DERRRY IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
Jon Van Til, with Roy Van Til
Is it not time to recognize a unique geographic region that has all the key elements in
place to transform itself into a social, economic, and political player of consequence in
Ireland and beyond?
Derry and the North West, defined as Ireland west of the Sperrins and north of Donegal
Bayi forms a region poised for greatness, but still isolated for no good reason from the
booming economic machine humming along to its south. It is an "entrepot" in the
broadest sense--a hub of entrepreneurial activity in waiting, ready for action with its
underutilized but solidly educated labor force, its deep port and modern airport and
network of highways with excess capacity, its rich and attractive base of tourism steeped
in history and extraordinary natural beauty, its recently earned reputation for adapting
from its difficult but proud shirtmaking days to the needs of the millennial economy such
as the disk drives produced by Seagate or the Kevlar manufactured by DuPont.
With the artificial borders hastily sketched eighty years ago now virtually dissolved but
for differences in the coins and the petrol prices and the system of measurement, the other
economic factors should now be addressed in a coordinated way by Dublin and Belfast
and Brussels: Tax incentives can be coordinated to attract even more international
investment to the North West; information on available mills and plants in search of new
uses and well-positioned workers in search of real challenges can be shared with
investors worldwide; capital from across the EU and from the US, now pouring into
County Donegal to fuel the insatiable housing boom in this extraordinary piece of coastal
paradise, can be re-channeled and broadened to focus on creating jobs outside the
prosperous construction trades; a major multi-lane motorway across the Sperrins and an
improved rail link to unite the North's two great cities for commerce and commutation as
never before are in the planning and long overdue; the local universities in Derry and
Letterkenny (the Magee campus of the University of Ulster, the North West Regional
College, etc.) are cranking out powerful ideas for creative initiatives in business
development and graduating droves of skilled students prepared with the tools for the
new career paths beckoning to this underemployed generation; Third Sector organizations
such as INCORE and the Holywell Trust within the Walled City of Derry itself are
working toward making sure the 1998 dream of peace and harmony becomes a
permanent reality in the still divided region.
There it crouches, muscular and at the ready for vaulting into top form after decades of
strife and underachievement: the Diamond that is Derry, glistening in its gorgeous
setting along the River Foyle atop the Emerald Isle, just a few miles the center of the
region called Ireland's North West. It is close by the epicenter of the economic shifts in
the Republic of Ireland that have had global reverberations. With its 3,000 square miles
of rugged beauty in its surrounding area, its 360,000 English-speaking residents with
countless millions of relatives across the Atlantic, its enormous appeal as a destination for
tourists and especially to members of its global family, its young and well-educated labor
force able and impatient to carry on the tradition of doing quality work and raising
quality families, and with its location just 80 miles from Belfast and 150 miles from
Dublin, the North West provides fertile ground for an extension of the growth that has
transformed the Republic into a spectacular success story for the European Union over
the last fifteen years and, much more importantly, a triumph of prosperity and pride for
the people of Ireland. Now it is time to share that laudable accomplishment with a city
and a region that is deserving and eager for a priceless opportunity to contribute their
legendary work ethic and finely honed talents to lifting their special corner of the
homeland to a state of grace and glory.
The rising tide lifts all boats, as America's and Ireland's favorite son Jack Kennedy said,
and that is certainly as true on Lough Foyle as is it on Massachusetts Bay. It is a positive
sum game for the stars are truly aligned on this one: The time is right for change, the
peace has shown its stamina since 1998, the people are ready for steady employment and
growth for the long haul, the young yearn for something way beyond minimum wage
service jobs and public assistance, and the civic fabric of the community is working
diligently towards reconciliation and integration across the religious chasm. The region
has many elegant balances of the charming rural with the dynamic urban, new skills with
old work ethics, the vitality of new developments with the perspective gained from its
eternal walls, and the promise of the future woven into a fabric of strength tested over
fifteen centuries of great but tumultuous history.
For years neglected by Belfast, London, and Dublin as a backwater region, the North
West now seems better positioned on both social and political grounds than those in the
conventionally more privileged Belfast-centered region of Northern Ireland. It is Belfast
where paramilitary power rises while political stalemate persists. It is Belfast where
ghettos breed the deepest alienation, walls insure the highest isolation, and hopes fade
most sadly that peace might someday bring understanding.
In the North West, on the other hand, the ghettos are not so deeply mired, the walls are
not so high, and hope remains that ways may be developed to find a global role. With a
civil society structure that allows for communication across both river and tradition, with
a political structure that sometimes moves beyond caricature and posture to the address of
real concerns, with an economic base poised to at least compete, and with an ethnonational base that mirrors the structure of the island as a whole—it is the North West that
may be better poised to lead on in the new millennium.
To be sure, the gods give no guarantees that this finest chapter will be written in this far
Irish corner. The story of this island’s past evokes a litany of divisions among competing
provinces and religions and classes and lands beyond. The greater story, yet to be lived
or written, would tell of a widening harmony across the circles with which this telling
began: over the walls to the Bogside and the Waterside, into Donegal and throughout
Ulster, and across the island of Ireland, and to England. Because the global society
knows no bounds, the story would extend to Europe, America, and the rest of the globe,
for there will continue to be found communication, trade, and growth. In every corner of
the globe, after all, there exists a desperate need to learn how even the most pernicious of
conflicts can ultimately be resolved. And it is that achievement that today stands within
reach in Ireland’s North West.
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Jon Van Til will return to Derry at the end of the January to help Swarthmore College’s
student participants in a semester abroad program learn about their new hometown for the
Spring term, the city of Derry/Londonderry. Van Til is the author of a new book,
Breaching Derry’s Walls: The Quest for a Lasting Peace in Northern Ireland, published
by University Press of America. The article above is excerpted from that book.
Breaching Derry’s Walls is the first book to examine the island-based society of Ireland
from the point of view of its Northwest quadrant. In particular, Derry, a city long known
as a center for culture, plays a central role in Professor Van Til’s research. Dividing his
sections historically pertaining to societies and conflicts, Van Til draws upon his
personal experience as a Fulbright scholar to provide a fresh and original way of
conceptualizing Ireland and all its facets. Appealing to students and conflict specialists,
this book implements a new vantage point for understanding the Northern Ireland region.
Van Til, a 1961 graduate of Swarthmore College, is Professor of Urban Studies at
Rutgers University, Camden (New Jersey, USA). He has served as Fulbright
Distinguished Scholar (2004) and Fulbright Senior Specialist (2006) at the University of
Ulster, and is the author of ten books, including MAPPING THE THIRD SECTOR
(1988) and GROWING CIVIL SOCIETY (2000). Van Til served as Editor-in-Chief of
the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly from 1977-1989, was twice elected
president of the Association for Research in Nonprofit Organization and Voluntary
Action (ARNOVA), and received that association’s Career Award for Distinguished
Research and Service in 1994.
Roy Van Til, a consulting economist based in Farmington, Maine, joined his brother in
writing several chapters of Breaching Derry’s Walls, including the excerpt provided
above. Roy is currently developing a contextual atlas on the North West of Ireland.
i
Specifically, all of County Donegal in the Republic plus the districts of Limavady and
Derry in western County Londonderry along with the inland districts of Strabane and
Omagh in western County Tyrone.