My LA Blog

I have to say, probably one of my favorite things that we did this entire trip was the political mural tour in Belfast.  Our driver was great and had a wealth of knowledge.  You could just feel his pain when he told us about life on the Protestant side of the Peace Wall growing up.

It’s just amazing to think that it’s only 8 years after the Trouble’s ceasefire in 2000.  According to him, the city is an entirely different place.  Yet at the same time, the Peace Wall is still up and the gates are locked shut each night.

While there’s not too much fighting going on, it’s still not completely peaceful.  There was talk in the news just yesterday of a pipe bomb going off that was meant for an IRA official.  That will probably take generations before the hatred dissipates.  So sad.

According to our tour guide, these murals take 2-3 weeks to go up. As the older, more discriminatory and threatening murals start to fade and peel, they’re being replace by the city with more friendly, cultural morals.

Here are a couple of photos from that tour. This first batch are taken from a Protestant housing project.

This one is creepy as all hell. That gun follows you as you walk by. The entire time it’s pointing at you. I must’ve been quite freaked since that’s actually the only shot I got of this mural and it’s not even a full-on shot.

One of the many myths depicting the story behind the red hand of Ulster.

This is the Peace Wall - it locks in the Catholics and keeps the Protestants out. You’ll notice that it’s built in three stages. Turns out, it was never quite tall enough to keep out the bombs and the rockets from the Protestant side.

This is one of the many sets of gates into the Catholic area. Each gated entrance actually consists of two sets of gates - one further in. The Peace Wall entirely surrounds and encloses the Catholic town and extends fully into the mountains beyond. They’re all locked down every night.

This is on the side of the IRA headquarters. It’s a mural of Bobby Sands, one of the first IRA prisoners to lead a hunger strike while imprisoned. I remember hearing about his when I was a kid.

On the Catholic side, they have an entire wall dedicated to the international causes that the IRA supports (in some cases, schools the local terrorists) and opposes. This is an example of what they oppose about the US and (soon to be former) President Bush. You’ll notice that he’s sucking the oil out of Iraq.

Fascinating stuff, all of it. I wish the tour could have been another hour longer still. But really, that alone made the drive into Belfast so worth it.

Jameson & Ginger Ale, my drink of choice…

Still haven’t seen a castle, but here’s another church (there are plenty of those around) Saint Sinian’s Tyrrellpass

House in ruins

There’s a lot going on in the news out here. On the 7th there was a HUGE cocaine bust in Cork.Then the following day or so, there was a gang-related murder of an innocent rugby player.  All this recent gang activity is making for demand in changing the current legistlation.  Needless to say, the gangs aren’t too happy and have been calling in some bomb threats.  I believe that’s what’s happening in this photo here.

PS - not happy with the way the photos are formating on the page, but I’m not going to mess with it now.  Maybe it’s just time to change up the blog theme and header again.

Luckily , we were able to have some dry weather during our walking tour of Kinsale. I’ve always enjoyed either taking the historical walking tours or ghost tours when I visit new cities. I love seeing things first hand while hearing the stories - be they sordid, gory and ghostly stories, or just the history and folklore. It must be the teacher in me (I get the same way at museums…give me the docent tour please).

Here are some photos from that tour…

This purple building was once the lighthouse and is actually the location of one of the two town wells from the early, Medieval, walled-city days.

Across the harbor looking towards the town of Kinsale.

Immediately after our tour, it starting raining and turned all sorts of blustery (as they say here).  So much so that we couldn’t even see James Fort in front of us - but we could see the water splashing up over the seawall on the way down the crazy, narrow hill from the fort (the big spot isn’t an orb, it’s a raindrop).

I just thought this was pretty and a bit picturesque.  The local “giant” lived here before joining the circus in Bath, England hence the name “The Giant Cottage”.

Seriously, outside of the obligatory food shots, this is my one and ONLY photo from Killarney. Just as I finished taking this photo, the rain starting coming down something fierce. Our jeans were completely drenched just walking from the car a block or two to the pub (thank goodness I splurged on those waterproof jackets with hoods!). It was so bad all day that the hubs refused to bring his camera anywhere outside the car so he doesn’t have any photos either. But man, Killarney sure was super crowded and super touristy, even in the rain (check out that dark sky).