There and Back Again: A Belfast Tale (Part One)

The Irish countryside. Those mountains, though not the official border, more or less separate Northern Ireland from the Republic.

Samson and Goliath

     When I got the itinerary for our trip to Belfast from the coordinator, Madelyn, I knew instantly that it was going to be a long, long day. First of all, we had to be at UCD by 7:40 am, and it takes about forty minutes to get to the campus from Rathmines. Alana decided to cope with this by spending the night on campus with a friend, but as the dorms have no couches to sleep on and I did not want to sleep on the floor, I decided that I would simply wake up early. So when I woke up at five on Saturday I turned on the hot water heater to warm the shower and had a large breakfast (lunch in Ireland does not take place till around one). Dressed and packed for a journey (sunglasses and an umbrella, because you never know what the weather will be like), I headed out the door at about 6:30. The Luas buses do not run as regularly, or start as early, on the weekends so I planned to give myself plenty of time. Walking to the bus stop where I usually get the bus to UCD I immediately realized that I had a problem, this stop did not have a bus time table; it might come in five minutes or fifty, I has no way if knowing. For about ten minutes I waited and nothing came, so as panic began to set in I decided to walk down the street and try to find a stop that would have a time table. Ten minutes down the road I found one and the 145 was not going to come for forty minutes. Deciding not to revert to a panicked state, I looked up and down the street for a taxi. It was only a few minutes before I saw one and hailing him I asked the driver to take me to campus. I knew that it would be expensive, but I would have peace of mind knowing that I was not going to miss the bus to Belfast. Once on campus, I texted my friend Alyssa and she gave me directions to her dorm so we could hang out till it got closer to time. Alyssa is a lovely person; she goes to Purdue, is actively involved in her church, and is just an altogether kind soul. She actually watched a documentary I had recommended from Netflix about Belfast's murals the night before.

The Titanic Museum

      At 7:35 we made put way to the parking lot and loaded onto the buses with the rest of the group. The drive was going to be about two hours with a stop at a rest stop for a bathroom and coffee break. Our driver, D ( he actually has an Irish name, but as Americans couldn't usually pronounce it so we could call him D) was very funny and entertaining. During the drive he gave us a brief history of Ireland from the stone age to the present, sang us a few Irish songs and a poem. The Irish country side is not something I had seen yet really and it was truly beautiful, which lots of farms and animals ( though we were on the M50 motorway the whole time). After an hour we stopped at the rest stop, and, let me tell you, Irish rest stops are far superior to American. Very nice, with actual fresh food and no fast food in site. As we got on the bus D informed us that the mountains we saw in the distance were the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. At one time, about ten to twenty years ago, that would have been a heavily guarded border, but now there is nothing but a small sign welcoming you to the North, which not one person on the bus spotted. You only really notice when all the signs are suddenly different and the speed limits go from kilometers an hour to miles an hour. No border control at all, no passport check, nothing; which shows how far things have come since the Troubles.

Inside the Titanic Museum. The signs are to show the Northern Irish (Protestant) opposition to Home Rule in the early 20th century

     For those of you that do not know what the Troubles are, they are the period of violence that took place between the late 1960s and 1990s when Northern Irish Republicans and Unionists fought. It is a long story, but basically the Republicans/Nationalists/ Catholics wanted to be a part of the Republic of Ireland and were being mistreated by the Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist majority in the North. This is the time of the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) and all the bombings and violence that has made Belfast famous. The struggle goes back hundreds and hundreds of years and still continues to an extent today, as I will explain later.

View of the harbour

      Belfast is noticely different from Dublin and the rest of Ireland ( from what I have seen), as it is much more British, modern, and industrialized. It looks far more like London than Dublin. Upon entering the city we drove towards the water and there we saw Samson and Goliath the two huge cranes that dominate the port. The reason that we were going to the port is because that is where the Titanic Museum is. Believe it or not, the Titanic was built in Belfast. At the turn of the century the city was an industrial center and was responsible for a lot of Britain's industrial goods. Linen, tobacco, and shipbuilding were what Belfast was known for. The Museum is massive and was built to be as tall as the Titanic. Touring the museum saw what Belfast was like in the early 1900s and why it was chosen to be the home of the Titanic and it's sister ships. There was even a ride in the museum reminiscent of Disneyland that showed how the ship was built. It was a very well done museum, and having volunteered at the Titanic exhibition last summer, I could actually answer some of the questions that my friends asked. Having been broken up into two groups we wandered through the museum at our leisure for about two hours, until we all reemerged out into the sunlight( though it was not very sunny) and waited to get back on the bus, which would take us to our next location: Stormont.