STROKE CITY?????

Posted by Rupert Wilson on August 06, 2003

In Reply to: STROKE CITY????? posted by Lotg on August 06, 2003

The name 'Stroke City'for Londonderry, N.Ireland comes simply from the fact that the city is known to Unionists as Londonderry and to Nationalists as Derry. To avoid offending either party, therefore, it became common to refer to the city as "Derry- stroke-Londonderry" or "Londonderry-stroke-Derry". In this connection, the use of the word 'stroke' stems from the time before e-mails and is used to describe what is now known as the 'forward slash'. It could just have easily have become 'Oblique City', as some older people (like me) still use 'oblique' for 'forward slash'.
I believe the name 'Stroke City' was coined by a local BBC radio station in the 70s, but I'm not sure about that.