The Honourable The Irish Society, the ancient London body that effectively put the London in Derry by building the city walls, still exists (quaint name included).

BBC: A feast of festivities marks UK City of Culture

There is probably no society in the history of mankind (with the possible exception of Cambodia and maybe ancient Sparta on small scales) that has been subject to more massive attempts at utopian experiments in social engineering: mass starvations, forced abortion and infanticide policies, ideological 180-degree mid-air gainers on the status of wealth creation, massive persecution of its most promising cultural and political revitalization movements, stop-start monetary policy.

FORBES: The Great Relearning