ABOUT THE CENTREt the Centre

Rosemount, a district of Derry in Northern Ireland is situated on a hill overlooking the Bogside area and the city walls. Historically it was slightly outside of the main city area and used to consider itself a small village on the outskirts of the city. In modern times this geography has changed dramatically with Rosemount now situated practically centrally in the huge urban sprawl known as Derry's West Bank, with a main city feeder road running straight through it and large housing developments all around.

Despite this it still has some of the characteristics of its former life. It is still known locally as 'The Village" with the one and only local bar called "The Village Inn." Politically, Rosemount is regarded as a Nationalist or Republican working class area. Prior to the current troubles its population was in fact fairly evenly split between Catholics and Protestants. However, in the early years of the violence many Protestants moved to the East Bank of the city as segregation spread throughout Northern Ireland. Today, only a minority of Protestants, mainly elderly, still live here.

Economically and socially, Rosemount is an area of multi-deprivation rating 13th in Northern Ireland's Poverty Index. Localised unemployment figures in pockets reaches as high as 70%. In common with other areas it has suffered from the troubles with deaths, army raids, shootings and bombings. Many families have had members imprisoned and the local police barrack at one time had the dubious distinction of being the most attacked in Northern Ireland by rockets, grenades, bombs and gunfire.

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