Understanding Northern Ireland

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Belfast

I arrived in Belfast just after lunch excited to learn about the history of Northern Ireland and thought Belfast would be just the place to gain that knowledge. And I was right. I went on a 1.5 hour walking tour that discussed the 330 years of Belfast viewing the Victorian architectural sights of City Hall and the leaning tower that is the Albert Memorial Clock. A fairly boring tour, unless you are interested in the year each building was built or where a building was bombed.

The bus tour was more interesting. I saw most of the sights that were on the walking tour in the heart of the city, but also the more interesting aspects of the Shankill and the Falls residential areas, where the Protestant British contigent live and where the Catholic Irish live. There were many interesting and well painted murals depicting the struggles and thoughts of the people in each of the separate areas. Many were about the internal conflicts, but some are based on more recent political issues - like the war in Afganistan.

There is a wall that was constructed between the 2 communities to prevent the murders that were being taken place nightly in the bad times. It only has 4 entry/exit points and they were closed each evening. Even today you can see many British flags and Irish flags hoisted around in the relevant areas. The British side has a memorial park dedicated to the late Queen mother among others and the Irish side have memorials to the men, women and children that they have lost due to the conflicts. The tour guide pointed out the old Sinn Fein headquarters and the hospital where the 2nd in command was murdered in his hospital bed. So all of the fighting history is still very evident in the community and it will take many years for the residents to overcome their hatred and unease.

The bus also took us around the old dock area, so we could see the specially adapted Thompson dry dock where the Titanic was outfitted.

Magherafelt

I went to Belfast airport to collect Dan and the hire car that evening. Upon arrival Dan checked his phone messages to hear from our Irish friends, Brian and Marie, that the B&B didn’t have a booking for us for the weekend. So even though I had phone and email correspondence with the B&B owners, they still didn’t believe our reservation to be confirmed!

Luckily Brian and Marie had found a hotel to stay in at a nearby town called Magherafelt (with the ‘ghe’ sound being pronounced with spit coming out of your mouth!) as most accommodation places we called were fully booked for the weekend.

Our friends have a 2 year old child and it was their first time away from their gorgeous boy, so they were in the mood to go out for some fun. We enjoyed an evening at the local champagne bar catching up over some good wine and beer. When the establishment closed, kicking us out, we went back to our hotel bar for a few extra drinks before heading to bed.

Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge

After eating breakfast at the hotel the next morning, where I tried out a massive local whisky porridge, we made our way to the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. We didn’t realise, but to get to the bridge you need to walk 1 km along a nice coastal path to get there. Marie changed into her walking shoes and we headed off. For over 350 years, fisherman have strung a rope bridge 30m above the sea to allow them access to the best places to catch the migrating salmon. I get anxious around heights so I was wary of what was to come, but because it is such a tourist hotspot, they have made the bridge quite sturdy with a wooden plank to walk over. The walk along the cliff edge was nice, but the bridge was a bit of a let down and once you got to the other side of the bridge there wasn’t far to go before you had to turn around and go back.

The Giants’ Causeway

Next on our agenda was to visit the very interesting Giants Causeway. We walked along the Finn MacCool Trail, which led to different bays that included different rock formations that the supplied brochure mentions you should look out for. We managed to find all of the stated formations, with some being harder to find than others. The rocks are so uniquely formed in a hexagon-like shape with varying heights, which made them so unique to anything we have ever seen in nature. We decided that the rocks must have been formed when the rock was soft and pushed through a press-like ground, in a way similar to how garlic is pressed through a garlic press. But there was no information as to how they were formed at the site for us to read.

Dan and Brian found rock formations that they thought looked like a mother cradling her child and one that looked like Paddington bear, so if you ever go, see if you can find them also!

The legend

A long time ago, an Irish giant, Finn MacCool, lived on the north coast. A Scottish giant, Benandonner, was his greatest rival in strength and reputation. They had never met, so Finn decided to invite his rival to Ireland, to engage in a decisive battle. No boat was large enough to carry the giants, so Finn built a causeway of huge stones across the water so that Benandonner could travel across and have no excuse to avoid the challenge. But when the big Scottish giant approached, Finn realised that his opponent was larger and more fearsome than he anticipated. He fled to his home and asked his wife for advice. She disguised him as a baby in a large nightgown and bonnet. She placed him in a huge quickly made cradle, telling him to pretend to be asleep. The wife invited Benandonner in for tea, asking him to not wake Finn’s child. Looking at the enormous baby, he became frightened, saying that if this was the child, he had no wish to meet the father. He ran away back to Scotland, destroying the causeway behind him, afraid that Finn might follow him home.

Dunlace Castle

Being October, the daylight hours were passing quickly and so we tried to visit Dunlace Castle before the sun went down. Unfortunatly, the castle closed early due to the season and we couldn’t have a look inside. We did however have a walk around the cliff edge near the castle and Dan won the guess at the age of the 14th century building.

Exhausted and cold, we made our way back to our hotel. We walked around the town to find that there weren’t many decent restaurants or bars on offer, so we ended up eating a terrible meal at the hotel restaurant and stayed at the hotel bar for the evening. At the bar was a group of 20-something year old lads having a few pints watching the X-Factor. They got very upset when the bar attendant turned up the surrond music as they couldn’t hear the tv. That isn’t something you would see elsewhere, but it just goes to show that there isn’t much in the local vicinity for the youth to do.

Ballyronan Woods

Our friends had to drive back to the South of Ireland the next morning, so with the limited time left with them we found a short circuit walk in woods in Ballyronan next to Lough Neagh. The leaves have started to change colour for the Autumn and although it was wet and windy it was still lovely to walk around the Irish woodland.

We said our farewells, and had to decide on where Dan and I could visit before we had to be back at the airport. We drove to Carrickfergus to check out the castle there, but upon arrival we found it closed until 2pm. Due to limited time, we moved on deciding to visit Larne, only to find a boring, very British influenced town that had big road signs to the local welfare office and nothing but fast food shops and tree-bare roads. We quickly chose to move on elsewhere.

We were saved from thinking that all food in Northern Ireland was bad, when we had lunch at the Viscount O' Neills pub in Antrim. So far, we had found that dining out had all been about quantity and not quality. Our lunch was very tasty, but I was still given half a chicken, as well as heaps of stuffing and ham! There was also plenty of vegetables and potatoes that came as the side dishes which were not ordered separately.

So with full tummies, Dan and I departed ways, with him flying back to London and me off to Cardiff.

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Photos

Thanksgiving Square statue
The female figure that represents various themes associated with hope and aspiration, peace and reconcilliation and is derived from Classical and Celtic mythology.
It is a symbol that is a statement of their long term objective in bringing people together to foster a happy and fulfilling life for all and a sense of gratefulness for all that life has given them.

Titantic dry dock
The specially adapted Thompson dry dock where the Titanic was outfitted.

Wall Murals
Falls Road

Walk to Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge
1 km walk along the coastline

Brian and Marie
On the walk to the bridge

Giants causeway
Dan and Brian

King William III
This statue was erected near Carrickfergus Castle to celebrate the tercentenary of the landing of King William III.