An extremely mouth-watering array of handmade confections and baked goods altogether too good to resist will be on offer at this year’s Guildhall Craft Fair.

The Crisp and Crumbly Bakery will exhibit at the annual fair, taking place from this Friday 18th – Sunday 20th November and featuring over 50 bespoke craft artists from throughout Ireland. The Guildhall Craft Fair creates a unique
Christmas shopping experience in the city while offering support to the local craft industry to attract new clients and customers.

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Source: Derry City Council

Tens of thousands of Irish Americans gathered in Wisconsin during the summer just past for the annual Milwaukee Irish Fest which this year featured a special showcase on Derry and Donegal.

Derry, designated the first ever UK City of Culture, is now issuing a clarion call to its diaspora to come home and join in the celebrations which will take place throughout 2013. Here, chart-topping musician Peter Cunnah explains what makes his home town so “Legend-Derry.”

For a city of just 100,000 people, Derry/Londonderry punches so far above its weight in cultural terms that, if it were a boxing match, the referee would stop the Rest of the World.

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Source: The Irish Echo

Why should tourists want to visit Belfast?  What is there to do here?  Is the place really attractive - or is it just another European backwater city?

A mischievous Stephen Nolan set out to wind up myself and others on his BBC radio show last week.

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Source: Belfast Telegraph

LONDONDERRY will welcome the London 2012 Olympic Torch relay with a large scale evening event at St Columb’s Park next year.

The Olympic Torch Relay Evening Celebration event will take place on Monday, June 4, offering people from across the North West region the opportunity to mark the Olympic Flame’s arrival and celebrate and share in the Olympic Spirit.

As part of the celebrations, a range of events aimed at spreading the message of ‘peace, unity and friendship’ will be organised that will allow the public to celebrate this unique celebration for the city.

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Source: Londonderry Sentinel

The tourism industry has the potential to create thousands of jobs in the north west over the next two years, according to a senior Tourist Board figure.

Siobhan McGuigan, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board’s 2012-2013 project manager, made the comment following a tourism roadshow held in the City Hotel yesterday which was attended by more than 100 people involved in the tourism industry locally.

“There is a huge potential in the Derry area” she said. “We are seeing it as a two year step-changer.

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Source: Derry Journal

As the world marks the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, the theme of the 24th Foyle Film Festival is On Film: Events That Shook The World. As well as exploring the impact of September 11, the festival broadens its focus to highlight other significant events that have had an impact on the local and global political stage. Events such as the Holocaust, the Civil Rights Movement (both domestic and international), Bloody Sunday, the Omagh bombing, the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the Rwandan crisis, all come under the festival spotlight this year.

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Source: Derry Journal

Continuing his countdown to City of Culture 2013, GARBHAN DOWNEY looks at the very best of what Derry and its hinterlands have to offer....

Our good friends at Derry Visitor and Convention Bureau have an annual presence at the World Travel Market in London.

And this week they invited Culture Company to share their stall at the Excel Centre and take part in what is possibly the planet’s biggest tourism gathering.

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Source: Derry Journal

The Chartered Institute of Marketing recently celebrated the highlight of its centenary year- the 2011 Marketing Excellence Awards Ireland in City Hall, Belfast.

The event which attracted more than 400 guests celebrated the remarkable achievements of the marketing profession across the island of Ireland.  Derry City Council and ION marketing received the Marketing Excellence Award for Best on-line Campaign which was part of the campaign to win UK City of Culture 2013 accolade. 

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Source: Derry City Council

 Passenger numbers at City of Derry Airport continue to grow after a highly successful summer season which saw the introduction of a new carrier, Flybe, operating to Manchester and our largest carrier, Ryanair, introducing a new Tenerife service.  All this has been possible despite a general downturn in the aviation sector across the rest of the UK & Ireland; new figures released this week reveal.

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Source: Derry City Council

Derry’s the destination for Christmas shopping with a difference

The Guildhall Craft Fair which takes place from Friday 18th- Sunday 20th November provides a special beginning to Derry’s festive programming.

Set in the magnificent Guildhall, the annual event is the perfect start to Christmas preparations. Offering unique local artisan gifts and seasonal atmosphere, the Guildhall Craft Fair attracts people from throughout the North West who are keen to sample something special and more than the growing consumerism of the festive season.

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Source: Derry City Council

Derry is a city on the verge of greatness, an incredible story is about to reach its most thrilling chapter.

In 2013, the year Derry/Londonderry celebrates the 400th anniversary of its unique walls, it becomes

the inaugural UK City of Culture, heralding a year of events that will boost its global profile and leave an inspiring legacy for generations.

An amazing cultural program will include the All-Ireland Fleadh, WOMAD, The Clipper Round-the-World Yacht Race and the Return of Colmcille to name but a few events.

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Source: The Irish Echo

A touring exhibition celebrating the lives of Ulster sportsmen and women will be on display at the Tower Museum this month.

Entitled ‘Ulster Sporting Heroes,’ the exhibition has been developed by the Ulster Sports Museum and celebrates the success of sport in Ulster.

Welcoming the exhibition, the Mayor Alderman Maurice Devenney said he was delighted the exhibition was coming to the city. “This city and region has produced a large number of high calibre  sporting individuals and teams who have achieved notable success . Some, but not all of them, are mentioned in this exhibition. Of course sport is not just about winning. People participate in sport in many ways, and for most of us being successful does not necessarily mean winning, or reaching the top.  What I really like about this exhibition is the way that it includes some people who are not household names, but in their own way they have achieved great things.”

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Source: Derry City Council

 Derry~Londonderry will welcome the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay with a large scale evening event at St Columb’s Park next year.

The Olympic Torch Relay Evening Celebration event will take place on Monday 04 June, offering people from across the North West region the opportunity to mark the Olympic Flame’s arrival and celebrate and share in the Olympic Spirit.

As part of the celebrations, a range of events aimed at spreading the message of ‘peace, unity and friendship’ will be organised that will allow the public to celebrate this unique celebration for the city.

Please click there to read more.

Source: Derry City Council

The locations have been announced for the London 2012 Olympic torch relay route through Northern Ireland.

The flame arrives in Belfast on 3 June 2012 with relay runners carrying it to more than 60 towns and villages as well as a number of beauty spots.

Torch-bearers will carry the flame over the famous Carrick-a-rede rope bridge and it will also cross Lough Neagh and the River Bann.

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Source: BBC News NI

A NEW tourism trail following St Columb’s journey of exile from the Londonderry area to Scotland will be officially launched in the city next week, according to Culture Minister Carol Ní Chuilín.

The Minister revealed the new Slí Cholmcille trail - a joint project between Foras na Gaelige and the Inverness-based Bórd na Gáidhlig - will be launched on November 10 in response to a query from DUP MLA Gregory Campbell.

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Source: Londonderry Sentinel

A open-air pop concert and an opera about Noah and the Flood may not be the first things that come to mind when you think of the 2012 Olympics.

Nonetheless, both events will be staged in Northern Ireland next year to mark the global sports event.

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has announced its plans for the London 2012 Festival, a 12 week celebration of the arts, running parallel to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the capital.

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Source: BBC News NI

Overseas visitors to Northern Ireland rose by 11 per cent in the first six months of 2011, it was revealed yesterday.

The Tourism Statistics for the first six months of 2011 also showed that overseas visitors spent an estimated £165m during the period, an increase of 24 per cent compared with January to June 2010.

Tourism minister Arlene Foster said: “These are very encouraging figures particularly as Northern Ireland prepares to launch a host of exciting events to celebrate NI 2012.

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Source: News Letter

Top secret files detailing the presence of US Marines in Londonderry during the Second World War have been declassified and are to return to the city.

More than 5,000 US government documents are to be stored in a new museum in the Beech Hill House Hotel as part of a new project detailing the history of the Marines.

Rural Development Minister, Michelle O'Neill, yesterday announced £94,000 for the project from the Rural Development Programme during a visit to the hotel in Ardmore.

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Source: Belfast Telegraph

The success of this year's Halloween celebrations in Londonderry will be used as a template for an even bigger extravaganza to mark the City of Culture year in 2013, according to the event organisers.

As the dust settles and the costumes are put away, the people behind the Halloween celebrations can look back on what has been hailed as a tremendous success.

The Carnival of Lights Parade attracted more than 800 participants and an estimated 30,000 spectators came into the city over the weekend bringing a much- needed boost to traders.

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Source: Belfast Telegraph