After a good walk in the morning we started making our way to a noon time slot at the Titanic Museum. Along the way we found a wonderful farmers market and took in all the sights and smells. We found a great fish market with fish we had never seen, but could not find anyone to tell us what they were.
Reaching for the Titanic Museum, we had time for a nice coffee and tea. The museum was self guided and, truth be told, if you've seen the moving "Titanic," you knew much of the information, with the exception of the building of the ship, which happened in Belfast. Here is Julie in front of the museum.
We spent about two hours and headed back to our hotel. We had arranged a "Black Cab" tour of Belfast at 2:30 and needed to get a quick bite to eat.
The Tour of Belfast.
This was actually one of the things Tom had been looking forward to as he wanted to know the history Belfast which is where part of his family is from. There was no way to know ahead of time how depressing and real the tour was going to be.
At 2:30 sharp, a black cab, with "Jerry" driving, pulled up and we jumped in. Jerry had a single question to ask. "Were we taking the tour because we wanted to, or did we think we had to?" We both stated that we wanted to go on the tour and Tom and Jerry talked a bit about Tom's family history. Jerry started driving and talking about what happened in Ireland in 1690! He told us it was important to start there and that it would become relevant later.
A quick side note. The Black Cab tours are very well known and there are only a handful of cab drivers that know the history and can tell the story. An unstated rule is they will talk down the center of the issues and not cloud it with their own point of view. Jerry, who we learned later was one of the best, started out that way, but soon after we developed some trust, it became very apparent which side (Catholic or Protestant) his heart was in.
We took a short drive to the sectarian neighborhoods in West Belfast and Jerry started telling the story of the modern day problems. We drove on the Shankill road area and immediately the atmosphere changed to very ghetto-like and poor. Jerry pulled over and we were sitting in the middle of a Protestant gang controlled area. The only folks you saw were fast walking, mistrusting, white anglosaxons, who did not look happy we were there. Jerry came up to Tom and said, "outside of the cab, your name is Bobby".
Jerry told us the story of the early Catholic/Protestant troubles and described the murals painted at the end of the streets and the sides of people's houses.
These were pictures of Protestant heroes and martyrs and all were killed in the late 90's and early 2000's. Jerry showed his hand, but caught himself, describing them as "serial killers and murderers." He spoke with disgust in his voice. We climb back in an continued deeper into the neighborhood. It was very chilling.
To hear Jerry tell it, the area we were in had very little crime and was completely controlled by Protestant gangs. It looked anything like that. You can get the rest and I'll just show the pictures.
Jerry pointed out that every home flew the Northern Ireland flag as well as the Union Jack as their way of showing that they are subjects of Britain. They do not consider themselves ruled by Dublin. For 104 year this has been going on and it's in their blood.
We were more interested in the "Peace Wall" and Jerry started heading there. It was at this stop that it started to be clear just how bad the hate the Protestant hate is for their Catholic neighbors (and fellow countrymen).
This is a short section of the Peace wall. We are on the Protestant side and with the exception of the murals, it was very drab. We drove to an area where two higher sections were added to the wall. The wall was put up by the British when the Protestants of West Belfast started to burn their Catholic Neighbor's houses.
We drove the length of the wall until we found a road with a gate. The gate was opened at 6:00 AM every day and closed automatically at 10:00 PM every night. As it closes, a loud horn is blown and the words on the side of the gate read, "Catholics This Side", and "Protestants This Side," respectively. Gross.
After passing the gate, we turned to follow the "Catholic" side of the wall. It was a completely different atmosphere with kids in the streets and a feel like it was any other street in Belfast. It had one memorial area and we had a look. It pictured every Catholic who was killed during the worst of the Ulster Army/IRA killings. Clearly a tit for tat environment.
At this point, we just wanted the story to end and Jerry brought it to a nice closing. He spoke about how the killing had stopped because both the Ulster Gangs and IRA became political, taking up roles in the government. This drove the killings and bombings underground because neither side could afford the bad press.
While telling this part, Jerry had us turn around and we were staring at the mural of Bobby Sands, who for political reasons had gone on a hunger strike of 66 days. Along the way ten other men joined him. His dying was a turning point in the peace process.
Can you imagine, driving around these areas and seeing these memorials and murals all over the place .. IN YOUR Neighborhood. It does nothing but keep the wounds fresh and the emotions high. It sucked on both sides!
We turned from Bobby and Jerry really rolled and debated with Tom about how this COULD NEVER BE SOLVED. He had a very convincing argument. 😡
Jerry dropped us at our hotel and we made our day to dinner and a Guinness. Tomorrow our adventure moves to Galway.
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