Hitching for Hope by Ruairí McKiernan

Author:Ruairí McKiernan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

‘What the hell is going on?’ I mumbled as I awoke to knocking on my bedroom door. It was 7am, and Janet was waking me at the time we had agreed. But I had only got to sleep at 3am after staying up to write some blog updates.

It took me a few minutes to figure out where I was and what my plan was. All I wanted was a day in bed, but it was time to cross the border, and Derry City was calling.

Within minutes after Janet dropped me off on the side of the road, I was picked up by Nora and Richard.

‘A trip about hope? Fair play to ya,’ said Richard, a soft-spoken man with kind eyes. ‘I’ll tell ya a short story about hope. A few years ago, my marriage broke down. I wasn’t in a good place. I was preparing to emigrate, but before I did, I went to Derry to visit a friend and say goodbye. We were out one night when I met Nora, and here I am years later, happier than ever with this wonderful woman beside me. Life is funny like that – hope can be right around the corner.’

By 9am we had whizzed past the spectacular sixth-century Grianán of Aileach fort and were well over the border. Northern Ireland’s closer integration with the European Union, combined with demilitarisation as part of the 1990s peace process, meant that there were few official border markers. It felt strange that a somewhat invisible line, a human-made border now over 90 years old, had led to so much suffering. Continuing on into the outskirts of Derry City, I considered how borders acted as barriers as much as physical ones; arbitrary lines of division drawn up to defend, protect, control and ultimately separate.

However, Derry wasn’t a place where the contrast between north and south was most evident, particularly as the vast majority of residents tended to identify as Irish rather than British. Yet this former heartland of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) – the Republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Ireland – would be a good place to consider the conflict that had raged between Britain and Ireland for centuries.

The walled city of Derry, known as Londonderry to the British, is a place steeped in history. Historical references state that St. Columba founded a monastery there in the sixth century, and since the 1600s the north’s second largest city has been in the thick of the push and pull over British rule in Ireland.

Nora and Richard dropped me in the city centre amid the bustle of people going to work, shop shutters opening and a new day beginning. I planned to spend the day wandering the streets, but first I’d have to store my heavy rucksack.

When I spoke with the BBC the previous day, the presenter had said to give them a shout if I needed anything when I was in Derry. It may have been a polite courtesy invite, but I decided to take them up on the offer.

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