A tale of two cities

But, with the recent release in book form of Jonathan Burgess’ dramatisation of one this city’s dark episodes, Exodus, the tale is now committed to paper and has become a catalyst for this sad tale at last to be openly discussed and a healing process to begin.

In the process of writing the play Jonathan burgess conducted interviews across the city including Creggan where people expressed their sadness 40 years on that cherished neighbours left, often overnight, never to be seen again.

Rosemount and the Glen areas of the city are still home to Protestant people but nowhere near to the extent they were even 25 years ago. But, one man attempting to at least make inroads into reversing the trend of departure is lifelong Rosemount man, Dalton Kehoe.

A worker at the Rosemount Centre, Dalton comes from a mixed religious background and last winter held an event in the area to welcome back Protestant people who had left the area back again.

His own tale is one which began when his Liverpudlian father,Thomas Kehoe arrived in Londonderry as an RAF man in the early 1940’s and was stationed at Brooke Park. There he met a woman from Osbourne Street, Brigid (Bridie Deehan) , a worker in the Rosemount shirt factory.

Thomas’ mother was originally Kathleen Saggars who was a leading light in the Orange Order in Liverpool and the family had major connections to a band called Derry’s Walls Band which only stopped playing in 2008 when Liverpool was the European cultural capital. Kathleen married a Catholic, Richard Kehoe.

The purpose of the RAF station at Brooke Park was to provide air defence for a strategically highly important city. Many amongst those billeted there were ranked as Leading Air Crafts Men who helped in placing barage balloons acros the town. When the RAF arrived in the area it is reported that they paraded up Park Avenue before taking up residency.

Dalton said: “Most of the people who left Rosemount went to Newbuildings. I still believe there was nothing personal between neighbours that made people leave it was purely as a result of the bombings and shootings. So last year we decided to try and get as many people as we could who left the area to come back.

“I realised that all my family are in their 60’s now and names of the Protestant families like Thompsons, Hannah’s, Doak’s, Pickett’s, Hall’s, Key’s and Anderson’s hadn’t been mentioned in years and something needed to be done about it. These were friends of mine that I hung about with.

“We sent out the message and about 15 of the Protestant people returned. We held an event in Brooke Park leisure centre an Thanksgiving because we felt that this was a neutral time in terms of religion. The screams of the Protestant people who still lived in the area when the saw friends they hadn’t seen for decades could be heard all over the area. We also brought the school choirs from the four schools in the area-St Eugene’s, St Anne’s, Londonderry Model and Rosemount Primary School and they performed at it.”

Dalton is appealing for anybody including those from the families mentioned above who has old photographs or stories from their areas to contact him with a view that these material to be turned into an exhibition at some point. He can be contacted either on 02871282829 or at [email protected].