Today's County in the Spotlight:Part 2

[mickthemaverick]

There would appear to be a number of options for the flag of County Derry, I have chosen this one to post but you can see the others from the link!!

BFTW

Details here

As for the location and places Neil has already covered those in his post containing the interactive map!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Vehicle Registrations Londonderry bit different, two letters followed by numbers up to 9999, then reversed for a time ie nnnn XX where XX are the letters, then when they ran out a preceeding letter added making 3 letters with the area codes being the 2nd and 3rd letter.

County Londonderry/Coleraine
IW, NZ, YZ
Londonderry County Borough/Derry City
UI

Should be easy enough to find an example or two....dig out the old films from youtube

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

First thing that caught my eye on the interactive map was the Wild Geese Skydiving Center.

Bit of Tom Petty "Learning to Fly" to accompany this.



Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Well first look through has yielded a couple of options for two of the numbers:

BFTW

BFTW

BFTW

BFTW

No sign of the other two yet and I have to catch up on Monaco practice now before the qualifying!!

[mickthemaverick]

A not very satisfying IW but at least it is one!!

BFTW

[NewcastleFalcon]

This is quite appropriate for me seeing as my first car was something very similar and its on the IW plate for our County in the Spotlight. Classic car show Eglinton, county of Londonderry, Northern Ireland April 2010. Right at the start of the album is also a Ford Popular/Prefect I presume with a UI plate.



Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

From a gentile classic car show at Eglinton, Derry..City of Derry Airport is aka Eglinton Airport because its near the village of Eglinton,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Derry_Airport

Some people do this for entertainment in a small corner of it here



Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

I've tracked down a YZ (literally!) at last !!

BFTW

[NewcastleFalcon]

A crackly 78 rpm, with Al Bowlly doing the vocals...

...a song credited to writers Kennedy and Williams, and the connection being the lyrics were written in Port Stewart County Londonderry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sails ... set_(song)
"Red Sails in the Sunset" is a popular song. Published in 1935, its music was written by Hugh Williams (pseudonym for Wilhelm Grosz) with lyrics by prolific songwriter Jimmy Kennedy. The song was inspired by the "red sails" of Kitty of Coleraine, a yacht Kennedy often saw off the northern coast of Northern Ireland and by his adopted town Portstewart, a seaside resort in County Londonderry.

The title of the song provides the inspiration for the Red Sails Festival held annually in Portstewart, Northern Ireland. Kennedy wrote the song while staying in Portstewart.

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

As we have reached the music stage it would be positively rude not to have The Londonderry Air on the thread. The problem is which version? There are leterally hundreds to choose from so I have narrowed it down to four particular versions which are different and make their own mark on the listener, You can choose which if any you prefer?

[NewcastleFalcon]

Eva Cassidy makes you listen to the words, and yes jerks a tear. Not a sweet soft rendition throughout, but such emotion.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

This was amusing, and immediately provoked the reaction no she didnt! First up on a "bing" (yes its hopeless) query.

Being a traditional "Air" its true composer is probably lost in antiquity and passed on by playing and ear, not by writing down.

The song "Danny Boy" uses the tune, with a set of lyrics written in the early 20th century.

Ross submitted the tune to music collector George Petrie, and it was then published by the Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland in the 1855 book The Ancient Music of Ireland, which Petrie edited. The tune was listed as an anonymous air, with a note attributing its collection to Jane Ross of Limavady.

For the following beautiful air I have to express my very grateful acknowledgement to Miss J. Ross, of New Town, Limavady, in the County of Londonderry—a lady who has made a large collection of the popular unpublished melodies of the county, which she has very kindly placed at my disposal, and which has added very considerably to the stock of tunes which I had previously acquired from that still very Irish county. I say still very Irish, for though it has been planted for more than two centuries by English and Scottish settlers, the old Irish race still forms the great majority of its peasant inhabitants; and there are few, if any counties in which, with less foreign admixture, the ancient melodies of the country have been so extensively preserved. The name of the tune unfortunately was not ascertained by Miss Ross, who sent it to me with the simple remark that it was 'very old', in the correctness of which statement I have no hesitation in expressing my perfect concurrence.

This led to the descriptive title "Londonderry Air" being used for the piece.

Perhaps an entry in our deliberations for the town of Limavady needs posting. Not sure if New Tow is a separate settlement or indeed if Jane Ross gets a blue plaque for preserving the tune which acts as an anthem for Northern Ireland.

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Getting carried away now!!

[mickthemaverick]

Having read right through the wiki page on Limavady the only thing of real note is the claim to the origins of The Londonderry Air we have already exhausted, so perhaps the best thing is to read through yourself and see if anything else pops out!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limavady

[NewcastleFalcon]

Perhaps an entry in our deliberations for the town of Limavady needs posting. Not sure if New Town is a separate settlement or indeed if Jane Ross gets a blue plaque for preserving the tune which acts as an anthem for Northern Ireland.

Relax, congratulations to the "blue Plaque" people

Regards Neil