IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Strand Road, LONDONDERRY, BT48 7TL

The text reads, "The relief of the 1688 - 1689 Siege of the city reinforced the inward migration of the Scottish and English settlers who established the merchant port in the centuries following" - pictured here Image]

I watched a program that Michael Portillo made on the Railways in the British Isles, in which he followed the footsteps of George Bradshaw who produced the Railway Guide for Tourists in Great Britain and Ireland as it was then, in 1866 (the cost was one shilling). In it he traced the journeys that Bradshaw made by train and he was seeing if some of the original features of the countryside remained. Also included was the journey undertaken by emigrants who left the north of Ireland through the port of Derry. When they arrived in the train station, they were met by a shipping agent and they embarked in barges, often overloaded with 300-400 people, dangerously listing and were ferried 18 miles further along to Moville, where a waiting ship that had sailed across from Glasgow, would sail across the Atlantic to Ellis Island. In the case of my aunt Jean's relatives, in 1895 the ship was the Anchoria from the Anchor Line. 10 out of a family of 13 emigrated over a period of 10 years to the new world. Michael Portillo made a documentary on the railways, which included a reference to emigration from Ireland to America This series of sculptures had been previously located at Waterloo Place Image]

A poignant scene depicting the heartache of leaving your native land, in most cases never to return.

Pictured at the quayside beside Sainsbury's in Derry / Londonderry. Michael Portillo did an interview here, which was part of a series of the railways and their connection with shipping agents in the British Isles https://plus.google.com/photos/101203544004597142257/albums/5419311382405370369/5706803946009785762?banner=pwa Some of my aunt's relatives left for the shores of America from here between 1890 and 1900. They travelled on a barge to Moville and joined the Anchoria at Moville to sail for Ellis Island. They worked hard and prospered well in the new land.

One of several located along the quayside beside Sainsbury's. The set of figures behind were originally located at Waterloo Place Image

Pictured at the quayside near Sainsbury's

Looking SSW in the direction of the maiden city. From this location many emigrants left Ireland in the hope of a better future in the "new world". Around the 1900s, one of the routes was by tender to Moville in County Donegal, to embark on a large vessel that would have crossed from Glasgow to sail to Ellis Island, New York.