By Sean Guay
Hershey, Pennsylvania — During an April 2025 public meeting in Northern Ireland, members were informed that their council had received a request to twin Derry City with Derry Township in Pennsylvania. The request was received from the Derry Presbyterian Church Pastor, Reverend Dr. Stephen McKinney-Whitaker. Derry Presbyterian Church is located on Derry Road in Hershey.
Reverend Whitaker then appeared at a public meeting in Pennsylvania to announce the anticipated advancement of the proposal. On May 13 at a Derry Township Board of Supervisor’s meeting, Whitaker told the board of his meetings in Washington D.C. with officials from Northern Ireland who are eager to move forward with the joint venture, backed by a unanimous city council vote. He expressed a sense of urgency about the matter amid a shifting political landscape in Derry.
Whitaker said the city council voted unanimously to move forward with the proposal, “which is very rare for Northern Ireland and Derry with its history differing political parties and conflict, and they all love the idea. The Northern Ireland government really like the idea,” Whitaker said.
Whitaker said he has presented the idea to representatives from Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company, The Hershey Company, Hershey Chamber of Commerce, Milton Hershey School, and Penn State Hershey Medical Center. He has an upcoming meeting with Derry Township School District Superintendent Stacy Winslow, who has also expressed interest in the possibility of transferring overseas exchange students between Ireland and Pennsylvania.
In Northern Ireland, Derry is also in the process of twinning with Bethlehem City in Israel, and according to a statement by the mayor, “This decision reflects the historical unshakable reaction between the Palestinian and the Irish people, and our shared commitment to fostering mutual understanding as well as strengthening the bonds of cooperation and friendship between our two cities.”
Derry, officially named Londonderry, is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland with a population of 85,200, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Scots-Irish immigrants were the first to travel from Derry to settle in central Pennsylvania according to a report highlighted by Derry Journal.
“A group established a church and town there and named it Derry,” the report added. “The connections between the two Derry communities were lost and then rekindled when John Hume visited Hershey, formally the municipality of Derry, for a conference about 30 years ago and came across the town.”
John Hume was a prominent Irish nationalist politician from Northern Ireland, known for his role in the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and his efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Northern Ireland. He was a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Informal conversations began in September 2024 and current Mayor, SDLP councillor Lilian Seenoi-Barr, hosted an online meeting in January 2025 bringing representatives from both places together to explore the possibilities of twinning.
Chief Executive John Kelpie received a request in March from Reverend McKinney-Whittaker, as well as a twining proposal from Reverend Dr David Latimer. In his proposal letter, Reverend Latimer said that 30 years ago Mr. Hume had “shared his excitement with me having found a Presbyterian Church called Derry in Pennsylvania and, close by, a little town called Londonderry.”
First black mayor amid political turmoil
SDLP member Lilian Seenoi-Barr, who arrived from Kenya in 2010, made history when she received the chain of office at Derry’s guildhall and became Northern Ireland’s first black mayor. Her selection sparked controversy in the SDLP political party, resulting in the resignation of two officials.
Seenoi-Barr grew up in Narok in southern Kenya. Her father was a doctor and her mother ran a business. Seenoi-Barr attended university and is proud of her “beautiful, vibrant” Maasai heritage, but not the traditions of early marriage and female genital mutilation, which she campaigned against, and superstitions about disability. To shield her son, who is autistic, she moved to Northern Ireland in 2010, she said.
Seenoi-Barr has received death threats and racist abuse after Alex Jones suggested that Ireland is being “invaded,” and again when she was chosen by the Social Democratic and Labour Party to be mayor of Northern Ireland’s second city. A man was jailed last month for posting abusive messages online toward Seenoi-Barr.
She said the attacks are “rooted in prejudice” and believes she has been targeted because of her ethnicity and background, according to the BBC.
“I am a Maasai woman and a Derry Girl,” she said.
Seenoi-Barr said she is proud to call Derry her home and that the abuse she has received will not deter her from carrying out her duties as mayor.
Following the initial threats, Seenoi-Barr became more security-conscious after doing a six-week self-defense course at the request of her relatives in Kenya. Her training included running, weight-lifting and threat assessment. “I hated it at first, but then I began to feel strong and enjoyed it,” she said.
Intimidation was deterring some “good politicians” from challenging hate-mongers, said Seenoi-Barr. “It is the fear.” But threats from “keyboard warriors” would not stop her leading the council, she said. “This city has given me so much, it has given me a family, it has given me a safe environment, it’s given me friends and it’s given me a home, so all you really want to do is give back.”
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