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Belfastin

By Carl Fisher

June 19^th, 2017

Murials

We arrived in Belfast and decided to hit the road once again, but this time being chauffeured in a Black Cab. What better way to see some of the remnants of the Northern conflicts than in the company of someone who lived through it, our guide Kieran. While he did give a lot of commentary, the stars of the tour were the murals. Unfortunately, I didn't feel comfortable wandering too far from our guide's side so only captured those ones that were in close range.

international influence

Those in Northern Ireland who were engaged in the struggles gained strength and inspiration from the efforts of others (past and present) around the world as exemplified by the Falls’ International Peace Wall.

keeping the peace

When I think of walls that separate peoples I think of the Israeli West Bank, but that such a thing could still exist in present day Ireland was astounding. Why can't folks just get along? I think we don't hang out enough together and religion has a tendency to divide people rather than bring them together. While people from both sides of the wall work side by side during the day, they go their separate ways at night and it is still deemed necessary to lock the gates in order to maintain the peace. These walls are slowly being taken down, but it will not be until 2023 that they will all be removed. I doubt that even by then things will be totally harmonious, but one can dream.

Our black cab awaited. Just not too long or it might find itself losing some of it's blackness.

It was a quick stop, but we left our mark with the help of a Sharpie.

The Catholics

On the other side of the wall, the catholics recognized their heros in a generally less colorful, more sombre manner. Rather than mural after mural, there were local parkettes with the names of those who lost their lives in the struggle inscribed in marble. An exception was the mural for Bobby Sands and those who had participated in the 1981 hunger strike to protest their treatment as common criminals rather than political prisoners.

The Bobby Sands mural is located on the side of this building, not an unsurprising spot.

titanic times

After our tour by cabbie and a fine dinner at the Michelin-starred Ox, there really was no time to explore the city before taking off for points North the next morning. This seemed a shame, so before heading back to bustling Dublin, we decided to spend an additional night and one more morning in Belfast. The main attraction for the extended stay was the Titanic Museum, which was relatively new, having opened in 2012. It's always nice to visit something while it still has some of its early luster. Not only was it quite large, it was a stunning structure and a journey unto itself. I came away with an appreciation of the magnitude of the ship's construction and its opulence. If I ever rewatch the movie, I'm sure that I will see it with a whole new perspective.

It was appropriate that there were still ships in the area that exemplified the state of the art in ocean going transportation.

Servitude

I never really thought that much about how they would get onto and off of the Titanic other than by a gangplank. Well we all know how the unloading in an emergency part went, but I did not know that they used smaller craft to ferry passengers and materials from shore to ship in shallower ports. As good fortune would have it, they were able to save and restore one such vessel, the SS Nomadic. After its mothership sank, it did duty as a WWII troop carrier, became a disco and even a casino before finding a more fitting place to retire.