The Five Demands

Il vice Primo Ministro Martin McGuinness ha dichiarato al Derry Journal, che il 2009 sarà l’anno di Derry.
I prossimi dodici mesi infatti, saranno dedicati alla riqualificazione delle aeree di Ebrington e Fort George, e soprattutto alla costruzione di un ponte pedonale sul fiume Foyle.
A quest’ultima opera, il vice Primo Ministro dell’Irlanda del Nord, conferisce un’enorme importanza sociale, perchè dovrebbe riunire quelle che sono le realtà nazionalista e unionista. “Avremo una comunità, non più due”, ha dichiarato McGuinness, che ha aggiunto: ‘Derry ha un ruolo decisivo nella rigenerazione, non sono del Nord, ma di tutta l’isola’.
L’Esecutivo stanzierà 20 miliardi di sterline nei prossimi dieci anni, per la costruzione di nuove infrastrutture e per l’ampliamento di alcune già esistenti.
E’ già iniziata la costruzione di due nuovi stabili adibiti a scuole nel centro della città, e è in programma lo sviluppo dell’Altnagelvin Hospital.

‘An excting year for Derry’, predicts McGuinness
2009 could be one of the most exciting years in Derry’s history, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has told the ‘Journal’.
Mr McGuinness says the next twelve months will be “critical” for the redevelopment of the city with work getting underway at both the Ebrington and Fort George sites and the construction of a footbridge across the River Foyle.
The Sinn Féin MP is convinced these redevelopment projects will help unite nationalists and unionists in the city, insisting that, in the future, we will have “one community rather than two.”
“As an Executive, we are going to spend upwards of £20 billion in the next ten years on infrastructural projects; these are going to be exciting times, particularly for this city,” he told the ‘Journal’ yesterday. “Derry has a critical role to play in the regeneration of not just the North but the entire island.
“We will have developments at Altnagelvin Hospital and work has already begun on two new school buildings in the city.
“By the end of next year, we will see the first manifestations of Ilex’s work in the city with the redevelopment of the sites at Fort George and Ebrington. The new pedestrian bridge will be a major development for the city, both in terms of infrastructure and symbolism. Physically, by uniting the city, the bridge will consign all the nonsense about having a separate city in the Waterside firmly in the past.
“We are in a position now where we need to be talking about the community rather than communities because the reality is that we are all one community,” Mr McGuinness said.
The Deputy First Minister, while acknowledging the difficult economic climate, maintains there is cause for optimism.
“We are facing into an economic storm but it is one we can weather and it will not last forever,” he said. “During the course of the past year, my colleague Martina Anderson brought key figures from the American business world to the city and before Christmas I met with some of them and they are still looking for new places to invest.”
Mr McGuinness says other Executive members are now committed to the redevelopment of Derry.
Agree economically
“We are now in a position where Executive ministers – while we may differ politically – agree on economic terms, and we are determined to show them that the world does not begin and end in Belfast.”