Belfast/December 23

So, I flew into Belfast the day before Christmas Eve (when I was to travel to my host family).  I've never been to Northern Ireland (for you lawyers, hereinafter referred to as "NI"), and I was excited to see the land of pots of gold, rainbows, and decades (if not centuries) of civil war. My first reaction when getting off the plane was how tiny the George Best City Airport is.  Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Int'l Airport is the busiest in the world, so actually taking the stairs off of the plane at one of the 4 gates was quite amusing to me.  By the way, George Best (the greatest soccer player ever to play the game - so I'm told) is from the same area of Belfast where the airport is, hence the name. 

Here's the view from my room at the Europa, which was Belfast's only hotel during the Troubles (more on this later).  It used to hold the title of "World's Most Bombed Hotel".  Luckily, it has not even been in the Top Ten for at least five years.  My dad would have loved this (his advice to me before going: "Don't tell anyone you're a Protestant." Similar to his advice about living among the Islamic population in the UK: "Don't tell anyone you're an American.")  Despite the title, I found it to be gorgeous and have delicious food (I ate dinner and breakfast there) and the hotel staff were lovely.  

This is the Crown Bar, a Victorian "saloon" from 1849 that had delicious food and a nice pint of Guinness.  I had the beef and Guinness pie for lunch.  Also, the lamps in the lower pub are still gas-lit.  And there's a funny sign that says if you're wearing a football jersey, you'll be kicked out (apparently Irish nationalism isn't the only thing people in Belfast are militant about).

I took the freezing open-top bus tour of Belfast, which is actually a beautiful city, surrounded by mountains on two sides, the River Lagan and the Belfast Lough (pronounced Lock, a lake/harbor).  

Okay, on to the really political/educational part (that's interesting and informative!).  All of my American readers are somewhat informed about the city of Belfast in that we remember or have heard about the IRA/Sinn Fein/bombings that occur there.  What you don't really see is what was really going on (according to our witty and very educated tour guide, Aidan).  I have always thought that the fighting that went on in NI was about religion (Protestants v. Roman Catholics) because that's how it was presented on American news.  According to Aidan, the Troubles were really a result of tension between royalist/unionists (those in favor of being ruled by the Queen/Britain) and Irish nationalists (those in favor of NI/Ulster being self-governed).  There's a lot more to it than that, and I think Wikipedia is quite knowledgeable about the Troubles, so check it out if you want more info.  

The picture just above the previous paragraph was taken while I was on the bus tour.  There are two main roads on the west side of Belfast where most of the problems took place.  One road is the Shankill Road and the other is Falls Road.  Shankill is Protestant/Ulster royalist and was seriously bombed several times.  Falls Road is Roman Catholic/republican and had its own share of casualties.  To help separate the two from sectarian violence, there is a Peace Wall (which is a fence in most places).  The green fence in the picture shows how the Peace Wall splits the street in half in some places between the two neighborhoods.  These have been in place since the 1970's and the gates between them are still closed between 10 pm and 6 am.  Due to this, the two communities have formed completely separately, which I think doesn't really create peace, it just continues to separate the two areas.  There have recently been talks to take the walls down, but it apparently creates a lot of tourism (which makes sense-I took the tour to see it, didn't I?).  

Regarding the picture above, you can also see the mountains in the background.  If you look on the side, you can almost make out the shape of a man lying down on the side of the mountains.  It was much more visible in other places, but I couldn't get a good photo.  Anyway,  that man lying on the side of the mountain was the inspiration for a certain Brobdingnagian in a little book called Gulliver's Travels by Mr. Swift.

Also very particular to Belfast are all of the murals painted on just about every blank surface in West Belfast.  Some of the murals are about WWI or the Queen or the paramilitary groups involved in the Troubles.  The link shows more pictures of the murals because I couldn't fit all the photos I took here.  There is a push to try to have more positive and less militaristic murals put up in place of the more violent ones, but again, the tourism generated by them may outweigh the peace process in the end.  The picture above shows the love and admiration that the Northern Irish people have of our president as well (there are several of these).

Headquarters of Sinn Fein (which means "we ourselves").  Headed by Gerry Adams, the political party is left wing and Irish republican.  Thank you, high school Quiz Bowl (that's what I remember that information from).

Because George Best (who's the best football player ever) played for Manchester United, there are several pubs with very dedicated ManU fans.  This is one of the most popular, in West Belfast.  There's a saying in NI: "Maradona good, Pele better, George Best."  Which, I assume, is ranking famous footballers.  

Like London and several other cities in the UK and Europe, Belfast has a Big Wheel, which I didn't ride but is a major tourist attraction.  This photo is of Belfast City Hall and the Big Wheel.  The red letters on the front of City Hall say "B(elfast) Festive" because they have lots of Christmas things going on.

This is the Prince Albert clock, a memorial to Queen Victoria's late husband.  Because Belfast is built onto what is essentially a riverbed, the Clock is sort of like a leaning Tower of Pisa and the foundation is supposedly sinking into the River Lagan.

This rundown building is the former headquarters of Harland and Wolff Shipbuilders, the famous manufacturers of the White Star Line (and numerous HMS vessels as well).  It is the world's largest dry dock, and the Titanic was famously built there.

The most famous part of the Belfast skyline is not a building but two giant (and I mean enormous - there's a restaurant in the little red thing on top) yellow cranes (H&W for Harland and Wolff) which were used to build ships.  Now they are used for other purposes.  The two cranes are affectionately known as Samson and Goliath.  To me, this did not bode well for the Titanic, as the two cranes used to build it were named after strong dudes who met a bad end.

This is Stormont, the home of the NI Parliament.  It's on very lovely grounds with parks.  They weren't in session (Aidan joked that they were on their "Christmas break" from October to March).  The NI Legislative Assembly was created under the Belfast Agreement, and the Executive Committee there is a shared cabinet, meaning that both parties are effectively ruling together in a consociational government.  Also, Evelyn got a NI Assembly cookbook from her daughter-in-law that made everyone laugh since it contains recipes from all of the MLA's.  It would be the equivalent of the Georgia State Senate putting out a cookbook (which they probably do, come to think of it).

Anyway, Christmas and Boxing Day in Moira will be in the next post.