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Council Go To Court Over Maiden City's Name
Determined to leave their mark on the landscape of Northern Ireland before the reorganisation of local government which will almost certainly see them swallowed up into a super-council, councillors in Londonderry are to go to the High Court to get a ruling on the official name of the Maiden City.
In 1984 Londonderry Corporation changed its name to Derry City Council. The author of a report published in 2003 took the nationalist position that at that time the name of the city officially changed from Londonderry to Derry too.
In official dealings, citizens who write to the civil service (and I think the council too) will receive a response addressed to whichever name they specify for the city in their initial query - ie if you write the address as Derry, your reply is addressed to Derry while if you use Londonderry, your response is addressed to Londonderry.
This solution seems like a measured and pragmatic compromise to a contentious issue, but apparently it's not enough for the Ireland of Equals nationalists so desperately seek. The city has already seen something of an exodus of Protestants over the last 30 years, leaving nationalists with the majority they need to isolate the remaining minority still further.
This latest act is just more evidence that victory, rather than equality, is the agenda for Sinn Fein. Put simply they won't rest while there remains anything remotely British in their Ireland, and the "moderate" nationalists in the SDLP seem happy to back them in their quest, and happy spending ratepayers cash to do so, despite reservations of the Local Government Auditor.