The Guildhall hosts major civic events in our city and district. The second inquiry into the murder of citizens by state forces on Bloody Sunday 1972 took place in the Main Hall. I sat in the public gallery, amazed at the theatricality of the proceedings. And, theatre being part of my work, a stage play came to me, dramatising and poeticising the inquiry. Scenes from an Inquiry was produced by Sole Purpose Productions in 2002 and 2022. I adapted the play for radio and RTÉ Radio 1 broadcast it in 2003.
The Guildhall hosts meetings of Derry City and Strabane Council. The Council Chamber is smaller than the Main Hall, but the scene is just as theatrical. The dramatis personae are the elected representatives – councillors – arranged in two arcs, one above the other, facing towards a panel chaired by the Mayor, who is flanked by assistants and council officials. To the Mayor’s right and the councillors’ left is a small public gallery, again on two levels. The upper level is reached by a spiral staircase.
Councillors speak to the Mayor and the panel using microphones at their seats. Orientated front-facing, they talk side-ways to one another, their backs effectively turned on the public gallery. People in the gallery cannot speak to the councillors. When councillors use their microphones they are barely audible in the gallery. In theatrical and democratic terms, the audience is semi-excluded from events.
On June 25th 2025 a full meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council was held. The principal business was the passing of the new Local Development Plan (LDP) on the recommendation of the council’s Planning Sub-Committee. Members of the public were in the gallery, including neighbours of UU Magee, as well as letting agents and landlords handling Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs).
The LDP is a major document for the future, laying out developments in areas of infrastructure, land usage, physical and economic development, environmental considerations and considerations of social improvement. A key element of the plan is the management of Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs), particularly in the Northland area.
An increase in student numbers at the University of Ulster campus is a key driver for the future prosperity of the district. The current model for accommodating students is to have minimal bespoke buildings and to rely on commercial sector provision: by lodging with families and promoting the transfer of family houses to HMOs, essentially creating financial assets that can house as many people as possible, often in unregulated manners, in order to increase rental takings.
The Council proceedings rested on a paradox. All councillors acknowledged there is a glut of HMOs in the Northland area. All agree, in principal, to a cap of 10% on HMOs in the area. However, at the meeting on the 25th June, councillors voted through a Plan which included a cap of 30%. Why did they do this? There is a potent force coming from the University, implying that without a large number of HMOs an expansion of student numbers will not occur. Councillors fear being seen to oppose expansion at UU Magee, which has a hold over the city and district since the 1960s, when university and state authorities joined forces to site the western campus of the University in the town of Coleraine, rather than 80 kilometres further west in the second city, Derry. A cross-party and cross community campaign to welcome the new campus was underway. Now councillors are labelled as whiners and wingers by Belfast authorities when they query the ‘crumbs from the table’ model of resource allocation – ‘take what you’re getting and be thankful for it’ is the current mantra.
Some notable success in rebalancing university provision has been achieved after long years of lobbying by councillors and others, with the post-grad medical and applied health courses now at the Derry campus. Neighbours of UU Magee welcome these successes, though their streets are so congested the Fire and Rescue Service issue leaflets, advising that their vehicles may not be able to gain access; refuse collectors struggle to make collections; buses are delayed and re-routed; neighbours of HMOs call safety wardens and police to respond to problems of partying and noise.
Debate at the Council meeting was minimal. Some councillors spoke, most kept their heads down. The Plan, including a 30% cap on HMOs, was adopted, with two abstentions. Minister Gordon Lyons made a table of HMOs. Of 220 HMOs in the district, 172 are in the Northland area, around UU Magee. This gives an 80% glut, making a mockery of the 30% cap in the plan and way above the 10% cap advised by residents and desired by councillors.
What kind of play might could be made from this? A tragedy? A comedy? A farce? Title? The 30:10 Play. Like much of the human experience, a combination of all three is likely. There was no drama at the meeting, though the sight of some men leaving early suggested they were landlords/agents/developers, satisfied that, once again, the balance was falling to their side rather than to residents. They could get on with the exploitation of much-needed housing stock for short-term private gain. The real drama is happening on the streets, adjacent to the UU Magee campus.
What use would a play be? Theatre can hearten people facing challenges, especially difficult issues like a glut of HMOs. My play Scenes from an Inquiry faced a difficult issue in our city and district, in a period of intense political crisis. A Unionist member of the Policing Board, who attended a performance, told me he learned more about the lived, human experience of Bloody Sunday and the Inquiry at the play than from the books he read, the interviews he’d heard and the films he watched.
Is that not something?
An edited version of this blog post appeared in Derry Journal on-line.
Dave Duggan’s latest work is a collection of essays on his life and practice as a writer: Journeywork, a creative life (Nerve Centre, 2024), described as ‘luminous’ in an Irish Times review. Dave is currently recording an audiobook version.
www.facebook.com/Dave DugganWriter
