Belfast

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Our ship arrived in Belfast this morning. We took a bus into town, there is a shop at the docks and inside they sell tickets to the bus into town. I bought tickets online to a tour of the Crumlin Road Gaol (jail). The jail was opened in 1846 and closed in 1996. The youngest prisoner was ten years old. If a single mother was imprisoned her children would be sent to prison too. A 15 year old hunchbacked boy was sent to prison to avoid being bullied. The first 40 years the prison was open the prisoners spent 22 hours a day in their cell. They had the cells to themselves and they would not see or hear the voice of another person. They were allowed out of their cell to walk around the excersise yard for one hour a day but they would have a hood over their head and would be tied to another prisoner. One hour a day would be spent in church but the priest did not speak and they would wear a hood. The staff got one day off a year and they would all go to the beach together. During the troubles the prison kept the two sides apart. The political prisoners were treated better than the other prisoners, good thing since many of them ended up holding political offices in the future.

Some prisoners were hung at the prison. The first five hangings were held outside and up to 20,000 people would come to watch, it was like a party and people got drunk, so drunk they could not go to work the next day, thus the term hangover. The only carpet in the prison was in the goveners office, it was always bad news if you were called in to see the governor, thus the term called on the carpet.

We were told a story of Marjory McCoy, she was buried twice but died once. She died and was buried, grave robbers robbed her grave and cut her finger off to steal her ring. She woke up screaming then she walked home and knocked on her door. Her husband opened the door, had a heart attack and died. She lived for 40 more years.

After our tour we headed to the Belfast Cathedral. The Cathedral was built in 1888 on the site of a parish church called St Ann's. The entrance ticket includes a audio tour. We love the art and architecture of the Cathedral.



Next we took a walk along the the locks. Working up a thirst and hungry we spotted a sign (The oldest pub in Belfast). Yea, that is our spot. It is happy hour and we buy beers and fish and chips. The bar is crowded and the people friendly. Young people on both sides of our table ask us where we are from and talk about their visits to the U.S.

Most people who visit Belfast go to the Titanic Museum, we did not.

We read you need to be careful about which neighborhoods you walk in and don't wear cothes that identify with England or Ireland. There are still troubles between the two sides, we had no problems while we were there and no one we talked to on our ship had any problems.

Nice day in Belfast.

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Comments

[Stan Skiba]

Ireland
Looks like a great tour and hopefully you are picking up some of the dialect. Great to see you having fun. Are there any places where the UFEA soccer fans hang out. The oldest pub looks like it would be a lot of fun.