Michael Cooper of Blue Badge Tours.
Five hundred schoolchildren are taking part in guided tours of their own city as part of the Junior Warden project in Derry.
The project, which encourages the junior wardens to take a positive and active role in looking after their own communities, is co-ordinated by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) and receives funding from the Policing and Community Safety Partnership.
The whirlwind tours take the children on a journey around the city touching on all the major events from the arrival of Colmcille and Viking plunderers, through the Plantation of Ulster, and the Siege of Derry; emigration; the Industrial Era of Shipbuilding and Shirt Making, Derry’s role in World War Two, right through the Troubles and the peace process right up to the current day.
Led by Michael Cooper, of Derry Blue Badge Tours, the tours aim to let the junior wardens see their city as visiting tourists would, highlighting the important historical and cultural landmarks and ongoing regeneration, whilst taking many of them to parts of the city they had never been before; with the aim of instilling a new sense of pride in their home city.
NIHE social education officer, Patrick Duddy, said the tours played a “pivotal role” in the junior warden project.
He added: “It gives the children a chance to see what a great city they live in and gives them plenty of reasons to want to help look after it.”
