Belfast – The Past Isn't Far Away

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July 9th 2016

Published: July 9th 2016

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Slowfeet

The Border

If you blink you'll miss it. Any post-Brexit change to this will be a nuisance for a lot of people.

I was intending to write this post without saying too much about the history of the place but it just didn't make any sense. Belfast is all about its history and it is like most history – messy. It is a complex city that has been through more than its share of highs and lows. You can see some of those highs and lows around the city from the Titanic Quarter and the Harland and Wolfe shipyards to Shankhill and Falls Road in the west and north, through the flash houses to the east and even with Stormont sitting in lonely splendour outside the city.

You don't come to a place such as Belfast without preconceptions if you are a member of our generation from our part of the world. For 25 years our nightly news was frequently peppered with stories about Belfast as the people of this city were subjected to unforgivable violence. We listened to leaders of both sides say things that were both overly aggressive and that ached for peace. We saw the results of the bombings and shootings and wondered what could drive people, not unlike us, to do such things. 'The Troubles' ended only in

Lift to viewing platform

at Victoria Square Shopping Centre

1998 with a peace accord for which all sides rightly receive credit. Since then the media attention at least has quietened down.

One reason for including Belfast on our trip was to gain some impression of what it is really like now. Still dangerous? Is there evidence that all of the people are getting a reasonably fair go? Is the place still a mess?

Many Irish have come to Australia over the years, and they are still arriving. Some of my ancestors came from the north of Ireland back before the famine. These particular ancestors ran afoul of the British justice system. It appears that they were transplanted English from Devon and likely to have been taken over there to work on one of the large English estates that had been established as the English colonised Ireland in the 18th century. So a major reason for including Belfast in our trip was to visit the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland to check if there were any records held that could help us track relatives.

Belfast is well worth a visit. It is a bustling, apparently prosperous city that has a City Centre with a mix of

The leaning tower of Belfast

The Albert Memorial Clock tower is several feet off perpendicular because it was built on marshy ground. And each of the four faces shows a different time - none of them correct.

stately old buildings and modern, new shopping malls that seemed to me to have all of the shops anyone could possibly want or need. The Belfast Welcome Centre or Arrival Centre – both names were used on different signs/maps – was as good or better than any tourist information centre we have used around the world . The service was excellent and friendly, the interactive information was useful and easy to access and booking arrangements for tours and such were easy.

We did what we normally do and walked a lot around and about. This time we also used the Hop On Hop Off bus, partly because the route made it easy to get to the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) and also because it seemed a useful way of getting an overview of the layout of the place (and also because we had already walked a fair way to get into the city). There are a lot of local tours available. Walking tours with local guides are always a useful way of picking up the stories of cities. Belfast has an art tour in the city where you visit sites of public art around the city.

Towards the shipyards

From the viewing platform of Victoria Shopping Square

Sounded good and we were keen to do it but just couldn't fit it in.

Most of the areas of Belfast are really indistinguishable from the suburbs of any other city in the UK or Ireland. Mostly well-kept and attractive. The road system seemed pretty effective. We didn't use trains but the buses were easy to use and there seemed to be plenty of them. The city seemed to be easier to get around than most. Traffic seemed to be flow pretty well most of the time.

We were staying in a place about 5 km from the City Centre in North Belfast. Our knowledge of the geography of Belfast wasn't great and we weren't sure whether the place we booked was in a unionist or nationalist area and, to be honest, didn't care either way. We were much more concerned whether it would be in good walking distance of the City Centre and whether the apartment had a washing machine, free parking and good wifi – it didn't have the latter.

It became pretty obvious as we began our walk into town along a major arterial road that there was a heavy unionist bias about. They

Now that is interesting!

People-watching above the Cat Garden at Belfast Castle

just love to fly flags here and I have never seen so many Union Jacks in one place. Provides a handy guide for wandering tourists. The other giveaway was the massive Presbyterian churches. We passed a couple along the road in a relatively short distance. It felt a little strange to see what I had always thought of as the little old Presbyterian church, the church of my youth, represented by such massive edifices. Now if they had just put that money to a better use … but that is a whole different discussion and not for here.

Bars and spikes were evident around many of what appeared to be public buildings. Shopping centres, including local supermarket carparks, had walls and fences around with gates that could be closed. We never saw them closed. A police station was the most heavily fortified place we saw but it looked to have been closed down or at least mothballed.

To make life more interesting, as we walked along into the city, the flags changed. Not for long and there weren't many. Just a few Irish flags that indicated that the area was populated by nationalists I guess.We eventually checked a

Elvis has left the building but...

he's just in the back yard. A house on the HOHO bus route.

map and did a little more research and found that the road we walked along did indeed start out in a largely unionist area, moved through a largely nationalist area and then back. We walked that road, or one roughly parallel to it but to the west, each time we walked to or from the City Centre.

The area we were staying in wasn't far from Shankhill or from Falls Road and I guess that the marks of the Troubles could be expected to be seen more here than in other parts. We did a tour that took us through both areas and along the Peace Wall. These days it is a tourist attaction and that is good. I remember seeing the images that led to its creation and it is great that so much progress could have been made in such a short time. The murals on walls around both areas tell the stories of the time from the perspectives of both sides and are worth a look. New ones seem to be going up as the spirit drives the artists, and it is clear that there are many excellent artists there.

There are, sadly, more memorials

Lagan Weir

Contributes to the improving quality of the river water by keeping the water level fairly constant.

than anything else. Poignant plaques on places or commemorating events that we vaguely recognised from the news. McGurks Pub which was the site of an early bombing sits closed and quiet under an overpass. Along with the plaques and churches we noted the existence of a number of community development organisations clearly aiming at bringing communities together and developing a common purpose. Their signage is positive and, hopefully, they are gradually having a positive effect.

Every tour guide made the point that the people of Belfast were trying to move on and that great strides forward had been made. They also pointed out that the divisions were deep and, while there is a fading of the edges, there is still a tendency to classify people as on one side or the other.

For us, the people here seemed to be probably a little more reserved, and wary of strangers, than we have come to expect in Ireland. They don't just include you quickly in their conversation if you are standing at a bus stop. Smiles as you walk along are less common. However, as soon as you strike up a conversation then people respond or, when you smile,

Bigfish aka Salmon of Knowledge

Each scale is a tile which incorporates material or information significant to Belfasts history.

then you will generally get a smile or a nod back. We had shop workers telling us that no we don't sell that here but there is a great little shop just down the road and around the corner and they have some great stuff. We didn't go into a pub while we were there. There were only a couple around where we were living and those didn't seem to be at all welcoming so we left them to it.

The PRONI is a well set up and modern institution. The facilities are very good and the processes easy to navigate. We have been in a few of these sorts of places and PRONI is up there with the best for ease of use and the assistance provided by staff. Unfortunately, the fire in the Irish Archives in the 1920's destroyed so many records that you need a lot of luck to find material. We weren't able to make a lot more positve progress than we had to date. We were able, though, to put a few of the possibilities that we had to bed: a time when a negative is a positive in that it cuts down the

Casual employment is spreading ;)

number of avenues you might need to pursue.

One of the major tourist attractions and the one most heavily promoted is the Titanic Quarter. It seems to have a high level of visitation with a lot of people interested in it because of the Titanic and its story and because the set of part of the Game of Thrones is here. We didn't really have the interest necessary to give it priority but others may love it. I was half inclined to buy a T shirt with the slogan “The Titanic – Built By Irishmen – Sunk by an Englishman” but I thought better of it.

On our last couple of days we were a little surprised to hear the sound of drums and marching bands. We had, of course, heard about the marching season and knew that it happened in summer but hadn't really appreciated just how much marching happens. The answer is that there are one hell of a lot of marches. They seem to happen most weekends somewhere. There is a Parades Commission that appears to have the job of authorising or in some way trying to control the many, many parades and marches that

From Belfast Castle

happen every year.

The big march is held on 12 July and celebrates the time the King of England and Scotland was whipped by a Dutchman on Irish soil over 300 years ago. The Dutchman then became the English King. He was, after all, the nephew and son-in-law of the King he beat. Always a good idea to keep these disputes in the family. Pretty messy but why not celebrate it? Of course, it is celebrated by some here because one combatant was a Catholic and the other a Protestant and the battle was a symbol of that fight. It also marked the establishment of the time when Protestantism dominated Ireland, which it did until the emancipation of the Catholics in 1829.

We didn't go and have a look at the first parade that went by the place we were staying in but the one on the Saturday before we left was a lot more noticeable and was travelling along the road we used to go to the city. Many hundreds of men and a few women were involved in this one and a lot of bands. There are apparently 60 bands in this area of Belfast and

Belfast castle

Fairly new, as castles go. Built in early 19th century and now used as a conference centre.

there weren't many at home this day. This march was to commemorate the soldiers who had died at the Somme 100 years ago. Most of the marchers were in dark suits and, for a reason I didn't appreciate, most wore tan or brown cloth or tweed caps. It wasn't completely obvious whether it was about all of the soldiers who died, all of the Irish soldiers, just those from the North, or indeed just those unionists from the North but it was an impressive display.

If parades, marches and marching bands with fifes and drums are your thing you will love Belfast in the summer. I am pleased we missed the rest of the marching season.

Belfast has come a long way from the time when we wouldn't have considered going there to visit. It doesn't try to ignore its past and it is trying to deal with the issues that the past has left unresolved. For a visitor there is much to see in the city. Even the scars of the Troubles are worth seeing and reflecting upon. I am very pleased that we came and will remember some of the things I saw for a long