It’s day 16 and the loop completes. I am now back in Dublin right where I started two weeks ago having done a complete circuit round Ireland. Didn’t do a great deal today other than the drive down from Belfast so I’ve had a lazy day.
Tomorrow is my last full day in Ireland so I’ll be getting the bus up to town early on. Quite a few attractions to see, but the Guinness Storehouse is top of my list!
This is my last last day in the North and it opened up with rain. Lots of it. Luckily it died off just before 10.00 and I decided to start the day with an open top tour of Belfast. I had no clue where I was going and felt the bus tour would give me some ideas.
Within 5 minutes almost everyone had emptied off the bus at the Titanic exhibition. It didn’t interest me much so I stayed on vowing to do the whole circle and then deciding where to visit for the day.
Soon we took a trip out of town to Stormont which is the seat of the Northern Ireland government.
There are lots of lovely buildings from the 19th and early 20th Century in Belfast and this one is no exception. It is 365 feet wide, and has 365 windows (I was actually listening to the tour guide). The six pillars at the front represent the six counties of Northern Ireland.
It was going to sport a dome like the Whitehouse but the stock market crash of 1929 reduced the investment available, so I’m afraid you will just have to use your imagination on what it would have looked like.
Moving up the Crumlin Road, the old law courts. A new law courts has been built near the centre of town in glass as they can now make glass buildings in Belfast.
The old law courts were sold on eBay and bought by a local investor for £1. He hasn’t had the money to renovate it, and it’s now a real mess. The government is interested buying it back but the investor wants to keep it.
Not far from Crumlin Road you get to the Shankhill Road area of Belfast.
Murals are still very much alive and well in Belfast. Some are dedicated to peaceful aims. Some, like this one, depict paramilitary groups.
Not far from the Protestant Shankhill Road area is the Catholic Falls Road area. These two areas of West Belfast have been split by a large peace wall.
Apparently dozens of world leaders have written words of wisdom on here. However, millions of other people have written their words of wisdom (and some not so wise) on here, obscuring the global messages.
On the other side of the wall is the Falls Road area. There is a Remembrance Garden to Provisional IRA members who were killed and, like the Shankhill area, an abundance of murals.
This is the most photographed mural in the world and depicts the hunger striker, Bobby Sands.
After the bus tour, I ended up back in the centre of town where I started and went looking for lunch. Eating out in Derry and Belfast is inexpensive and there’s lots of choice. I had a boxed noodle meal with chips, chicken in black bean sauce and sweet and sour chicken. £5 for the lot, eat in.
I had made my mind up that a visit to the Crumlin Road Gaol would occupy a large chunk of my afternoon. The bus timetables were a nightmare so I gave up and walked there.
The tours run every 15 minutes so I didn’t have long to wait before my slot came up. This was a working jail up until 1996, conditions are Victorian with no toilets in the rooms etc.
This is one room you don’t want to end up in. 17 prisoners were executed here during the lifetime of the prison, the last in 1961.
Apparently, it’s the only fully functioning gallows of its kind still present in the UK.
I’ll finish off the picture round with a shot of Belfast City Hall. Had I turned up weekdays I would have had a free guided tour. They only run two at set times on Saturday and none at all on Sunday so I couldn’t fit it in – maybe next time.
Talking of next time, I will definitely be taking another tour to Belfast sometime. There is simply so much to see here; like Derry the people are very friendly and the atmosphere is very upbeat now that peace has descended on the region.
Trip Advisor lists over 170 attractions for Belfast so you could stay here for weeks and still not run out of things to do.
The sunset at Elaghvale was brilliant – I missed yesterday’s post so decided to tag it onto this one.
I got up nice and early and hit the road just after 8.00AM, my destination being the Giant’s Causeway, one of the famous UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Stopped off at the village of Greysteel for some breakfast. Throughout the Republic, and it appears the North too, the filling stations with franchises like Centra and Spar always do a hot buffet. Items to choose from include bacon, sausage, egg, white pudding, black pudding, hash browns, potato scones and fried bread. As you can see, all nutrition groups are covered. For £2.50-£3.00 it really isn’t worth cooking in the van.
While I was enjoying the said breakfast, I remembered that I didn’t go to Maplin for some repair items. I also forgot to visit the River Roe which is where the Munro name came from, allegedly.
It wasn’t long before I had motored to the Giant’s Causeway with literally a couple of minutes to spare before the 10.00 guided tour departed. This took a little over an hour and amounted to my exercise for the day. I couldn’t get a clear picture of the causeway itself because half of Tokyo had turned up to make a film on it.
My next port of call was the Old Bushmills Distillery, I really fancied a tour of the place. Arriving at 12.05 I saw that the next guided tour was at 3 in the afternoon. This would have got me down to Newtownabbey too late so I abandoned the idea.
I found a nice chippy on the outskirts of Newtownabbey and treated myself to a sausage supper for lunch. Got to the Jordanstown Loughshore campsite just after 2PM and set the van up.
Now, this is an unmanned campsite and I’d never been to one before. It’s also supposed to be “the best caravan site in Ireland”. A pretty tall claim for a place that doesn’t even have any staff?
Well I have to give them credit, the place is owned and run by Newtownabbey Council and it is absolutely spotless. The loos had just been cleaned with blue “duck” squirted under the rims, everything smelling of cleaning fluid. The washing machine and dryer were my first call, these were £2 a go which isn’t too bad and are both made by Miele. I recognise quality when I see it…
At 4PM the cleaner man was round AGAIN so they obviously like to keep this place in tip top condition. Tried the showers out, they had a good blast to them and are free so no need to screw about with tokens or rush yourself.
It’s £20 a night, however you get free shower, free electricity and a water tap / drainage on your serviced pitch.
It’s 18.20 as I write this, not sure if I will cook up something to eat just yet or take a walk along the lough. The sun is out and it’s a pleasant evening. Tomorrow I’ve got the whole day in central Belfast. Bout Ye!
It was up nice and early for a full cooked breakfast this morning before ordering a cab up to the town centre. First port of call was the lovely Guildhall for the first of the day’s tours.
Just before 11.00 I saw a tour guide on the steps, named Glen from Bogside History Tours whose father (Patrick Doherty) was killed on Bloody Sunday. No other customers showed up for that tour slot, so it was just me and him. He gave a good account on the background to the City, including the plantations and some of the sieges that have gone on in the past. He also walked me round the Guildhall which is a fascinating building, and where the bulk of the Saville enquiry was held. This was followed by a tour to the Bogside itself for a description of the events of Bloody Sunday. I didn’t know this but the Bogside is right next door to the City centre.
We took a walk to Chamberlain Street where the shooting started. Moving on then to Rosville Street; all the killings are in or around this street.
It’s also the street on which all the peace murals are painted.
This is Glenfada Park, a small car park behind houses on Rosville Street. More shootings occurred here of protesters trying to run to safety. During the day, 5 protesters were shot in the back.
Moving down to the end of Glenfada Park, the wall at the end is the location of the Free Derry Museum. On the right of the picture, two bullet holes are still in the wall caused by 7.62mm rounds.
This is the monument in Rosville Street to those who were killed on Bloody Sunday. More killings took place behind the monument, including the tour guide’s father Patrick Doherty who was shot while he tried to crawl to safety. Bernard McGuigan heard his cries for help and tried to assist him, waving a white hankerchief to signal his peaceable intentions. He was shot in the back of the head.
Many will be familiar with this picture of the Free Derry Corner.
This gable end was originally painted when the Bogside was a no-go area, signalling the start of the “free” area which was not under British control. The block of houses was eventually demolished, but this wall was kept.
This is one of the most moving murals in the Bogside collection. It’s entitled “Death of Innocence” and it depicts a young girl called Annette McGavigan.
In 1971, she had been sent to the shops on an errand by her parents. During her trip she was shot and killed by a British solider during crossfire with the IRA. She was 14 years of age.
That was the end of my Bogside tour. I had a quick cup of tea afterwards with Glen and headed round the shops for a nosey and had some lunch in the local McDonald’s.
At 2PM, I went to the address for Martin McCrossan whose company runs a tour of the City walls. Derry has been under attack three times and nobody has got in yet, so the “walls” warranted a bit of a look round.
There was a slightly bigger turnout this time, myself and a couple from Coleraine. The tour started off at one of the four main gates to the City. This is the gate which was closed by the Derry Apprentice Boys against enemy forces. They march twice a year, once in December to commemorate the closing of the gates and again in August to mark the end of the siege.
Our tour guide gave a great account of the history, again starting back at the time of the plantation – it’s essential to understand that in order to get the full picture on issues that have occurred in more recent history.
The walls are over a mile in circumference and there are some great views from the walls. There is a superb view of the Bogside from the City walls, and the Creggan area above it which are the two large Catholic estates in West Derry.
There is a small Protestant area called the Fountain Estate which can also be seen from the City walls.
In much the same way as the Nationalist areas have painted the lamposts in the colours of the Irish flag, the Unionists have done this in the colours of the Union flag. The kerbstones have also been painted to match.
This is a Protestant church within the confines of the City walls, up until recently it was defaced and boarded up. Being right next to an army garrison it was a natural target for attack.
Since the troubles have ended, it has been restored and has hosted various peace initiatives. Guests such as Martin McGuinness and Martin Luther King III have attended various symposiums held here.
Well that was the end of my tour of Derry. I know it wasn’t my normal “ice cream and sunshine” post, but events here have shaped generations of events both in Ireland and the UK, and I felt it important to get a more detailed insight to the history of the City. I would warmly recommend a visit to Derry, the tours in particular were superb and only cost around the £4-£5 mark. Eating out is cheap and everybody is friendly.
Tomorrow, the van (if it starts) will be going to Belfast. I’ve a couple of days there before heading back to Dublin. There’s a Maplin in East Derry so I must remember to buy some wire and crimps there to try and fix the ignition system up.