Day 29 - July 11, 2024 - Belfast Ireland

 

Outside Belfast City Hall

Today I had a wonderful day in Belfast Ireland.  Our tour guide, named Shamus, had been a school principal and had to reinvent himself as a tour guide after an accident.  HE WAS AMAZING.  He was a wealth of knowledge and humorous to boot.  He was absolutely the best tour guide so far.

On our way out of the port this morning, we got to look at Sampson and Goliath.  The two largest cranes in the world. Able to lift 100,000 tons. Belfast was a very wealthy country due to their shipbuilding industry, their rope making industry and in the past their linen manufacturing. Belfast, of course, is where the Titanic was built. There was a poor joke made about the ship being in perfect condition when it was handed over by the shipyard to the White Star line. 

Sampson and Goliath (cranes)

He had a great Bill Clinton joke and a not so bad Viagra joke.  You'll have to read to the end...for those.  

We Belfast on what amounted to probably a perfect day. It was cold and rainy for the last 2 days. We had sunshine for the first day in court a number of days. But in addition, traffic was light and crowds were low and our bus driver was able to get us to a number of sites around the city because time allowed. 

Our first stop was at the Parliament building and it was empty. Parliament is not in session but there were no other tours. We only did a photo stop outside but as a picture show, it's a beautiful building and the long drive up to the building with the trees on either side was really pretty.

Parliament building 

Our guide, Shamus 

Our next stop was at the Belfast Castle. Again we hit it perfectly. We were allowed inside as there were no events and we had time to walk through the gardens. The city of Belfast owns this castle now. Prior ownership with some Lord or another, had the belief that a white cat on the grounds was good luck. When the city took ownership they thought it would not be a good idea to keep cats however they have nine cats throughout the gardens and it was suggested as we walked around to try and locate them. I didn't realize I was looking for a mosaics I thought I was looking for statues. As it turned out they were in all shapes and conditions. There were mosaics, a cat created into the metal work of a bench, and a bush carved in the shape of a cat. I only found four of the nine but had beautiful views through the gardens as well as inside the castle.

Bill Clinton and Hillary were here and are loved by many of the Northern Ireland people. After his infidelity issues, 100 Irish women were asked if they would sleep with Bill Clinton, 88% said, "not again".

Our guide was telling us about all the famous people who had been born here and their contributions to society. He mentioned Dunlop, of Dunlop tires and many others. There was a gentleman who invented the portable defibrillator. I can't recall all of the others that he mentioned. 

But he mentioned that the inventor of a drug, that would never used here in Ireland was invented and exported to the US as well as the rest of the world. Of course the drug is Viagra. A gentleman piped up and said that he took it a half of a Viagra pill everyday to keep him from piddling on the floor.

Belfast Castle 

Grounds around the castle 

Cat 1 found 

Cat 2 found 

Cat 3 found.   Look closely at the metal work 

Cat 4 found... topiary carved into the bush

The next area that we drove by is referred to as the area of mural art.  I learned a lot today about the unionist s versus the nationalists and while there is peace here in Ireland after the signing of the Good Friday Accord in 1998 there are still divided sentiments. Northern Ireland is British. This includes Belfast and surrounding six additional counties. Southern Ireland, which includes Dublin and 25 other counties is the separate Republic of Ireland. Unionists prefer to be aligned with the British empire or Union. There is an extremist side to the unionists, the Republicans or loyalists. These people also want to be aligned with Britain but will take action to ensure it stays that way. The nationalists want separation from Britain and want to be aligned with the southern portion of Ireland, a separate Republic. That's as much history as I'll put into this blog but our bus driver, a former school principal, did his best in explaining what people want and shaped it all with a very positive note. He explained that he was giving us the past history of Belfast and Ireland and painted some very dark days and stormy fighting, and killing that went on in the name of how the country should be fashioned. 

It was never a religious war. In various attempts to measure the number of supporters in the unionist camp versus the nationalist camp, people were grouped and typically if you were a unionist then you were typically Protestant and went to a Protestant church. 

 

And if you were a nationalist you were typically went to a Catholic church . That was the only way for a census to be taken of the political side people took. The war was never based upon Catholics versus Protestant religion. But more on ideology about separating from the British empire or not. 

The people of Ireland, most under the age of 40 don't recall or think about the internal war and conflict that went on.  Our guide painted a future of promise and unity and a hope for the country's healing.

  

There is forty kilometers of a physical wall (mural art), up to ten meters high in some locations separatinh two religious communities living side by side. For more than thirty years, the controversial time known as "The Troubles" has had a powerful impact on the city and its residents. Very few people, if any, were unaffected by the violence that plagued the area and everyone has a story to tell.

There is an affiliation of some people here with the people of Palestine. Many of the murals you'll see, confirm this. They liken Palestine as a homeless country with the struggles that Northern Ireland has gone through in the past. There is another faction, of course, who associate themselves with Israel.

This gate, below, is actually locked at night keeping one neighborhood from gaining access to another neighborhood. Again, the extreme factions of the unionists and the nationalists. It was created as a temporary gate but the concern about removing it as the possibility to bring conflict and fighting back and so the gate remains and is locked nightly to keep strife from reoccurring.

On the other side of this wallvto the left, is a Republican neighborhood. This would be the extremist side of the Unionist supporters.  

On the other side of the street, to the right, would be considered the Nationalist neighborhood which is best to be kept separate from the Republican neighborhood to this day.

We next drove through the neighborhood where the unionists will be having a very large parade tomorrow. You'll see all the red white and blue of the British empire being displayed in banners and buntings across the street. It will be a big party tomorrow, a national holiday, and simply a parade in honor of  Northern Ireland support of the British empire. Had we come tomorrow, we would never have been able to see this area as the crowds will be huge and the street closed.  The color orange will be in display a great deal. Orange is the color representing King William III of England.  He was known as William of Orange because he was from Orange in the Dutch Republic. He married his cousin Mary, which later gave him a claim to the English crown where he became King William III of England.

The queen and her son, sit across the street from each other.

Our next stop was in front of the Queens College of Belfast, a beautiful school and the alma mater of our tour guide. School is no longer in session for the summer and so there were few people around. It looks like a beautiful college and is evidence of the money that had been here in Northern Ireland due to all of their industry. 

This art statute is also a time capsule.

Some miscellaneous pictures I took through the bus window. This is another pub with beautiful tile work on the front.

I couldn't snap this picture quick enough to get the name, but this is the oldest building in Belfast, and of course, it's a pub

Our next to last stop was at Belfast City Hall again a testament to the wealth of Belfast when this was built. We stopped here because of the Titanic memorial out front of City Hall. We were able to go in and look around and take a few pictures as well. 

This memorial tourised in the Titanic disaster is in alphabetical order by name, and not by first class passengers, second class, steerage, employees.  Included in these names are eight people who perished during the building of the Titanic in the shipyard.

The Titanic memorial statue 

Inside Belfast City Hall

Even in City Hall, some of the stained glass windows are commentary to the strife in the past.

Our last stop before returning to the ship was in front of the Titanic museum, a tourist event, of course but one that brings in quite a bit of revenue and is on the top five list of things one must do when in Belfast. I did not tour the museum. The beauty of the museum is evident from the outside though. 

The museum tells the story of Titanic, from her conception in Belfast in the early 1900s, through her construction and launch, to her maiden voyage and subsequent place in history.

Located in an architecturally-unique building on the original slipways where Titanic was designed, built and launched.

Dinner tonight is at the Italian restaurant on the ship, Manfriedi's. I'm looking forward to a good dinner. 

Tomorrow we land in ulapool Scotland, another British empire.  We will be landing in Scotland at three ports over the next 3 days including Edinburgh, where we were, a little over 2 weeks ago.