An Education in Belfast

Before coming to Belfast I knew that I wanted to learn some more about the “Troubles”, that incredibly turbulent time in Northern Ireland history that had been such common news on the news broadcasts when I was a teenager. So I booked us on a tour this morning, Paddy Campbell’s Famous Black Taxi Tours of Belfast. I had expected a bit of a history lesson, but what we got was an education in what life had been life in Belfast for the last 40 years. Cieran, picked us up at 9.30 am in his black taxi ( the classic, huge London taxi) and took us through the sectarian neighborhoods of Belfast, giving us the stories of his own life as he drove. He is 57 years old, the same as me, so it was amazing ( and appalling) listening to his life stories.

On this tour we heard about both sides of the story, and it occurred to me that I had only ever been exposed to one point of view from the news broadcasts that I saw as a teenager that were so predominantly anti-loyalist ( anti-IRA). It reminded me that, in any conflict, there are always so many different points of view. Have you ever heard of the HUGE bonfires that are ( to this day!) lit in protestant neighborhoods of Belfast on July 11th every year, burning Irish flags and other Irish symbols in massive effigy?  I certainly had never heard of them. The sad thing is the “Peace Walls” are still standing and still separating whole communities, and people living along the walls have cages to protect their back yards from projectiles.  The gates separating the communities are still locked every night at 6.30 and opened the next day at 5am.  We drove through the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods along Falls road and Shankhill roads and saw a succession of murals supporting both sides of a sad and terrible struggle.  There were horrible cruelties committed on both sides and he was frank about them all. . Cieran now lives in an unsegregated neighborhood where his children go to “mixed” schools, but a vast proportion of the schools in Nortern Ireland are strictly seperated along religious lines. Cieran’s greatest lament is that, although peace has come, it is a fragile peace, and there are still huge gaps between the opposing sides in this ongoing, terrible human story.  It was an amazing morning.

Homes along the “Peace” wall have cages to prevent projectiles landing in their backyard

the ‘Peace” wall

Headquarters of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the IRA

This was a 22 year old unionist assassin, who had proudly killed 11 people!

A picture of one of the Unionist bonfires at the location it was built.They take months to build.

Our taxi

One of the gates that gets closed every night

Cieran returned us to our hotel by 11am, so we checked out then and drove to , what is arguably, the biggest tourist site in Belfast –  Titanic Belfast, a monument to Belfast’s maritime heritage on the site of the former Harland & Wolff shipyard in the city’s Titanic Quarter where the RMS Titanic was built. It’s housed in a fabulous building , it’s exterior echoes the sahpes of a ships prow as well as the look of waves on an ocean sea. It tells the stories of the Titanic, which hit an iceberg and sank during her maiden voyage in 1912. It was such an amazing museum, set over several floors, taking you through Belfasts history as a maritime city as well as the full story of the Titanic. There were several floors of exhibits, including a Disney-like ride through a virtual shipbuilding yard. We spent a couple of hours there

Queueing for the “Dockyad” ride -just like being in Disneyland!

Looking out into the dockyards where the Titanic ( and other huge ships) were built.

Titanic Belfast building

Finally we hit the road and drove ( through the rain again!) back to Dublin. Were checked in to the Radisson Blu at the airport nd tomorrow is really just a transit day, we have two SAS flights to get us back to Helsinki via Sockholm. It will be lovely to see Simon and Jatta again.