There is a huge gulf between Dublin and Cork, and there’s a chasm between Belfast and Derry. Even when they finally get round to building a decent road between Belfast and Derry, there’ll still be a huge space. It’s a second-city thing, Cork people resent overly-bloated Dublin, Derry people resent Belfast getting the plums every time.
Some (mainly unionist) people think Derry is always whingeing, but if you were a Derry person you’d feel you had a lot to whinge about. Going back to the early 1960s, when a shameless Stormont awarded the new university to Coleraine rather than Derry, its obvious home.
At present, Derry has a campus of the Ulster University. It’s been promised all sorts of things to develop it, most of which have never materialised. The latest is its own medical school, which does look as though it might finally happen.
But Derry people, like Oliver Twist, want more. Their goal is an enlarged, independent university, perhaps named in remembrance of John Hume. And they want this university to be a genuine cross-border, triple-campus university located in Derry, Letterkenny and Sligo.
Fine Gael TD Colum Burke has recently spoken up for the project:
“There is great potential for a cross-border university incorporating the existing colleges of higher education in the region into the structures of the [proposed] university. These could include the Magee campus of the Ulster University, the Institutes of Technology in Letterkenny & Sligo, and the North West Regional College in Northern Ireland. The educational, social and economic benefits of a full university in the north west of Ireland are compelling.”
Some people have called for the Foyle Bridge to be renamed the John Hume Bridge. Too limited, I say. Far too limited. A bridge is a grand thing, but a university, especially a cross-border university, is a living thing. It would show what happens when the border in Ireland is ignored: as Colum Burke says, educationally, socially and economically, it would finally bring regeneration to the entire cross-border area.
In fact, the idea is so good, it’s only a question of time before Gregory Campbell denounces it.
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