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I've always been teased by friends for myÌýendless bragging aboutÌýmy hometown but tonight,atÌý725pm, I was probably the most proud I have ever been of being from the city known as Derry, Londonderry, Stroke City (courtesy of Gerry Anderson)Ìýand now the first UK City of Culture 2013. Ìý

I was in the Guildhall when it was announced that Derry had won. The rumours had been flying around all day, but I had braced myself not to believe anything until I heard the announcement. In fact, ÌýI was so keyed up about the whole thing that as I heard it being said everything went into slow motion. I walked into the semi darkness of the Guildhall's main hall, into a throng of people all looking in the same direction towards theÌýgiant tv screens on the stage. The roar that had just gone up on hearing the news was one of pure joy. ÌýThe first person I saw was Pauline Ross, the director of the Playhouse. It was almost like she was in a mystical trance, arms in the air, openly crying and whenÌýI asked her for her immediate reaction, ( I wasÌýon air with Arts Extra),Ìýshe said "I can hardly feel my legs". Pauline is one of the cultural journey men and women who haveÌýinvested their all intoÌýDerry. Her reaction summed up to me the palpable feeling ofÌý rawÌýundilutedÌýjoy mixed withÌývindication,Ìýthe sense thatÌýhere was a recognition of what the city had done and what it can become.

As I was leaving the Guildhall around 830 this evening, IÌýsawÌýmany young people milling around outside, standing chatting, oblivous to the rain coming down. I realised that while I was celebrating the moment it was only after disappointments in the past.ÌýI was a junior arts administrator putting up posters for Field Day Theatre Company shows in the late 80's early 90's, but the city has no legacy of Field Day having been there.ÌýOr when I wasÌýworking on IMPACT 92, the year long arts festival in the city that didn't quite live up to its expectationsÌýin 1993.Ìý

ÌýThese kids don't know this,Ìýso the step change has already happened, the longed forÌý"sea-change
on the far side of revenge" as Seamus Heaney said in "The Cure at Troy".ÌýWords from his play areÌýquoted on the first page of the bid document, the same words which, in 1990,ÌýI heard said on the same stage of the GuildhallÌýthat tonight said City of Culture.
TheÌýteenagers outsideÌýthe Guildhall are the sea change. It didn't take a City of Culture title to appreciateÌýit. But it's good to get the chance to show whatÌýcan happen now. Ìý

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