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Published: March 29th 2010
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Tuesday 23.3.2010 day 160
A day trip to Belfast
We decided to do a day trip to Belfast even though it is a 4 hours, 40 minutes drive so we got up early at 5:30 and took our coffee and bfast with us. On the way there we were diverted around the Northern Ireland and the Irish republic border due to a security scare we had heard they were direction traffic the day before and knew that they had been taking people off the train and putting them on busses across the border due to the same security scare from Friday 5 days ago. Due to this diversion there was no border control so we did not get our passports stamped which was very surprising as they both have different visa requirements. Once we past the diversion the Republic of Ireland radio stations did not work so we switched to a Northern Ireland station and headed to the city of Befast on the radio all the talk was about the ferris wheel being move away from near the city hall when we got there and saw it we though it should be moved the new ferris wheel looked very out of
place next to the old city hall and the titanic memorial. Mind you one of the arguments for keeping it was tourism. After looking around the city centre we headed to Falls and Shankill roads the battle fronts since the 1970’s of the Catholic (falls rd) and the Protestants (Shankill rd). I had seen a documentary on the area that said that the Murals were about peace and building harmony but I did not see that. They seem to be immortalizing the martyrs who died and still showing there grievances about the other side. There were even fresh signs on cloths up. The wall is still up and the gates are still there they are just open so you can drive or walk though them. The segregations between the two sides seem to be still there. There are schools on both sides of the fence I was surprised to see schools so close to the fences. The other thing that has been on the news a lot lately is Marching season which goes from Easter to September it is to celebrate the victory of Protestant William of Orange over Catholic James II on the 12th of July 1690 in the
battle of the Boyne. During Marching season the Protestants march though the Catholic sector and this is often creates violent clashes. Even though each year the Catholic’s try and get the marches stoped each year they go ahead including this year after we leave. 6 months seems to be a long time to celebrate one event. I can see with this happening each year how it would be hard to move on and promote good will between the two sides. We could see a police presents in this area while we were there with all the police that we saw wearing bullet proof vests and carrying guns On the way back home the diversion was still in place with the Northern Ireland Police on one side of the diversion and the Gada (the Republic of Ireland police) on the others side. It was good to get home after such a long day.
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