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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks at.

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Speaker 2: Be Mike Yardley's our travel corresponding Good morning.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Jack, Thank you so much for the splendid card.

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Speaker 3: By the way, did Ericas Stanford have anything to do

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Speaker 3: in its construction?

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Speaker 2: Ah? No? Why why do you ask?

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Speaker 3: Well, I've been wondering because I know you best yourself

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Speaker 3: up about your appalling handwriting standards. Yeah, but I think

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Speaker 3: there's been a dramatic increase in your standards, Jack. I've

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Speaker 3: actually done. I've done a line by line audit of

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Speaker 3: your card. I have run the ruler over your card

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Speaker 3: this morning, and I, without a word of I can

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Speaker 3: assure you that every single line could not be straighter.

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Speaker 2: Oh that's good. That's good. I'm pleased that the lines

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Speaker 2: are straight. But as for the actual outlines of the letters,

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Speaker 2: A bit different story. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I think that as I think at is top of

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Speaker 3: the class. I really do, I could not fault it.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Look, I will gladly, I will gladly accept that praise,

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Speaker 2: but knowing that deep down, if I can't read my

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Speaker 2: own handwriting, then I fear that very few others are

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Speaker 2: going to be able to but I'm pleased that you

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Speaker 2: could on this occasion, and given how much you love Christmas, Mike,

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Speaker 2: I always ensure this. I try and do my very

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Speaker 2: best to slowly spell things out and make it as

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Speaker 2: leigible as possible. Hey, we're focusing on Dairy slash Londonderry

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Speaker 2: this morning. Is that dual name status for the Irish

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Speaker 2: border town? Is that widely embraced.

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Speaker 3: Ah well as the character Errand says and deary girls, Jack,

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Speaker 3: I come from a place called Dairy or London Deiry,

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Speaker 3: depending on your persuasion. And it was interesting actually, as

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Speaker 3: I drove towards the city about six weeks ago, I

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Speaker 3: noticed most highway signs have had the Londonderry name scratched

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Speaker 3: out or painted over, and even while I was in town,

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Speaker 3: most locals I spoke to resolutely called the city simply Dairy.

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Speaker 3: But either way, it's a legendary place.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, a legend London Dairy place. So what has

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Speaker 2: what has made such a such a booming visitor destination.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's certainly having a moment, and I think it's

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Speaker 3: partly fueled by popular culture like TV shows The Dairy Girls,

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Speaker 3: But then of course it's history's long shadow. Just so

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Speaker 3: much potent history in a city that is about the

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Speaker 3: size of New Plymouth. It is slashed by this enormous river,

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Speaker 3: the River Foil, and one of the great symbols of

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Speaker 3: reconciliation in the city is the EU funded Peace Bridge

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Speaker 3: across the Foil. It's this really striking s shaped pedestrian

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Speaker 3: bridge and it very much bonds both sides of the

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Speaker 3: city together. And what I love about it is it

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Speaker 3: actually spills out into Ebrington Square, which is now this magnificent,

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Speaker 3: magnificent public space. It was formerly a formidable place. It

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Speaker 3: was the British Army barracks, but it's all been repurposed

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Speaker 3: for public use. And yeah, it's just a very tangible

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Speaker 3: sign of progress.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, oh nice, it's yeah, I'd like you say, there's

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Speaker 2: so much kind of incredible history there and it's one

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Speaker 2: of Europe's most impressive walled cities.

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Speaker 3: Right totally. Yeah, A huge draw is to walk those

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Speaker 3: walls that lessu the old city. They were built by

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Speaker 3: the British after they send the locals packing back in

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Speaker 3: the sixteen hundreds, and then the Brits flooded the area

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Speaker 3: with Protestant settlers and then built this formidable wall around

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Speaker 3: the old town. The cannons. That's what really struck me, Jack,

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Speaker 3: when I was walking around the walls. The cannons still

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Speaker 3: stand sentinel on those walls, including Roaring Meg, which was

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Speaker 3: the pride of Britain nouns for the fury of its firing,

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Speaker 3: and Roaring Meg was the canon that was very much

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Speaker 3: instrumental in repelling all attempts by Irish Catholics to lay

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Speaker 3: siege to the walled city. So, yeah, you can see

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Speaker 3: all of these nuggets of history around that walled walk.

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Speaker 2: Did the first catwalk originating Dairy Well.

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Speaker 3: Amazing, Jack, I took a walk around the walls with

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Speaker 3: the most commanding guide, Martin mccrosson. So he's been slinging

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Speaker 3: dairy stories with the world from these walls for decades.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, he was such such the most consummate storyteller,

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Speaker 3: and beyond all the talk of the battles, he just

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Speaker 3: prized open so many curious nuggets for me, including this

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Speaker 3: catwalk story. So there is this big sweep of the

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Speaker 3: walls that they call the Grand Parade. So go back

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Speaker 3: to like the Victorian era and you can imagine that

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Speaker 3: the Grand Parade was the place where you came to

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Speaker 3: be seen. And according to Martin, the story goes that

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Speaker 3: there was this visiting newspaper writer from London and he

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Speaker 3: noted that people walked like cats on this part of

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Speaker 3: the walls, dressed in their finest garb as they paraded themselves.

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Speaker 3: And that claim is that that is how the term

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Speaker 3: catwalk was coined. So funnily enough, when I was there

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Speaker 3: six weeks ago, you had a whoder young selfie seekers

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Speaker 3: on the Grand Parade, posing, pouting and flauncing themselves, probably

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Speaker 3: more flesh than in the Victorian era. But I thought,

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Speaker 3: you know, not a lot's actually changed on those walls.

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Speaker 3: It's still the catwalk.

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Speaker 2: That's great, What a great little story. One of those

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Speaker 2: things is never entirely possible to prove as well.

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Speaker 3: That's true.

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Speaker 2: Yes, how absolving is the bog Side neighborhood.

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Speaker 3: Ah so sobering, Jack, I was thinking in bed this morning.

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Speaker 3: Sarah Jovo was probably the most effect in the city

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Speaker 3: I visited last year, Bogside and Dairy I think would

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Speaker 3: get that gong this year. Bog Side was the tinder

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Speaker 3: box of the troubles, most notably the Bloody Sunday massacre. Yes,

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Speaker 3: and I went to that site, that site of so

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Speaker 3: much outrage, and when you stand there and you read

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Speaker 3: the stories of who was mowed down by the British,

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Speaker 3: it just it just leads you cold. And then strolling

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Speaker 3: through this Catholic neighborhood, it's the enormous political murals that

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Speaker 3: just span the side of tenement blocks from tip to toe,

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Speaker 3: you know, maybe five six stories high. They are just

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Speaker 3: so transfixing. They're like wounds that will not stop weeping.

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Speaker 3: So as much as there is definitely a sense of

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Speaker 3: peace prosperity in Dairy, what can't be denied is that

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Speaker 3: so many locals still staunchly opposed British rule in these parts,

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Speaker 3: even though both sides agree that an eye for an

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Speaker 3: eye leaves everyone blind. Yeah, it really leaves you thinking

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Speaker 3: for quite some time after a visit.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you were there for Halloween, right, So how

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Speaker 2: wild was that?

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Speaker 3: Well, it was quite a head clearer after the bog site. Yes,

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Speaker 3: I now appreciate why Dairy, Londonderry is regarded as one

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Speaker 3: of the world's greatest Halloween destinations. It just absolutely bursts

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Speaker 3: into life and after life, deep into the night. And

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Speaker 3: I guess it's all because of the ancient Celtic Festival

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Speaker 3: of Sellwyn, which was held on October thirty one. That

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Speaker 3: was the last night of the Celtic calendar. So the

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Speaker 3: Celts believed that on that day that's when the worlds

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Speaker 3: of the living and the dead were at their closest,

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Speaker 3: and the spirits could move between them and they would

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Speaker 3: wear disguises back in the day the ancient Celts, which

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Speaker 3: of course has very much similarities Halloween costumes. So fast

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Speaker 3: forward today and dairy stages the most fantastical parade. The

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Speaker 3: whole city seems to be consumed in a sea of

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Speaker 3: the most staggering costumes. And I just could not believe

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Speaker 3: the lengths people would go to to get dressed up

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Speaker 3: and made up. It was like a it was like

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Speaker 3: a Hollywood blockbuster. Yeah, you know, it's like a bigger

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Speaker 3: bash than Christmas. It's the big show Halloween, and I

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Speaker 3: reckon that I'd give the Mexicans Day of the Dead

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Speaker 3: to run for their money jacket.

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Speaker 2: It's funny because you don't you obviously think of Halloween

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Speaker 2: as being American. Yeah, you know it just Hugendry. Yeah yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 2: sounds like a great place. I'm really envious. I would

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Speaker 2: love to go there. I would love to go there. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: you've only whit my appetite more this morning. Thank you

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Speaker 2: so much, Mike. We will catch you again next Saturday morning.

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Speaker 2: And for all of Mike's tips on tripping through Dairy Londonderry,

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Speaker 2: you can go to News Talks hed B dot co

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Speaker 2: dot nz.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talks at B from nine a m Saturday,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio