Editing Derry (section)

===Coat of arms and motto===
[[File:Coat of Arms, Fire Brigade, Derry - Londonderry - geograph.org.uk - 1187461.jpg|thumb|Derry's arms on an old fire station]]
The devices on the city's arms are a skeleton and a three-towered castle on a black field, with the "[[Chief (heraldry)|chief]]" or top third of the shield showing the arms of the City of London: a red cross and sword on white. In the centre of the cross is a gold harp.<ref>The [[blazon]] runs as follows: ''Sable, a human skeleton Or seated upon a mossy stone proper, and in dexter chief a castle triple-towered argent; on a chief also argent a cross gules, thereon a harp Or, and in the first quarter a sword erect gules.''</ref><ref name="LP2003">Letters Patent certifying the arms of the City of Londonderry issued to Derry City Council, sealed by Garter and Norroy and Ulster Kings of Arms dated 30 April 2003</ref> In unofficial use the harp sometimes appears above the arms as a [[crest (heraldry)|crest]].<ref name="vinycomb">{{cite journal |last=Vinycomb |first=John |date=1895 |title=The Seals and Armorial Insignia of Corporate and Other Towns in Ulster |journal=The Ulster Journal of Archaeology |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=117–119 |jstor=20563546}}</ref>

The arms were confirmed by Daniel Molyneux, the [[Ulster King of Arms]], in 1613, following the town's incorporation.<ref name="vinycomb" /> Molyneux's notes state that the original arms of Derry were "the picture of death (or a skeleton) sitting on a mossie ston and in the dexter point a castle". To this design he added, at the request of the new mayor, "a chief, the armes of London". Molyneux goes on to state that the skeleton is symbolic of Derry's ruin at the hands of the Irish rebel [[Cahir O'Doherty]] and that the silver castle represents its renewal through the efforts of the London guilds: "[Derry] hath since bene (as it were) raysed from the dead by the worthy undertakinge of the Ho'ble Cittie of London, in memorie whereof it is hence forth called and knowen by the name of London Derrie."<ref name="vinycomb" />

Local legend offers different theories as to the origin of the skeleton. One identifies it as [[Walter Liath de Burgh|Walter de Burgh]], who was starved to death in the [[William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster|Earl of Ulster]]'s dungeons in 1332.<ref>{{cite journal |last='Geoghehan |first=Arthur Gerald |date=1864 |title=A Notice of the Early Settlement of Londonderry by the English, &c. |journal=The Journal of the Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=155–156 |jstor=25502656}}</ref> Another identifies it as Cahir O'Doherty himself, who was killed in a skirmish near [[Kilmacrennan]] in 1608 (but was popularly believed to have wasted away while sequestered in his castle at [[Buncrana]]).<ref name="vinycomb" /> In the days of gerrymandering and anti-Catholic discrimination, Derry's Catholics often claimed in dark wit that the skeleton was a Catholic waiting for a job and a council house.<ref name="Lacey" /> However, a report commissioned by the city council in 1979 established that there was no basis for any of the popular theories and that the skeleton "[is] purely symbolic and does not refer to any identifiable person".<ref>L E Rothwell, ''An inquiry initiated by Derry City Council into the ensigns armourial and related matters of the City of Londonderry''</ref>

The 1613 arms depicted a harp in the centre of the cross, but this was omitted from later depictions of the city arms, and in the 1952 [[letters patent]] confirming the arms to the Londonderry Corporation.<ref>Letters Patent ratifying and confirming the arms of the City of Londonderry sealed by Garter and Norroy & Ulster Kings of Arms dated 28 April 1952</ref> In 2002 Derry City Council applied to the College of Arms to have the harp restored. [[Garter Principal King of Arms|Garter]] and [[Norroy and Ulster King of Arms|Norroy & Ulster]] Kings of Arms issued letters patent to that effect in 2003, having accepted the 17th-century evidence.<ref name="LP2003" />

The motto attached to the coat of arms reads in Latin, "Vita, Veritas, Victoria". This translates into English as "Life, Truth, Victory".<ref name="Lacey" />