Adventures in Belfast

94 years ago today Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, thus commencing the First World War.

Things are still moving along here in Northern Ireland. This weekend differed from my usual activities because my buddy Brendan (Poz) from Loyola was in Belfast. I let him crash on the floor of my room, and since he was staying with me, we pretty much spent the entire weekend together.

I picked him up from the bus station about noon. We came back to Queen's so he could drop off his stuff then we went to check out the mural paintings in the Falls Road and the Shankill Road (Catholic/Republican and Protestant/Loyalist, respectively). Poz had a guide book that we were using as our reference point, but the problem was that for both the Falls and Shankill there only existed a small inset map and not a map of the entire west Belfast area. Needless to say, there were many wrong turns taken. There is a big fence separating the two neighborhoods and it's somewhat surreal walking through the gates (which are closed at night) between the two areas. The murals themselves were fascinating. Along the Falls Road the murals generally focused on Bobby Sands and the H-Block Hunger Strikers, as well as other moments and ideals of Republicanism. In the Shankill Road there was a distinct theme of violence that I found very interesting, especially when juxtaposed to the Falls Road and the typical villainization of the IRA (I don't want to sound like an IRA apologist, I'm not by any means). People don't hear as much about the UVF and other Protestant para-military groups as they do the IRA. But in the Shankill road militarism was ALL OVER their murals. There was even one dedicated to a particular soldier who earned the moniker "Top Gun" for taking out so many of the "others." A whole wall on the side of a house for this guy. It really makes you think.

After we looked at the murals, Poz wanted to go see the grave of Bobby Sands. Mind you we started in the Falls Road, worked our way north and then back east through the Shankill Road. To get to Sands' grave we had to go BACK down the Falls road, i.e. the road we walked down once already, plus an extra mile or two until we found Milltown Cemetery. And it was a huge cemetery. The guide book said the Sands' memorial was on the right hand side just after you walk in the main gates. That wasn't exactly true. We wandered around trying to find the area described in the book, but couldn't find it (the pictures in the link resemble the description in the book, but not what we actually found at the cemetery; weird). Finally we asked a gentleman walking through the cemetery and he pointed us in the right direction. In the meantime he told us that a bunch of the Hunger Strikers were there as well as some of the folks from the Gibralter Incident. He told us that when they were burying the Gibralter victims that loyalists threw grenades at the mourners. He seemed pleased to tell us that even though they ran toward the motorway, the loyalists were caught. The way he said it suggested that they weren't just apprehended and taken off to jail. But it was probably about a city block's distance to the grave sites of Sands and the other Hunger Strikers buried there. Just inside the gate my ass! The cemetery was clearly a Catholic one and Nationalist/Republican. What really struck me was that there was a sizable Great War memorial in the cemetery. Probably the LAST place I would expect to find one of those would be in the same cemetery where Sands, et. al. were laid to rest.

By this time we'd been walking for over 5 hours straight. Since we had been walking south, I figured we could just find an east/west road and try to get back to Queen's. So we asked for directions at a shopping center, but they weren't too helpful. And so I did what I very rarely do. Called a cab. We took a cab back to Queen's. Of course once I saw the route that we took, I realized it only would have taken us another 45 min or so to walk back because I recognized where I was after about 3 turns and 2 traffic lights. Oh well.

Then we went to the Tesco to get some food for dinner. We bought a couple oven pizzas and cooked those up. Then we went out to find a decent pint. But first we had to walk back to the city center to find a specific ATM so Poz could get out money without any fees, or so he hoped. After getting cash, we tried in vain to find a bar that wasn't packed, loud, and full of DB's. Every place we went to was absolute garbage. Even the old fashioned pub turned chachie on Saturday night. We ended up at a hotel bar. There was a wedding going on and some of the wedding-goers were at the bar. We made nice with some of them and they bought us drinks, so that made it worthwhile. One of the guys kept trying to get us to drink Diesel, which, as he told us is for Belfast because Belfast is hardcore. It consists of 2 shots of vodka, 1 red bull, and Magners (hard cider). Poz eventually tried and said it was good. I had no desire to imbibe any such concoction and took his word for it.

When we got back to Queen's a security guard stopped us and asked to see our room keys. I displayed mine, but Poz didn't have one. So we BS'd the guy and said he had to get his bag out of the room so he could go to his hostel and the security guard let Poz through under the provision he came back out. Of course he didn't, but the guy didn't have my name or room number so score one for us.

On Sunday we got up late and went out to do some more sight-seeing. We trekked through the TItanic Quarter, which was a real disappointment. Although they did have the HMS Caroline on the display there which served in the First World War and was at the Battle of Jutland in 1915. Unfortunately, people aren't allowed on the boat. So that sucked, but it was cool to see. On our way back from the Titanic Quarter we stopped at the Crown Bar for a pint because it one of those places you HAVE to get a pint in Belfast. Then we made our way back toward Queen's and Tesco's again to get food and beer. I had no interest in going out again after all the walking we did Saturday and Sunday. So we made food, had a few beers, and shot the shit.

This morning we got up early and went to breakfast. Then we headed downtown. Poz took the bus to Dublin and I went to the Royal British Legion office in Belfast. I got there around 9am and worked there until about 1pm. They had minute books of the British Legion (Ireland) Northern Branch HQ since 1919 (pre-dating the founding of the actual British Legion itself!). So I went through those and took pictures of all the minute books from 1919 until early 1942. The interwar years is the most important and I was quickly running out of memory (and that's with a 2GB memory card).

The folks who worked at the were great. They asked me if I wanted to go out and get a pint so of course I said sure. One of the guys told me they go out for a pint in the afternoon every Wednesday. As he said that I looked at my watch to double check that it was in fact Monday. Apparently they started going Wednesdays. Then Wednesdays and Fridays. Then MWF, then everyday. So they have Monday-Wednesday, Tuesday-Wednesday, Wednesday proper, Thursday-Wednesday, and Friday-Wednesday. They only go for 1 pint, but it was cool to talk to two gentlemen I went out with, both ex-British Army.

After the pint break, I bid the guys from the British Legion adieu and went over to the Belfast Central Library. I wanted to check out their newspaper library in preparation for my planned visit tomorrow. I went through their holdings and made a list of titles I'd want to look at so I should be ready to go in tomorrow guns blazing. There was a guy there taking digital photos today, so I'm glad to see I'll be able to do so as well. Although, I'm starting to run out of space on my hard drive. I have one blank DVD with me, but I might have to go buy a few more. It'd probably be wise to have a back up of some of these things any way. I think I've got about 12GB worth of photos though.

So the rest of this week will probably be split between the Central Library and the Somme Heritage Centre. I called there this afternoon, but the guy I needed to talk to wasn't in. Of course. So I'll call back tomorrow and hopefully get something set up for later this week.

(Pictures to be added later)