Belfast and the North

As part of our Dublin trip, we also scheduled a day trip up to Belfast and Northern Island. Probably the most interesting part of the trip has been learning Irish history — a large part of which stems from the fight for independence and carries over to conflict between Ireland and Northern Ireland or as they are known here — The Troubles.

While it seems like Ireland is a modern country, the ceasefire between the North and South wasn’t signed until 10 years ago. Driving around Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland

One of the reasons Northern Ireland even exists is shortly after Ireland was granted independence from the United Kingdom in 1922, we each county took a vote on if they wanted to go with Ireland or remain part of the UK. Six counties in the North that were part of the Ulster region, which was heavily populated by Protestants remained and formed part of Northern Ireland. Today, Belfast is nearly split between Protestants and Catholics, but still very segmented and divided. In fact driving around, you will see gluttony of British flags on bunting on one street and then Irish Flags on the next.

Belfast and Northern Ireland were also the sites of most of the IRA and terrorism attacks. While not many physical signs remain and most tempers have calmed, the tension is still real and present. The most obvious of the signs that still remain are giant murals painted on the sides of buildings throughout the city, as seen below.


All of the murals had some political meaning behind them, whether it was arguing for a side or remembering the acts of the past. Some of the murals were quite graphic and featured a large gun pointing right at the viewer, blood and guts or dead bodies. The murals have been more toned down in the past few years as the government has funded most of the newer ones and they don't want to be tied to the more controversial one.


The Fredrick Douglass mural appeared on a wall full of international-themed murals. Another featured JFK and more had other political figures. One of the running themes was Northern Ireland's distaste for President Bush. They don't agree with the invasion of Iraq and are wary of America's potential reach into Cuba after Castro dies. In fact, I had an interesting discussion with our Irish professor about the differences in world view between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Perhaps the best case is the Israeli-Palestine conflict. Ireland backs Palestine and a country that is unlawfully ruled and should have the right to self-sovereignty. Northern Ireland thinks more like the British and has a much more pro-Israeli and pro-American point of view.

I found these murals incredibly fascinating and could go on about them. I purchased a book with them in there and am willing to share when I return. If not for the legal studies, being able to examine the Irish-UK struggle has been the most intriguing aspect of the whole trip.

We also drove around Belfast in a bus for most of our time in Northern Ireland. At left, you will see a picture of the dry docks where the Titanic was built. Belfast used to have the largest shipyards in the world and still have great pride in the shipbuilding industry. In fact, they were so heartbroken about the sinking of the Titanic that they didn't say its name for a long time after. In fact, our tour guide said they have a shirt that says "Ship 401: She was fine when she left Belfast." We didn't get out and look around because it was raining hard, but you get the idea.

Our final stopping point was Queen's University. A bunch of the nerdier people in our group was really excited because I think this was the campus the Harry Potter movies were shot at. I had no idea and coolly walked along.

We heard an international human rights lawyer talk to us about how Northern Ireland dealt with the violence, police ignorance of crimes and other problems during the Troubles.


When we returned to Dublin, three of our group — Jillian, Ramsey and myself — went on a Ghost Bus Tour of Dublin. We saw a lot of the older buildings in the city including St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Cemetery. I'm just going to paste the description from Wikipedia than write vague paragraphs about the tour:

The bus leaves from outside Dublin Bus Headquarters on O'Connell Street and heads down past Trinity College. Along the way, the tour guide (a professional actor) tells the story of Bram Stoker and how he came up with the idea for his Dracula novel as well as several other stories, involving a myriad of creatures such as banshees and gruesome tales of surgeons paying body snatchers for fresh corpses, such as the famous Dr. Clossey.
This story sets the scene nicely for the trip to St. Kevin's Graveyard, on Camden Row. The tour guide possesses a key, which he uses to let the group into the disused graveyard and locks the gate afterward. He then precedes to regale the group with tales of hauntings in the graveyard before talking in further detail about grave-robbers, including Burke and Hare, before using a volunteer to simulate what a real grave robbing would be like. The next stop on the tour is St. Audoen's and the 40 steps, where two nuns and a police officer saw a ghost in the 1970s. People on the tour are then encouraged to take pictures or videos, with many showing strange spots or orbs when viewed. (We tried this and got spots, but it was also raining. The jury is out.)
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Live Update: On Tuesday, we went to downtown Limerick after class. Man, it was hopping. For the first time, it actually felt like Limerick was a big city. Usually, the only time we go downtown is during the evening for dinner and pubs, but we went early and it looked like a shopping district on a weekend. We purchased tickets for hurling on Sunday and picked up a few souvenirs.