LONDONDERRY Postcodes — Northern Ireland (NIR)

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Londonderry (...)

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Description of Londonderry

Londonderry, often known as Derry or Irish Doire, is a city and former district in northwest Northern Ireland that is currently included in the Derry City and Strabane district. It has the second highest population of any city in Northern Ireland. The city of Londonderry and its surrounding urban and rural regions were officially integrated in 1969, and as a result of a reform of local administration in the United Kingdom in 1973 (and again in 2015), the area became one of Northern Ireland's 26 districts.

The Irish term doire, which means "oak grove," is whence Derry got its name. In 1613, after King James I handed the city a royal charter, he added the prefix "London" to the name. Both nationalists and unionists commonly refer to the city as Derry, however unionists are more likely to use Londonderry when discussing politics. It is formally known as Londonderry City by the British government. Since 1984, when it was under nationalist rule, the Londonderry City Council has been known as the Derry City Council. A British High Court judge declared in 2007 that only legislation or the Royal prerogative could change the city's name from Londonderry to Derry. The newly reorganized Derry City and Strabane District Council formally requested the name change to Derry from the British government in 2015. Petition drives garnered thousands of signatures, both for and against the name change.

The counties of Northern Ireland, including Londonderry, have not been used by the state for local administration since 1972. Derry and Strabane, Causeway Coast and Glens, and Mid-Ulster are the three districts that rule the area after further revisions in 2015. Aside from its cultural context in All-Ireland sporting and cultural events, it is no longer used for local government and administrative purposes (i.e. Derry GAA).

Derry City Council is home to 57% of Northern Ireland's Catholic population, making it one of just four counties with a Catholic majority (55.56%) since 1981. The purple saxifrage has been designated as the official county flower.

Geography of Londonderry

Sawel Mountain, which sits on the border of County Tyrone, is the county's highest peak at 678 meters (2,224 feet). The Sperrin Mountains, of which Sawel is a portion, tower over the southern section of the county. The county is characterized by the steep cliffs, dune systems, and remarkable beaches of the Atlantic coast in the north; by the valleys of the Bann and Foyle rivers in the east and west; by Ireland's largest lake, Lough Neagh, to the south-east; and by the valleys of the Bann and Foyle rivers in the south.

Derry's 17th-century city walls, the National Trust-owned Plantation estate at Springhill, Mussenden Temple on the Atlantic coast, the dikes, artificial coastlines, and the bird sanctuaries on the eastern shore of Lough Foyle, and the visitor center at Bellaghy Bawn, close to the childhood home of Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney are just some of the notable structures and landscapes found in this county. Old-growth deciduous forests of Banagher and Ness Wood may be found in the county's geographic center, and the Burntollet River flows through these trees and over Northern Ireland's highest waterfalls.