You Think You Know County Derry/Londonderry? Quiz

Answer: People can't agree on the name

The original name of the city, and county, was Doire, Derry in its anglicised form. During the arrival of Protestant settlers from Great Britain the London Livery Companies were granted a Royal Charter to develop the area. The settlers added the prefix "London" to the name "Derry" as a mark of appreciation to their benefactors.

The native Irish, whom the settlers dispossessed, didn't agree but had little say in the matter. That was in 1613 and ever since nationalists favour using the name Derry, and unionists Londonderry. Derry/Londonderry is used in an attempt to avoid offending one side or the other.

Answer: Mountsandel

Mountsandel near Coleraine in County Derry/Londonderry is thought to be the oldest recorded settlement within Ireland. It is a Mesolithic site which carbon dating has indicated is about 9,000 years old. The site is a scheduled historic monument.

Answer: The Lower River Bann

The Lower Bann River leaves Lough Neagh at Toome. It is approximately 200ft (60m) wide for most of its 40 mile (60km) length before it enters the Atlantic on the north coast between Portstewart and Castlerock.

Answer: A library

About a half mile (0.8km) from the Mussenden Temple is Downhill Palace built in 1785 by Frederick Augustus Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol and Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry. He built the Mussenden Temple as a library which he modelled on the Temple of Vesta in Italy. It is dedicated to the memory of Hervey's cousin Frideswide Mussenden.

Answer: The Ponderosa

Johnnie Fox's Pub in Glencullen, County Dublin, claims to be the highest pub in the country but this is taken to mean the Republic of Ireland, thus excluding Northern Ireland. The Ponderosa is claimed to be the highest public house on the whole island of Ireland at 947ft (305m) above sea level.

Answer: The Mountjoy

Warships arrived in Lough Foyle in June 1689 but initially chose not to tackle a heavily defended boom across the River Foyle. It wasn't until 28th July that two armed merchant ships, the Phoenix and the Mountjoy, arrived. The Mountjoy, under Capt. Micaiah Browning, a native of the city, rammed and breached the boom.
The siege of the city had lasted 105 days during which a reported 8000 of a, mainly Protestant, population of 30,000 were said to have died. Capt. Micaiah Browning was one of five men that died during the relief of the city.

Answer: 52

Although the official surrender of German U-boats was at Lisahally, the port of Derry/Londonderry, individual U-boats were ordered to proceed to the nearest allied port to surrender. All the same there were nine of the 21 class, four of the nine class and thirty nine of the seven class, a total of fifty two U-boats that surrendered at Lisahally.

Answer: Limavady

The tune of "Danny Boy" is what Jane Ross noted down in Limavady. The words however were written by a English lawyer named Frederic Edward Weatherly who is thought never to have set foot in Ireland.

Answer: Castlerock

Castlerock is a seaside village five miles west of Coleraine very popular with tourists. It is bound to the west by the grounds of Downhil Palace, owned by the National Trust, and two railway tunnels. To the east is a 18 hole links golf course and the Lower River Bann, and to the north the Atlantic Ocean.

Answer: The Poet Laureate

Seamus Heaney was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature and was a professor at Harvard from 1981 to 1997. He was also a Professor at Oxford and in 1996 was made a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres. Other awards include the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the E. M. Forster Award, the PEN Translation Prize, the T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread Prizes.

In 2011, he was awarded the Griffin Poetry Prize and in 2012, a Lifetime Recognition Award from the Griffin Trust. Not too shabby for a lad from County Derry/Londonderry.