[3][4][5] The siege of Derry began in December 1688 when 13 apprentice boys[6] shut the gates of the city against a regiment of twelve hundred Jacobite soldiers, commanded by the Roman Catholic Alexander Macdonnell, Earl of Antrim, which was immediately withdrawn.

[7] Retaliatory action passed to the Duke of Tyrconnel who assembled a large but poorly ordered Jacobite force commanded by Sir Richard Hamilton to march north against the Ulster Protestants.

[8] The deposed King James II, who had travelled from France to Ireland in March, took charge with the aid of two French generals.

The ships' approach was covered against the Jacobite besiegers by cannon fire from the frigate HMS Dartmouth, under Captain (and future Admiral) John Leake.

The Mountjoy rammed and broke the barricading boom at Culmore fort and the ships moved in, unloading many tons of food to relieve the siege.

In recent years, it has transformed into the week-long Maiden City Festival in August and is accompanied by a series of diverse cultural events.

On 1 August 1714, ex-Governor and siege hero Colonel Mitchelburne hoisted the Crimson Flag on the cathedral steeple and formed the first club known as the Apprentice Boys.

[citation needed] However, the British government's Londonderry Riot Inquiry of 1869 found that "the character of the demonstrations (by the Apprentice Boys) has certainly undergone a change, and, among the Catholic lower classes at least, they are now regarded with the most hostile feelings".

This remains the governing body of the association, each of the eight clubs sending an equal number of representatives, together with delegates of various amalgamated committees around the UK.

The celebrations continued in the usual form with the firing of the siege cannons (today a small replica is used), the ringing of the cathedral bells, the hoisting of the Crimson Flags and the laying of wreaths in memory of those who sacrificed their lives.

In December they continue with the burning of an effigy of Robert Lundy (the Governor of Derry who had wished to negotiate with King James during the siege) and the service of thanksgiving in St Columb's Cathedral.

In 1969, the Apprentice Boys' parade around the walls of Derry sparked three days of intensive rioting in the city, known as the Battle of the Bogside.

Ian Paisley addressed a rally at the courthouse where he told the crowd that the proposed grant was "a bribe to get Protestant people involved in the Anglo-Irish Agreement."

In 1832 the first occasion of the burning of the effigy of Colonel Lundy occurred, the Scottish Protestant Governor during the early part of the siege.