Ireland and belfast here we come

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Friday 5th June
Ireland and Belfast here we come
We had set the alarm for 6.15am to give us enough time to shower and load the car up for the short trip down to the ferry.With daylight coming early we were well ready deciding to get breakfast on the ferry.
Arriving at the entry to the port area we were pleased to see confirmed that the day was forecast to be fine and the Irish Sea calm!!We had heard stories from Leigh about how rough it can get although we will still have to return to England in 8 days time of course.
The queue of cars lined up for the 8.20am sailing numbered only a dozen or so ahead of us and not that many joined in after us as we were directed to the Stena Nordica at terminal #5.There was a further marshalling area just before we reached the ship about a kilometre from where we had queued up first.
Gretchen had been concerned that she would have to reverse Renee onto the ferry but her concerns were unfounded as although we drove on to the upper deck through the stern door it had a front opening bow that we would drive directly out of at Dublin.
Most of the traffic were trucks and these were parked on the deck down both sides of what was a large ferry with two vehicle decks,the bottom one not in use on this trip.We ended up parked down one of two middle lanes of cars.
The ship had all that you would want for a short journey of just over 3 hours.So we joined a short queue for breakfast of eggs,bacon,sausage and baked beans probably a meal wouldn’t have had had the sea been predicted to be rough.!!
We caught up on emails using the free wifi available on board.We must say how fantastic the speed of the internet has been in England and we can’t wait for that to happen one day in New Zealand.
Although the day was dry the sky was overcast and once the ship left Holyhead there wasn’t much to see apart from a container ship that suddenly appeared crossing the path our ferry seemed to be taking.All was well however and there was no collision.All this sea and two ships pass so close together??
As Ireland came into view the sky started to at least partly clear.On entering the large bay where Dublin port lies at the mouth of the Liffey River is another port that appears to handle the larger ships and there was also the inevitable industrial sites belching out smoke into the sky.Not a particulary pretty sight.However on the other side of the entrance to the bay were houses on the hillside and an old looking lighthouse and this made a better side of the ship to get our first views close up of Ireland,country #7,if you count Wales which we passed through yesterday,on our adventure.
The terminal for the ship wasn’t far into the docks that lined the river mouth and we watched from the front lounge as the ship effortesly negotiated its way into what seemed like a rather small gap for such a large vessel.As it edged closer to the dock the bow suddenly started to open by rising up and obscuring our view of the dock.So we headed down to the car to be ready to drive off.
Upon arriving on the vehicle deck we realised that the bow opening as it did didn’t leave the front of the ship exposed to the sea as there was another door to the vehicle deck that had to open before we could drive off.
We had booked a night in Belfast at Paddys Place so we had a dive of about 400 kms ahead of us and all afternoon to do it.
We negotiated our way out of the port area and through a seaside suburb of Dublin and were soon on the M1 heading north.We followed this for only a short way as there seemed to be a more interesting route that followed the coastline for much of the way north so as the road signs showed the exit to Skerries we turned off and headed for the coast.
The motorway had been two laned in both directions and had a speed limit of 120kph.The road to Skerries was a different story and so we started to get used to much narrower roads in our left hand drive car driving on the left hand side of the road!!
The drive from London yesterday had been mainly on highways although the last bit through Snowdonia had been on narrow roads and Gretchen had got some experience.
The land is very fertile on the eastern side of Ireland and it was pleasant countryside to be driving through as was the coastal scenes once we reached there.
We stopped at Balbriggan for a late lunch.The tearoom(as it was called,a rather old description of a modern day cafe)was a very old looking building with a thatched roof.Gretchen had the leek and potato soup which was thick and delicious while I opted for a panini after seeing one going out on order as we decided what to have.It was a delightful break from the road and interesting to be dining amongst the locals listening to their accents.
The road we took didn’t quite get to the coast as often as we had hoped it might but every now and then as it winded its way through the fertile countryside there were views of the Irish Sea.
Our progress slowed though as we drove through Drogheda,the first of two larger towns on the coast road as the traffic got heavier and the streets much narrower in the towns where people parked their cars often on both sides of the road where there was hardly room for two lanes even without cars being parked as well.
At Dundalk we continued around the coast to Newcastle and then inland as time was marching on and we didn’t want to be too late into Belfast,our overnight stay.
Finding our accommodation in Belfast,Paddys Palace,was easy as it was on the main road into the city that we were taking.The place was a backpackers although we had booked a private room with shared facilities.
We felt like the wardens as all the others staying there were in their twenties or perhaps early thirties.
Our room had bunks so it was a tossup for who got the bottom and Gretchen won!!The room was clean and smelt OK so that pleased Gretchen although she was a bit concerned having to share the facilities.But there hadn’t been a lot of choice in Belfast for accommodation in our price range so here we were.
The main reason to use Belfast as our first night’s stay was to visit the Shanklin and Falls Road’s areas where much of the Northern Ireland troubles had been back in the 70’s and 80’s.So after we settled in we headed off to walk to the area which was about 1km along the road from the backpackers.
The city seemed very quiet for a Friday night and it was even more deserted when we reached the Shanklin Rd,which welcomed us with a large mural stating it had been settled since 490AD.
We turned off the Shanklin road into a side street to take a closer look at the huge murals painted on the end of the blocks of terrace houses.The colourful but threatening murals depicted the fighting that took place in the area between the Prodestants and the Catholics.Shanklin Rd was the Prodestant area and according to one of the inscriptions it was the Catholics that started the troubles the area experienced.
It was a peaceful scene now almost devoid of people on the streets although we had a feeling that we were being watched from behind the front room curtains of several houses we walked past as we made our way in and out of several streets.The terrace houses were row upon row all looking the same and presented a boring image of the place except for the murals.The front door of each house opened directly onto the narrow footpath.One block of houses were unoccupied and were boarded up perhaps a reminder of the past.
It felt a bit spooky walking in streets where hundreds of locals had been killed or murdered in the religion based civil unrest that had occurred here over the years.
There were a couple of large tracts of land which were ready for redevelopment where previous buildings had been demolished.However progress appeared to be slow and the fences had been painted with messages that inferred that the locals didn’t want the type of housing that was going to be developed for them.
Then we headed across to the Falls Rd or Catholic area which runs parallel to Shanklin Rd.The two areas were separated by a solid concrete wall at least 3 metres high with wire netting another couple of metres added to the top presumably to stop incendiaries being thrown over.We had to walk through a gate that was now permanently open to get from one side to the other.
As we transited between the two sides and stopped to take photos,we noticed 3 or 4 boys about 10 years of age or so taunting a couple of girls a little older on the Catholic side.Both parties kept to their own sides as they hurled abuse at each other in some of the foulest language you could imagine from children of this age.If this is what young children think of each other then what hope is there for the future???
The Falls Rd side housing in parts was different to the Shanklin Rd with an air of more space and not the same boring looking terraced housing.We didn’t see any of the large painted murals we had seen in the Shanklin Rd area.
The police station at the bottom of the Falls Rd was a large grim looking building still protected by a wirenetting fence that reached the third story of the building.There were cameras set up on the corners and a large camera atop a pole that probably covered the whole Shanklin and Falls Rd’s.

We thought we would head back to the city by taking a zigzag path through some of the side streets but soon realised this wasn’t going to be the most direct way of doing things and so retraced our steps to the main road and continued on down that until we were back to where we had started.
Our last sight of the area as we reached the main road was an armoured police wagon turning into the police station yard.
The last hour or so had been a sobering experience unlike the sightseeing we have been doing up until now but one that we wouldn’t have missed for the world.
We found a pub on the way back to the backpackers for dinner and mulled over the things we had seen and concluded that real peace will never come to the area given the lack of redevelopment,the two sides living so close to each other and the predjuices that we witnessed in the young kids hurling abuse at each other from either side of the wall.
It had been a long day and despite the bunked sleeping arrangements we were both asleep quickly after calling it a night.

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Comments

[Rin]

You were brave to walk those streets! I made Brent keep the car running and I jumped out to hurriedly take photos of those murals! Streets with murals of dudes wearing balaclava's and pointing guns don't really make for that *safe* feeling!