Minister for Infrastructure Liz Kimmins is encouraging the public to have their say on exciting new proposals to revitalise Derry’s Central Riverfront area. The £45million project will be delivered as part of the Derry and Strabane Region City Deal. A Public information gathering event will be held at the Guildhall in Derry on Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th of February to gather views from the public and key stakeholders in relation to the public realm elements of the project. For those unable to attend, you can find out more information and give your views via the website at consultationspace.com/centra…

CRAM opposes Rosemount Factory 100-bed student accomodation derrynow.com/news/local-news…

Ambitious plans unveiled for Derry’s Rosemount Factory Further discussion called for 100-bed student accommodation sticking point ✍️ @DerryNow derrynow.com/news/local-news…

On radio today, a local group spoke of redeveloping the Rosemount factory. Part would accommodate students. Cost: £5m to purchase/renovate. The group said UU told them it couldn't afford to contribute. REMINDER: UU pays back £6.3m yearly for a loan needed to build UU Belfast.

The history of Jacob’s biscuits is baked into the very fabric of Dublin. What began as a modest Quaker enterprise in Waterford soon became one of the capital’s most recognisable industrial and cultural landmarks. The company was founded in 1851 by brothers William and Robert Jacob, and within two years they had uprooted to Dublin, setting up shop in a former coach house on Peter’s Row in the Liberties. The move was a gamble, but by the 1880s, Jacob’s had grown into a sprawling red-brick factory complex dominating the Bishop Street skyline. It was here in 1885 that their most famous creation was born, the Cream Cracker. The Jacob’s biscuit factory was like a mini city unto itself. At its height it employed thousands, many of them women, who found in its gates not only work but community. The company provided a swimming pool, recreation rooms, and free medical and dental care long before such welfare schemes were more common. For generations, Jacob’s became part of Dublin family life, its clock tower visible from the south city, its baking aroma drifting across the Liberties. In 1913, the site was one of the flashpoints of Larkins great Dublin Lockout. Workers protesting there included the young Rosie Hackett, who would eventually lend her name to one of the city’s bridges. Three years later, in the turmoil of the 1916 Rising, the Jacob’s factory took on an altogether different role. With its fortress-like walls and commanding height, it was occupied by the Irish Volunteers. Fifty years later in 1966, the company merged with its old rival Boland’s, forming Irish Biscuits Ltd. Of course Boland's Mills also served as the hq for the 3rd Battalion of the Irish Volunteers during the Easter Rising, commanded by Dev in 16. Anyway a decade later in 1976, the Jacob’s Bishop Street works fell silent, as production shifted to a new purpose-built factory in Tallaght. The departure marked the end of an era. The Liberties lost one of its great employers, and the city lost one of its most distinctive industrial landmarks. Yet Jacob’s endured as biscuits continued to roll off Irish production lines a while longer until 2009, when operations finally ceased after 156 years. The Tallaght factory closed, and the brand passed into new ownership, eventually becoming part of the Valeo Foods empire. A section of the Bishop Street factory still stands, its brickwork incorporated into the National Archives and the Dublin Institute of Technology. Behind those walls are the archives of the company itself. Theres pay slips, photographs, and the faint record of a little city of women within a city.