The burghers of Derry are understandably anxious to recast the city’s image. A commonly held view among outsiders is that getting drunk and random unprovoked violence are the citizens’ main cultural activities.

Inspired by examples like the transformation the Olympics wrought on Athens they decided that a similar but more modest prestige event might sprinkle some magic dust over the Bogside.

And so it came to pass that Martin McGuinness was able to say  the evocatively nonsensical sentence “This in an evening when hope and history rhymes in Derry.” Derry has been selected as the United Kingdom’s Capital of Culture for 2013. One of attractions is that the lucky town gets to host the Brit awards. “Brit” in this context is an abbreviation of “British”.

McGuinness is on record as saying that Sinn Féin aims to have a united Ireland by 2016, a mere three years after the Capital of Culture jamboree. There could be some grand master plan at work here. The UK Capital of Culture may the last hurrah for British territorial claims over the north of Ireland and the Brit Awards ceremony that year closes with Amy Winehouse declaring that Prime Minister Gove has decided that the last British soldier will leave Ireland on Good Friday 2016.

That’s one possibility. The other is that those sections of Derry’s population which would rather not use the prefix “London” in front of the city’s name plan all sorts of mischief to thwart Bono’s attempt to sing Sunday Bloody Sunday while waving a massive Union Jack. They may also be a bit dischuffed with McGuinness’ sudden embrace of the town’s British identity.

Apparently the year “will open with a spectacular Sons and Daughters event”. This is an interesting but quixotic choice and must be a nod to the Ulster-Scots lobby. For anyone unacquainted with their oeuvre the video shows the Glasgow combo’s very finest song.  It does not have the sort of mass appeal you want for an event like that but at least it’s preferable to dragging the Undertones out of retirement.