If you travel in Northern Ireland towards the city of (the officially titled) Londonderry you will notice something unusual about the road signs. Most of them have the word ‘London’ crossed out. In terms of the politics and it’s relation to typography, this, is amazingly simple action but has the full weight of a complex history behind it. The name ‘Londonderry’ dates from 1613 when a new charter granted by James I first stated that the new part of the city should built across the Rover Foyle in honour of livery companies of the City of London who had organised some of the ‘planting’ of protestants in the long catholic city of Derry. An imposition too far for the catholic majority and for the past 400 years, those opposed to the British have refused to call it Londonderry. This is today expressed in the defacing of any sign that mentions the official name. The situation today is dealt with by using the clumsy but more neutral ‘L-derry’ or ‘Derry/Londonderry’.
