Derry and Limerick
or ideal communities, the advantages of centralisation of government gravitate from the circumference to the centre. Little wonder, then, that England felt the vicious pecking of "Wild Geese" at Fontenoy. Little wonder that Irish Presbyterians, driven across the Atlantic by similar persecution, fought shoulder to shoulder with Irish Catholics at Bunker's Hill.
In old Derry, now the heart of a modern city, a lofty shaft upon the walls stands, not for an individual, but for the spirit of the men of 1689. In old Limerick, now little more than a dingy suburb, a dull grey stone stands for the spirit of the Penal Laws.
The one commemorates the triumph of self-reliance, the other the folly of reliance upon English faith.
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