Derry has plenty to celebrate and together we can realise ambitions

Congratulations and good luck to them.

If it were me, having won on Saturday night, I would likely be giving off that the Credit Union was closed on the Sunday.

There’s something in my psyche that even in the warming glow of good news or fortune, I can find some way to find that one rain cloud.

This negative self-belief is no accident. It comes from growing up in our place.

We’ve been promised much and frequently let down.

We’re not used to getting the breaks, for good things to happen to or for us.

It is understandable, of course.

signals

The signals are all there. When someone is good to us, do we question it? Do we question that they are sincere? Are we envious of others?

Do we believe that this is how things will always be and that there is nothing, not even we, can change?

Working and engaging with leaders and communities across these islands, and internationally, many with similar or indeed worse experiences than our own, I see this negative self-belief more evident here than anywhere else.

So, it was refreshing that the new President of Derry Chamber, Greg McCann, took time to challenge us, to step back and look objectively to what we have.

He said, “This is the region with a combination of the following assets.

"A scalable metropolitan population of 450,000 people.

"A cross border region with two universities in UU Derry and ATU in Letterkenny.

"It is also the only other urban region outside of Belfast that has a City Deal and all the potential that can bring by leveraging private sector investment.”

He went on to talk about green investment opportunity at Foyle Port potentially serving the huge offshore wind opportunity and in turn, alongside our power station, develop a green hydrogen hub.

We have our regional airport with a vital Heathrow link and growing, even this week, connections to other cities.

And Derry is also the only border located UNESCO learning City in these islands.

We’ve plenty to celebrate but much more to do, with the support, leadership, and investment of others, to “unleash our latent economic powerhouse potential” as Greg described.

commitment

That begins with delivering on the New Decade New Approach commitment that “The Executive will bring forward proposals for the development and expansion of the UU campus at Magee College, including the necessary increase in maximum student numbers to realise the 10,000 student campus target”.

That’s the precise wording and something that will keep me personally busy for the remainder of 2024.

The Executive is back but they’ve only got at best three years to get stuff done for Derry.

We may not have won the Lotto just yet, but we’ve our hands on some decent numbers and working together and supporting each other, we may just be able to finally realise our ambitions.

Congratulations to the lottery winners and God bless the Credit Union.