BY MICHAEL TAGGART:
There is some good news on the horizon. The A6 and A5 routes will finally get dual carriageway with work finally starting this year. But after 80 years of neglect the North West deserves much more infrastructure spending so we can finally take our place on the maps of both Northern Ireland and Ireland.
It will be another four or five years before those new roads will be used. The engineering involved in it all is often complicated, hence the length of time it will take.
But Derry as the fourth largest city on this island needs much much more. When I raise this outside this region, like many others we are accused of complaining all the time. Those who use that argument are apologists for decades of failure by those in power of the people who live in this north west region.
There are more than 100,000 people living in Derry with another 300,000 in our region including Donegal. We have the talent, education and skills to attract inward investment but we have been failed by poor infrastructure for decades. But we have also been failed by the lack of increased university places. An expanded Magee campus – once linked historically to Trinity College Dublin – is urgently needed.
Magee has always played second fiddle in third level education in this country; an echo of how the city has been treated.
As the Presbyterian Church which founded the campus in 1865 says: “Magee always seemed to be dogged by non-recognition and controversy. It failed to obtain University recognition in 1866 and though recognised in 1881 by the Royal University of Ireland, Magee could not offer degrees so students graduated through the Royal University. Then in 1906 when the Irish university structure was re-organised that brought into existence the new Queen’s University of Belfast and the National University of Ireland colleges in Dublin, Galway and Cork, Magee was left out. Magee didn’t join either of these new institutions and instead formed a relationship with Trinity College Dublin whereby Magee students could complete their degrees at Trinity as graduates of the University of Dublin. It was not until 1938 and after changes had been made to the governance of the College that the Parliament of Northern Ireland agreed to provide an annual grant of £2,500 for the College’s Arts departments. A century after being founded the Lockwood Committee on Higher Education in Northern Ireland reported that a second university was to be established in Northern Ireland which would be sited at Coleraine in Co. Londonderry rather than at Magee, much to the disappointment of the people of Londonderry.”
We have so much going for us in the North West. The new Derry-Letterkenny-Strabane city region is going to be a key driver of where we are going next. New links between Magee and Letterkenny are very welcome but we need 10,000 university places in this city. It will change the future direction of this place. Fair play to Mark Patterson on BBC Radio Foyle who has dedicated so much time this week to this subject.
More needed to help families get healthy
Let’s be clear from the start here; I try to lead a healthy lifestyle but I’m not always successful at it.
Keeping busy can be healthy, especially if you’re working outdoors a lot.
We all try to choose the right kind of foods too when we can.
But I’m constantly baffled at how little those in power understand the direct link between keeping fit and the NHS.
Exercise is free. It needn’t cost anything.
But if you live in the Derry City area and want membership for you and your family at the Foyle Arena, it will set you back £1,000 for the year.
According to Cllr Tina Gardiner similar facilities in Maghera in the south of the county will cost you £350.
I do agree there has to be some sort of charge for using leisure facilities but the cost to families must be minimal and affordable and open to all.
Encouraging children to take part in sport and continue a healthy lifestyle into adulthood has the potential to save the NHS millions and millions of pounds a year and not just in relation to the treatment of weight-related illness – exercise can be a wonderful treatment for mental health issues too.
Of course democratic politics and elections every few years (and more often than that in this part of the world) means that no-one in power ever takes the long term view.
Investment in sporting facilities, in healthy communities now will save lives – and save money – in the future. When developing our homes for example in Culmore and Crescent Link, we specifically included green spaces, landscaped and turned into gardens for everyone to enjoy. They are spaces for healthy communities. As I said, exercise can be free. A walk or bicycle ride can be as much fun as hitting a tread mill at the gym.
But if you want to take the children to the pool for a swim or to a climbing wall at the excellent Foyle Arena, it shouldn’t cost the earth to do so.
Hopefully one day we will have a new local health minister again and that he or she starts spending more money on preventative healthcare – stopping future health problems in the generations ahead by investing more in affordable activities and sport.
Sister Act
Talking of sport, basketball is huge in the United States; college basketball is massive.
I love the story recently about the Loyola University Chicago Ramblers men’s team who have upset the odds in the end of season games despite being ranked bottom of the pile.
And the secret behind this success? A 98-year-old nun called Sister Jean Dolores-Schmidt, chaplain to the team. A former player herself she also provides scouting reports, pre-match speeches and post-game analysis (delivered by email apparently!)
Even former President Barack Obama has been impressed by Sister Jean who when asked how she felt on becoming a national celebrity this week in the States responded: “Really, if I can correct you, international.”
Funny and smart!
And finally
A video recently of a ‘creature’ in the Foyle (probably a porpoise) brought back memories of a much bigger visitor to our waters way back in November 1977.
Those of you of a certain age will have memories of killer whale Dopey Dick’s week-long sojourn into unchartered waters. (People travelled from far and wide to get a glimpse and lined the river at Prehen and the old Letterkenny road).
Later identified by experts in Scotland as ‘Comet’ the whale (pictured below) is now touching 60 years old and is still alive and well and part of a family of just eight native killer whales which spends its time in the waters off our coasts.
Michael Taggart is an award-winning local businessman and Strategic Adviser to Taggart Homes @ www.taggarthomes.com
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