Wednesday, November 4th, we head out on our field trip to Northern Ireland. It's only about 2 hours north of Dublin, and a lot of Irish people head there to shop because the prices are cheaper. Northern Ireland is still part of the United Kingdom, but there's no border even, we just drove right in. We stopped in Belfast to meet Ray, one of Don's former students, who was working on his Ph.D. in... can't remember, but it had something to do with the folk/traditional music of the Republicans (nationalists - those who want a united 32 county Ireland) and the Unionists (Loyalists - those who want to remain part of the British empire). Anyways, Ray took us on a mini tour of the Belfast murals - especially the wall of murals that reflect current political issues and so can change sometimes weekly. Then we went and changed our money - Britain is still on the pound and it was about 1eur10 to the pound - that's more than a $1.70 now!! Had lunch, then went on a longer walking tour, where we went into some of the neighborhoods that have political murals painted on the sides of houses. Most of them were relating to "The Troubles" during the 60s and 70s, but a few were global, and a few had other Irish political issues.
After the walking tour, we got back on the bus which drove us to the Peace Lines - along Falls Road and Shankill Road. The peace lines is a giant fence that separates Falls Rd on the Catholic or Nationalist side, and Shankill Rd on the Protestant Unionist side. On the Falls Rd side, the houses are built right up to the fence, and they all have barriers on them because there is still a fear of riots or conflict. On the Shankill Rd side, they purposefully leave about 200 yards as it was when the August 1969 riots broke out with the burning of Catholic Bombay Street. We could walk along the Catholic side, but couldn't stop the bus or walk along Shankill Rd because we didn't want to attract too much attention (so I couldn't get any good pictures). Even walking along Falls Rd was a bit eerie, but Shankill was horrific - the 200 yards or so beyond the peace line fence are bombed out buildings and debree-filled empty lots that are all spray painted over. Beyond that is a neighborhood filled with people going about their everyday business, but they keep it that way to remind people of the riots that broke out.... and also it's a bit of a tourist attraction. It was very eye-opening... before, The Troubles had been a distant thing, but driving along those roads and looking at all the murals and memorials to those that died really brought home that the main riots and bombings in 1969 are still fresh in people's minds.
After that, we drove through the Unionist side of Belfast, saw a bunch of Loyalist murals, and then headed to the Titanic Quarter. There we got a tour of the old drawing room (all run down and closed up - though they're in the process of fixing it up to make into a museum) where they drew the plans for the Titanic, and then the shipyard and slipway where they used to build the ships. It was very cool, and our tour guide was hilarious - he knew every line to the movie Titanic, and kept throwing them out there to our great amusement. Ironically, they're building a museum for the Titanic now, but the disaster really wasn't that well known or cared about until the movie came out, and it's really because of the success of the movie that they are able to build a museum/hotel and be confident that people will come to see it and stay there. Anyways, the important thing to remember is that "she was alright when she left here, and she would've been fine, until they got an Englishman to captain her!"
After a long day of traveling, and heavy topics of conversation/lecture, we finally pulled into our hotel, freaked out because it was sooooo nice!!!, and then met for dinner later that evening.
