We arrived in Belfast and had not a clue where to go. we knew we were going to find a tour bus but we had to park somewhere! This is the first of the many that we saw. "you are now entering loyalists Sandy Row Heartland of south Belfast Ulster - Freedom Fighters"
This picture below is the Justice Palace. This building as you can see has been the target of many bombings over and over. The government at this time doesn't have the money to repair it. This just one place that shows you the terror that the people of Ireland endured.
As we took the bus tour and I applogize for the rails in the pictures, we saw many of these murals depicting the stuggles and memorial to the ones that died.
More of the murals which in some cases, go on for blocks. (that picture didn't come out very well) But if you look closely you can see the stories.
More Murals
The mural below is a memorial to the five that died.
In this building , the two top floors where the Tory/ Unionists Spies lived for two years.
The Catholic murals often aspire to the romantic Sistene Chapel lite while the Protestant areas were more workmanlike that resembles war comics without the humor.
"Other popular themes in the Protestant areas are the red hand of Ulster, symbolizing the founding of the province and on Carnmore st., the 13 Prostestant apprentice boys shutting the gates of Derry against King James in 1688 leading the famous seige."--or the one in 1981 of the ten IRA inmates that died during a hunger strike trying to be recognized by the Bristish government.
This mural of Bobby Sands . The girl that was shot by stray bullets. The innocence of children ----"our revenge will be the laughter of our children"
The murals in both Protestand and Catholic areas are safe to view during the day as Belfast has been voted for 2 years in a row as the safest capitol city in Europe.
I couldn't get all the murals as there are hundreds of them.(probably not that many but it seems that way!) The history is so interesting but a bit confusing at first..I am going to be reading a lot more....One guide told us that the fighting really stopped here because of 911. That seemed to scare them. We also heard that Bill Clinton had a great influence on the country.
Belfast also has some beautiful buildings.- libraries,churches, city halls--Below is the The famous The Crown Bar. We went in to look, though we would loved to have a pint; we had to drive back to Limerick..The inside of the bar is just beautiful as you can see in the next few pictures.
Some guy I picked up at the bar :)
The building in the background is the Titanic's Dock and Pump house known as the Thompson Dock and Pump-house which is the only original part of the ship's legacy open to the public. Here is the Titanic's physical footprint. It took 500 men of 7 years to build the dry dock which is 900 feet long with a gate weighing 1,000 tons and holding 21 million gallons of water.!!! The Titanic was built here in Belfast. This is the year that the massive project was suppose to be completed but still has a way to go. It should be fascinating when it is done.
A wire figure given to the city by the Queen perches at the beginning of the Queens Bridge. They don't have much to say about this --rather negative names. I also left out another picture of a globe within another globe that had much the same sentiments.
So this is one part of Belfast..
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