Tag: belfast

Exploring Belfast

On By cockneykiwi15Leave a comment

Northern Ireland, December 2023

Awaking refreshed from a very comfortable night’s sleep and not a single regret about my room upgrade lol. I had two main things booked for the day – visit the Titanic Museum in the morning, and a Black Cab politic tour in the afternoon.  As I was now staying centrally, I took the opportunity to wander around first thing.  There is not much commentary to photos I took as I wandered, I just took photos of things I liked the look of and planned to find out more about the locations later!

I came across City Hall which was beautifully decorated for Christmas.  I wish I had explored a little more last night as I arrived just as they were in the process of dismantling the Christmas market in front of it (which had finished before Xmas) and taking down all the decorations.  So I got some lovely photos with lots of trucks in the pictures 🥴.

I paused for a hot chocolate at the large indoor Victoria Centre (a shopping centre) before continuing my wandering in the general direction of my first stop.  This took me across the river Lagan on to the Titanic Trail.  There were lots of very informative signs about historical Belfast and its ship building industry and I even spotted a couple of “city” seals in the river 😂. 

When I arrived at the museum there were a lot of people gathered outside.  Thinking it was not open yet, I took the opportunity to explore the outside area and the Olympic slipway where the Titanic was “born”.  In fact, it was actually security alert that had evacuated the building 🤦🏻‍♀️.  Thankfully I did not have to wait long before we were allowed in as it was bitterly cold. 

I had prebooked online which meant I could walk straight in and that I also got an audio guide.  Although it was not really necessary as there was plenty of good information around the museum, I enjoyed listening rather than having to try a read the sometimes crowded signs. 

The museum covered the history of the city including key trades such as linen, rope making, tobacco and ship building.  At one time, Belfast had the largest ship yard and glass blowing manufacturers in the world!

After going though the original gates from the Harland and Wolff shipyards we joined a short ride through a re-creation of the shipyards of the time to experience the heat and noise the workers had to endure.   Incredibly, the Titanic had more than 3 million rivets in it, most of which were put in by hand!

Now, I am pretty sure everyone knows the story of the Titanic. Launched in Belfast in 1912, it was the largest ship afloat at the time she was launched by the White Star Line.  Her inaugural journey was to take her from Southampton in England to New York with some of the wealthiest people of the time on board, as well as hundreds of European emigrants, travelling to build a new life in North America.

But, as we know, she never made it to her destination. On April 14th, she hit an iceberg mid Atlantic and sank in around 4 hours.  Touted as unsinkable, crew and guests were ill prepared for such a catastrophe and the ship only had life boats for about half the people on board! 

The audio guide took me through the exhibits, hearing emotional stories from survivors and displaying artifacts from the ship herself.  It seems that the disaster was the result of a domino effect:  weather, ice warnings, the lookout did not have  binoculars, the ship was going too fast for the conditions, flooding in low bulk heads, not enough lifeboats, no emergency drill … After the sinking of the Titanic, much was changed in maritime legal requirements, some of which remains in place.

The last part of the museum goes through all the modern day exploration of the wreck, with some incredible images of the wreck in recent years.  Even if you only have a short time in Belfast, I would highlighy recommend allowing a couple of hours to visit the Titanic Museum.

As part of the ticket for the Titanic Museum, you also can visit the SS Nomadic.  Launched the year before the Titanic in 1911, she was used as a tender, to transfer passengers and mail to and from the Titanic and her sister ship, the Olympic.  She is the only White Star Line ship left today and is moored in a dry dock just across from the museum. 

She is a beauty and if only the tender, I can only imagine how beautiful the Titanic herself was.

By the time I had finished in the museum the sun had come out, but it was still bitterly cold for the 30 minute walk back across the river to where I was staying and on the hunt for somewhere to have some lunch.  I had googled “where to eat in Belfast” and ended up at the Crown Liquor Saloon.  Described as a “gem of Victoriana”, the Crown Liquor Saloon was apparently one of the best gin palaces in the British Isles!  It dates back to 1826 and is apparently now owned by the National Trust who has ensured it has been sympathetically restored.

Unbeknown to me, I was only a couple of minutes walk from my hotel and in fact, I had passed it on my brief walk the evening before, but had rejected going inside as it looked dodgy 😂.  Now there is a prefect example for not judging a book by its cover!    Coincidentally,  my pick up for my afternoon tour was at the hotel I was now staying in.  Still definitely no regrets for moving accommodation (ask me again when I have to pay my credit card bill 🥴). 

My afternoon tour was one of the famous Black Cab political tours, another “must do” when in Belfast.  Not surprisingly, the tour is in a Black Cab and the driver, your guide, is a local who lived through “the Troubles” of the city. 

I will preface what I am about to right by saying that my guide, Billy, started off my telling me that he is Catholic, and therefore the stories he told me would be from his perspective, growing up during the worst of the city’s troubles.  It’s also important to note that the issues in Northern Ireland are incredibly complex and we real owned scratched the surface of the issues and my only regret was that I did not book a longer tour!!  That said, this is what I was told/learnt …

In 1921 the partition of Ireland lead to the creation of The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.  Generally speaking the Protestants aligned themselves with Great Britain/UK, whilst the Catholics were staunchly Irish.  As Northern Ireland became part of the UK, the Irish population were discriminated against. Not being allowed to speak Irish, play Irish sport, practice their religion etc.  They could not have a proper education, nor were they allowed certain jobs.  1969 was not the beginning of the troubles in Northern Ireland (they date back to the partition), despite be earmarked as the start of the 30 year-long “Troubles”.

The Falls Road area of Belfast was (and I think still is) 100% catholic, though in the 60s/70s the city’s population was around 65% protestants who had all the positions of power.  It was here on Falls Road in August 1969, a Civil Rights march (in support of those in the Battle of Bogside in Derry) was attacked by Protestant loyalists, resulting in the death of 7 people (apparently the police fired bullets above the crowds, but in some cases they went in to buildings, killing innocent people inside). 100’s more were wounded many Catholic owned homes and businesses were destroyed. The police sided with the so called loyalists and failed to protect the Catholic people and areas.

The British Army were deployed to restore order and they ended up staying for 37 years (finally leaving in 2007, despite the official cease fire happening in 1994) and the riots led to the formation of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (the Irish led IRA), and the growth of loyalist paramilitaries e.g the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).  Accordingly to my according to Billy, there were 2-3 months in 1969 when it was not safe for Catholics to leave there homes and he missed a lot of school as a child in the early 70s as it was not safe to go.

Divis Tower is the only remaining building in what was a complex of 29 terraces and flats and it was used by the Police and British Army as a look out point and sniper nest. They took over the top few floors and left Catholic families living in the lower 17 floors to protect them.  However this also meant that they could only gain access by being dropped on the roof by helicopter.  Apparently they stayed there until 2005!

I must admit I was completely unaware that Belfast had walls, known as Peace Walls, separating parts of the city!!  The building of these started in 1969 to keep the two communities apart and today there are still around 30 walls left, around 13 miles of walls.  They were called Peace Walls as everyone understood that they were to keep the peace by minimising inter-community violence and therefore each side could feel safe in their homes.  Even today some of the gates in the walls are closed at night, others are just closed if there are increased tensions.

My guide was sure to point out that the walls have been built in Catholic gardens and very close to Catholic houses (in some cases as little as a metre from the house) – they were never built in protestant gardens!

These days, things are much calmer and are far less black and white (or Irish and British) as they once were. Even inter-community marriages are not uncommon today.  Despite this, although there have been discussions about taking the walls down, the majority of the communities still feel more comfortable keeping them in place and today they are covered in murals, old and new, some of which are now famous landmarks of the city.

We spent some time looking at the murals on both sides of the walls.  They ranged from more historical murals showing the victims of the 1981 hunger strikes to much modern murals showing support for the Palestine/Israel conflict – with the Catholics supporting Palestine (as they feel they are being persecuted in the same way that they were) and the Protestants supporting Israel.  On some of the more abstract murals, more like graffiti, visitors are encouraged to sign their names.

Today, in more peaceful times, the Sinn Fein politic party continues the fight in the Houses of Parliament on both sides of the border for a unified Ireland and in Belfast there are neutral zones where people are not allowed to fly flags of any kind or support any specific side or party.  That said, according to Billy, they are still at least two generations away from real peace, as those who lived through the Troubles still remind their children to “remember who you are, where you come from and what you have lost”.

I found this tour particularly interesting as I grew up only hearing the British side of the story, and living in London in the 1990’s, I experienced the fear of IRA bombs in the city (at least 3 went off in hearing distance).  I found it important to finally hear the other side of the story and be reminded that all stories have two sides.

During my wandering, I had discovered that my hotel was right next to the Grand Opera House and that there was a traditional UK Christmas pantomime on – I felt to round out my cultural experience for the day I should attend, and I managed to nab one of the last tickets. The Opera house is a beautiful example of Frank Matcham architecture opened in 1895 and today it was showing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and as with all pantos, although they may be touted for children there is plenty of double meanings for the adults 😉and it was great fun.

And to top it off, it turned out that I was sitting right by famous Northern Irish actress and singer Rachel Tucker – star of the West End.  All in all, a perfect way to finish up my few days in Northern Ireland.  

And to the North – Northern Ireland and the Causeway Cause

On By cockneykiwi15Leave a comment

December 2023

4 days in and still waking at 4am 🤦🏻‍♀️but I won’t let that stop me, perhaps just slow me down a little lol.

Boxing Day, or St Stephens Day as they call it in Ireland, was a beautiful morning to be heading back to the airport to pick up my rental car and head north.  As always, I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time so went to get the 8.15 bus – which never came 🤦🏻‍♀️so it was a good job I was not in a hurry.  I did just have to stand on the side of the road in 4c for an extra 40 minutes waiting for the next one! 

Actually, its not entirely true that the bus did not turn up.  There was an AirCoach parked up near the bus stop but no driver – perhaps someone had a big night the night before! 

When the next bus came it said it was full – still no explanation as to what happened to the previous bus!  Thankfully I managed to get one of the last seats and finally made it to the airport.  But the fun was not yet over for the day.  I joined a long slow queue for my rental car pick up, to be told when I finally made the front of that queue that I needed to go somewhere else and to go wait outside for the shuttle bus 🤦🏻‍♀️!   And guess what – then join another queue!!!

Finally, I was in my car, and after a short amount of time getting use to it (remembering to change gears and to stop turning on the windscreen wipers instead of the indicators lol), I was glad to get out of the city, passing through some small towns and beautiful farmlands.  Sadly, no photos as I am now driving. 

I had not expected a border crossing when going from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland, but I expected at least a sign!!  But there was literally nothing, just a sudden and subtle change in speed signs from kilometres per hour to miles per hour!   It was all rather odd, and it was clear that not everyone got the subtle change as they continued driving at 60kph and not 60mph – that is not such a subtle difference lol. 

It was around 3.5 hours drive to my first stop of the day – Londonderry, or Derry as it seems is the preferred name.  It is the only remaining completely walled city in Ireland sitting on the banks of the river Foyle.  The walls were built in the early 1600’s as defenses and they were never breached!  Still today it provides a walkway around the entire inner city.

As with the rest of Northern Ireland, the history of Derry is complex and it is considered one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in Ireland, dating back thousands of years.  From the Tudor conquests in the early 1600’s to the Irish Rebellion later that century, the city became an important port for Irish emigrants leaving for the new world in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Irish War of Independence between the Irish republican Army (IRA) and the British Forces ended with the partition of Northern Ireland in 1921, before and after which, sectarian violence raged.  I will go in to this a little more in when I write about my time in Belfast where I took one of the political tours to learn more about the partition and later the Troubles.   The result of the Partition of Ireland was that Derry suddenly became a border city.

The city and its port (one of the key reasons Britian wanted to maintain it during the partition) played an important role for the Allied navies as a base and jumping off point for shipping convoys between Europe and North America. 

Now that is probably enough of a history – or perhaps too much?  Unfortunately, given it was a holiday, I could not get a walking tour, so I had downloaded an online one.  It was ok but an in person one would have been better.

The walk took me passed the Guildhall and along the river Foyle, passed the Peace Bridge which opened in 2011.  The guide talked about the importance of textile industry and shipping to the city (see the brief history above) with stops along the way to see monuments to the shipping industry, Manannan Mac Lyr, the Great Northern Sea God in Celtic mythology and those who left from here in search of a better life. 

I continued up the hill, passed the some of the buildings of Ulster University and back down to the city walls and back to my car.  As I drove out of the city, I passed the famous “Free Derry corner” in the Bogside neighbourhood.   Between 1969 and 1972, this was a self-declared autonomous nationalist area (which they barricaded off from the security forces) and was the site of the Battle of Bogside in 1969.  It was also the site of the 1972 riot when 14 unarmed civilians were killed by British paratroopers – the event known as Bloody Sunday. 

By this time, it was almost 3pm and the darkness comes early here, particularly on these overcast days, so I hurried as quickly as the narrow country roads would allow to my next stop – the Dark Hedges.  Described as an avenue of beech trees, it was made famous when it appeared in Game of Thrones.  Firstly, I will say, it looks nothing like the images I had seen online, and I did hear some comments on the radio that they think it will disappear within the next 15 years if nothing is done to preserve it!  Not sure I would have said it was worth the detour, but my FOMO (fear of missing out) would have got the best of me if I had not gone and seen it for myself lol. 

It was really getting dark now as my final 30 minutes driving for the day took me along more narrow country lanes with no streetlights, definitely not my favourite driving conditions but I guess I had to be grateful that it wasn’t raining! 

After a long, cold day (I don’t think it has got above 5 degrees all day) I had hoped to get something warm to eat in the local pub in the village of Articlave where I was staying. Unfortunately, even though they were open, they were not serving food so I headed straight to my AirBnB and enjoyed a bougee cold dinner of mozzarella and prosciutto which I had bought in Dublin.  It was a comfortable house and nice room, and I had a great night’s sleep.

Over night it had rained and rained (I believe from Storm Gerrit who was ravaging the UK) and after fighting the household cats for my breakfast, I was back on the road, splashing through surface flooding to drive the Causeway Coastal Route – the coastal road between Derry and Belfast.

My first stop was at Dunluce Castle, a 16th/17th century castle built on the site of a 13th century fort.  The castle has had a colourful passed, being the home of Scottish chieftains and Irish ‘royalty’ and has been subject to a number of sieges, Sadly, it was left to ruin in the late 1600s when the Earl of Antrim moved on.  Unfortunately, the castle was closed so I could not explore, but you could still get a view of it from the car park.  

From here I took a quick detour through the cute seaside town of Portballintrae, before reaching one of the main sites for the day, the Giants Causeway, a UNESCO World Heritage site (Natural Landscape) which came to fame as its portrayal in Game of Thrones (I have never watched the show but wonder if I should give the number of filming sites I have been to!)

The guided tour that is part of your entrance fee starts in the information centre, and from here we walked down the road toward the causeway as our guide regaled us with information about the geology and the myth of the area. 

Geologically speaking, the 40,000 black basalt columns, are thought to be around 60 million years old, and the result of tectonic plate movements and successive lava flows.  There use to be over 60,000 columns but they were quarried in the early days and can be seen in buildings around the area, such as Dunluce Castle.  The site was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986 (the only one in Northern Ireland) and it is one of Northern Ireland’s most popular tourist sites.  Thankfully be the off season it was not too busy (they sometimes get 7,000 people visit in a day). 

Now, there is the geological stories of Giant’s Causeway, there is also the legend of the infamous Finn MacCool.  The Irish take their mythology very seriously and much of it dates back to pre-Christian Ireland one of these is the mythical giant Finn. 

When Finn’s beloved Ireland was threatened by the Scottish giant Benandonner, he tore up the Antrim landscape and threw its pieces into the sea, resulting in a pathway across for Scotland.  When, Finn recognised just how strong Benandonner was, he made a hasty retreat back to Ireland where he disguised himself as a baby.  When Benandonner arrived at Finn’s house, he saw the huge baby and was terrified to think how big Finn must be if this was his baby – it was now his turn to flee, destroying as much of the Giant’s Causeway as he could on his way back to Scotland.   And of course, that is how it got its name.

From the Giant’s Causeway, I continued along the coast, taking a another short detour in to the picturesque town of Ballintoy Harbour, apparently another Game of Thrones filming location and stopping along the way at viewpoints (the beauty of doing this independently rather than with one of the many tours is that I can stop wherever I want!) until I reached the next stop on the route – Carrick-a-Rede.

Carrick-a-Rede is a rope bridge that links the mainland to the tiny island of Carrickarede.   The rope bridge was first built in 1755 by Salmon fishermen who used the island as a base for the Salmon fishing season.  Of course, the build has been rebuilt many times over the years and today the 2008 built bridge, meets today’s health and safety requirements.   Sadly, due to the decline of the local salmon population (due mainly due to pollution and overfishing), 2002 saw the end of the salmon fishing industry in the area.

It was around a kilometre walk from the car park to the rope bridge, which is only around 20m long, but sits around 30ms above the exposed coastline.  As it was the low season, it was fairly quiet, and I can only image how long you might have to wait to cross in the summer.   As it was, it still took some time to get across, waiting for the group in front of me to take their photos/videos and then for the assistant to help someone across who had frozen just a few steps out on the bridge! 🥴

After the torrential rain of the night before, it had turned in to a beautiful day for my drive – a moody sky but no rain when I was doing my outdoor activities.  I was very fortunate!

I took another detour down a very narrow windy road to follow a sign to Kinbane Castle.  Built in 1547, what was a two story castle has been left for ruins after numerous sieges by the English and the raging weather.  When I reached the car park and saw the steep narrow pathway down the side of the cliff to the castle – I decided to enjoy the stunning view from the top 🥴🥴.

I had hoped to have a break at a café in the small town of Cushenden but unfortunately, as with many things, it was closed so after a quick photo stop, I continued.  The weather had started to deteriorate by this point, and I continued to question some life choices as some of the roads google maps took me on where barely roads in my opinion 🥴.  The dodgy road took me back to the coast and it continued right along the sea front.  The narrow road was covered in debris from the storm overnight and still had some surface flooding.  In fact, my final planned stop was literally washed out as the road was shut and the detour was another 20 minutes, so I decided to call it a day and head for the Belfast (still on some dodgy roads until I finally hit the motorway with some relief). 

After a long but successful day, I made my way to the Airbnb I had booked in Belfast.  Unfortunately, I was not keen on the area or the set up so I decided to book myself a hotel … the cost was worth a comfortable couple of nights, so I treated myself.  I was exhausted after another beautiful, busy day so was happy to be having somewhere comfortable to rest and relax to recharge.