Ireland has always been on my ‘bucket list’ because of family
connections. With names like Hughes and
Devlin in the family, there is no doubt there is some Irish heritage here. So we made a visit to Belfast and it wasn’t
in search of any family but there sure was a lot of ‘family’ names visible in
the city!
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| Belfast City Hall |
The population of Belfast proper has a population of over
300,000 and we found anyone we encountered to be friendly and welcoming. It did have a big city appearance but a
smaller city atmosphere. We stayed in a hotel
with great staff and very nice facilities.
Belfast has good Irish Guinness, pink city buses and delicious fish and
chips, too! I almost felt at home.
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| Donegall Street |
We spent only four days there but managed to see
plenty. We were staying in a downtown
hotel so we had several walks around, rain (lots of that) or shine (not so
much), to see the sights and churches. Most
days clocked over 8500 steps, even though we also spent time in buses and a cab
on tours.
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| Bonbay Street Memorial |
We took a Black Cab tour with Pat. He has lived in Belfast all of his life and
being of the age that he is, was there when the years of battles were
happening, he was able to tell stories and incredible tales of what did happen
during those days. As much as we were
aware of fighting going on back then, we sure did not have any way of knowing how
fearful it was like to live there at the time. We visited a memorial park on Bombay for those
who lived there and lost their lives. We’d
recommend this tour to all who visit Belfast.
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| The Peace Wall |
There is still a ‘wall’ in Belfast, called the Peace Wall and
this we found not to be the most shocking but very interesting to learn about and
see it is still there. It was built to
protect people that were being bombed and burned out of their homes back then
and to this day, separating the Catholics and Protestants. There is talk that this wall should be taken
down but with controversy over that, it still stands.
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| Peace Wall Gate |
This was the shocking part, the gate is still closed and
locked every night! There is still a lot
of animosity amongst them. Although as tourists we did not feel this, learning
more will indicate that it hasn’t gone yet, and recent events have brought
history to the fore again. Hopefully history
does not repeat itself.
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| Parliament Building |
The parliament building is often referred to as Stormont
because it is located in the Stormont Estate.
We were admitted through the gate of the grand entrance leading up to
this incredible building, which has sat empty without a sitting government for
over two years now, holding the world record for this.
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| Lord Carson Statue |
Just below this grand building is a statue of Sir Edward
Carson, an Irish unionist politician as well as a barrister and judge. He was the party leader between 1910 and
1921. To some, this statue “symbolizes
the widely held perception that Northern Ireland is Carson’s creation”.
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| The Titanic Museum |
The
city was known for the linen production, being the largest one in the world in
the early 19th century, and was often called ‘Linenopolis’. It was also the world’s largest major ship
building center and built the RMS Titanic which sank on her maiden voyage in
1912. Belfast is still a ship building
center. The Titanic Quarter is where the
shipyards and the Titanic Museum are located. Our time schedule just did not allow us time
to visit the Titanic Museum but it sounds pretty impressive.
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| Murals with meanings |
We took a bus tour around the city. The Hop on Hop off bus tour has a real guide (lol) who tells the stories and history of the city as we made our way around. Many tours like this have the recordings to explain what we might be seeing so
this was definitely much nicer to listen to and entertaining with some
personality, too. The city has a zillion
murals to see and each one has a story.
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| More murals |
Just another sampling of the murals we viewed while riding
the bus around Belfast. We were on the
top level of the bus so not easy getting good photos but you will understand
when I say there were zillions of them.
We did spend a day out in the country and visiting the
Giants Causeway and that was something to see! More on that .
