If you've got it flaunt it

Following last week's feature in The Sentinel, Mr Breslin revealed that the pictures reminded him of his childhood.

"I immediately thought those were the same tunnels that we used to run in around when I was wee. I was about 10 at the time and we were known as the 'Tele Boys' because we stood on the street corners and sold the paper.

"The Tele office was at the end of Linenhall Street and then it got burned down it moved into temporary accommodation in Upper Linenhall Street. The first place we used to play in the tunnels is where the Millennium Forum is now, and they were probably the same tunnels they came across when they were building the Forum.

"The second set I remember, that the British Army came to fill in was in Upper Linenhall Street. We watched them that day as they came down and rolled out big mats and poured concrete right down it. Before they filled it in we used to go in round the tunnels there and play in them," he said.

"At that time the City centre was ringed up and you were searched going in an coming, so they obviously thought the tunnels were a security hazard, but to us they were a playground. They were somewhere to hide," he said.

Mr Breslin revealed that he studied history for seven years at university and recalled legendary teacher Bob Hunter, who had a fascination for the Siege and ancient history relating to the City.

"I used to tell him about the tunnels but he never related them to the Siege, and he was very respected when it came to Siege knowledge," Mr Breslin said.

He said that many of the older townhouses in the area had huge basements, and over time the area would have been developed resulting in these vast spaces underground being discovered.

Commenting on the size and shape of the tunnels he remembered, Seamus said: "Some of them we were able to walk into and stand up in, but there were other ones that you could crawl into. But, as I say, there were these other ones that looked like they were just these huge basements left from the big houses. There were even things that Bob Hunter explained to me that were probably oven kilns, and I remember there was definitely a tunnel down under where the YMCA was."

Comparing the photographs in The Sentinel with the structures he remembered playing in as a child, Mr Breslin said: "They're the exact same."

Asked if he thought the tunnels should be opened up and used to augment the tourism infrastructure in the City, he added: "You cannot buy this sort of thing. If you've got them you should use them. If you've got them flaunt them. When we were down in Magee studying the professors and teachers and that used to be down protesting as they were knocking down all the old mills and buildings that were along the quay.

"They used to come into the coffee shop and round up us students and say 'You should be coming down here to the quay and protesting'. They actually knocked down a couple of the old mills, but they must have listened to the protest because they turned some of the mills into student accommodation, and at that time they were saying it could have been exactly the same as Liverpool when you could have developed the dockland. But the theory here in Derry seems to be 'Knock it down'," he said.