experienced an atmosphere like it at the Brandywell or at any football match anywhere."He said there was no place for violence or intimidation at a football match and described those involved as "thugs" and "hangers-on". DUP MP for East Londonderry, Gregory Campbell, said the violence raised questions about future policing at Brandywell stadium, where the PSNI do not have a regular presence inside."Lessons need to be learned and there needs to be lessons whether or not it's going to be search and seizure of suspected people en route to the game," said Campbell."This happens very occasionally where people use a football as an excuse for a riot and that's what appears to have happened on Friday night, so action has to be taken to prevent that."The BBC has approached Derry City and Bohemians for comment.
BBC News
3 days ago
- BBC News
Londonderry: Tour guides for deaf 'will encourage inclusivity'
A group of newly-qualified tour guides are hoping they can help make visiting Northern Ireland more accessible to the deaf guides have graduated this summer from the Tour Guiding for the Deaf course at Londonderry's North West Regional College (NWRC).Funded by Tourism NI, it is the first time tour guides in Northern Ireland specifically for the deaf community have been trained outside of of them, Patricia Clarke, said she hoped it was "the beginning of change that encourages inclusivity in the future". Patricia, from Derry, was able to hear when she was born, but became deaf at the age of two following an lip reads, and is a sign language said there was a definite demand for tour guides who better understand wider communication methods. "A lot of deaf people always want to go to places to learn about the history and culture," she told BBC Radio Foyle's Mark Patterson Show."About ten years ago we had a group of American deaf come to Derry and I was asked to do a tour of the walls – that was the first time I realised Derry badly needed tour guides," she said."For me to do the course with NWRC was amazing."Patricia said it "focused on all the things we need to do" and "the things we are not supposed to do".Overall, she said, it was about making the experience for deaf people an inclusive one. The new guides are members of the Foyle Deaf Association and are all based in the north daughter Seana Taylor is the association's project coordinator and the only hearing person among the newly-qualified said her mum often told her "there are times the deaf community feel very excluded, very left behind".The course, she said, had been "about championing the deaf to champion themselves", adding once the final certification comes through the graduates will be able to operate as fully-fledged tour is in no doubt there is a need for a deaf-specific tourism notion that the deaf community can get by by reading an information board, she said, was a misguided one. 'The opportunity is there' Estimates, she said, suggest there are around 1,700 people who use Irish Sign Language and some 5,000 British Sign Language users in Northern Ireland into account their families and friends – who, too, can often feel excluded from the tourist experience - and "the opportunity is absolutely there", she this year, the British Deaf Association will hold their annual general meeting in will give the new guides an opportunity to showcase the city to the deaf community, Seana said."That will attract a massive footfall to Derry," she added. The new guides graduated at a ceremony in the city's Guildhall last Callaghan, from Tourism NI, said guides were "hugely important for our overall visitor experience," adding they are Northern Ireland's "ambassadors and storytellers"."I congratulate all our newly qualified guides on their achievements and look forward to seeing them deliver tours in the walled city," she Peter Wisener said the course reflected the "inclusive ethos of our college and our commitment to widening access to education and industry-relevant skills".
BBC News
4 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Londonderry: Two taken to hospital after football match disorder
A teenage boy and a man in his 20s have been taken to hospital for injuries sustained during disorder in Londonderry on Friday around 19:00 BST police were made aware of two large groups of rival football supporters in the Lecky Road and Lone Moor Road were attacking each other with sticks, bats and iron bars and causing damage to buildings and cars parked in the area, police have disorder also occurred during and after a match between Derry City and Bohemians at the Ryan McBride Brandywell stadium in Londonderry. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said they believed the disorder was "pre-arranged".Footage of the incident posted on social media appears to shows fans ducking and running as the fireworks explode around Democratic and Labour (SDLP) assembly member Mark H Durkan was at the match and said the event was "ruined by violence and the fear of violence" for many genuine fans. He also said a flare landed on the pitch during the game which briefly stopped play. Durkan told BBC News NI that because of concerns about violent incidents which had happened elsewhere in the city before the match, stewards put in place a "safe exit" plan for supporters' buses. He said he had been speaking to police officers during the event to ask them about their plans "to minimise the risk of bother after the match". However, as the Foyle assembly member left the Brandywell he witnessed a crowd of about 60 fans who "ignored" the stadium workers' said these people "overran the stewards" in order to get out of the car park and they ran down Lone Moor Road "hell-bent on causing more trouble"."The vast majority of people I'm sure were here for the football, others had come to fight. It's really just disgusting," the assembly member added. Officers were in attendance and worked along with stadium staff to bring the disorder under control. Police said no arrests have been made at this Féin MLA Padraig Delargy condemned those behind the said it was "terrifying for local residents, including children, who witnessed this appalling violence"."It threatened the safety and well-being of local residents and stands in stark contrast to the fantastic work that is going on in the area through the Féile and the redevelopment of Meenan Square," Delargy game ended in a 1-1 News NI has contacted Derry City FC and Bohemians FC for comment.
BBC News
7 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
CBE for journalist Peter Taylor who reported on the Troubles
A former BBC Panorama journalist who spent decades reporting on the Troubles has been formally made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) at Windsor Taylor, 82, from Henley-on-Thames, said covering Bloody Sunday in his 20s as his first assignment in Northern Ireland inspired much of the work in his decades-long soldiers shot 13 civil rights protesters dead in Londonderry on 30 January 1972 and Mr Taylor said he felt guilty he "knew nothing, or very little" about the conflict at the time."I remember that day thinking I better start trying to find out, so I spent the past 50 years trying to do exactly that," he said. Mr Taylor earned the trust of major figures, including former IRA commander and Northern Ireland's deputy first minister Martin McGuinness, whose funeral he was also invited to the memorial for Ian Paisley, the former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and first minister. Mr Taylor spent nearly a decade to get permission to make a documentary inside the notorious high-security Maze serving sentences for murder "and a whole series of dreadful atrocities" were jailed there, Mr Taylor conversations with them were conducted without prison officers' oversight. "In the end, when they saw the film they were glad that they had taken part because it gave a different view of the contribution that they were potentially prepared to make towards peace," he added."You know you've succeeded when you get that kind of reaction, when they're clearly expecting to take you to the cleaners for what you've done, and they say 'wasn't bad for a Brit'."Fewer programmes like Mr Taylor's are now made because of a lack of funding, he said."My worry is that public service broadcasting and the climate in which I grew up and learned my trade is under threat," he added."It needs finances. What we do, people like me try and do, is to help people understand and make political choices and pass judgments on these extremely difficult, complex issues." You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X, or Instagram.
BBC News
7 days ago
- BBC News
Londonderry: Man charged with arson following house fire
A man has been charged with arson with intent to endanger life after a house was badly damaged by fire in Londonderry on Monday happened at Bluebell Hill Gardens in the Brandywell area of the city. The man, 38, is also accused of common assault, assault on a civilian police employee and having a Class B controlled is due to appear before Londonderry Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.
