Belfast ‘troubles’ averted

It was an early start this morning, with the alarm sounding at 5.30am- although as often happens (or it does to me at least) when you know you have a deadline to meet, I woke just a couple of minutes before it sounded thinking ‘Is it time to get up?’

We got to the ferry check-in with a few minutes to spare and eventually drove the car deep into the bowels of the boat, parking alongside semi trailers and vehicles of all descriptions.
We exited the car and started heading upstairs to the seating areas.
Once again, I had been slightly neglectful in providing Loriene with full details of our journey, meaning that I had only booked ‘cattle class’ tickets to cross the Irish Sea and hadn’t disclosed this fact.

However, in full expectation of better arrangements than that, Loss keeps climbing the stairs beyond cattle class, beyond business class, up to the top level ‘first class’ lounge.
Before she speaks with the concierge guarding the door, I quietly manage to steer her away before any undue embarrassment occurs.
As I coax her down a few staircases back towards steerage class, I have no choice but to explain the situation to her. She puts on a brave face.

I speak to a lady at the reception desk who happens to be right near us at this awkward moment, explaining that I have been stingy with our tickets and ask her for guidance as to where we should be sitting. She politely tells us where the allocated seating areas are for cheapskates like me.

There is an uncomfortable silence as we trudge off toward the doorway marked ‘Boiler Room’, with Loss still maintaining the bravest face she can.
It could be a long, long sea voyage to Belfast.

Then quite unexpectedly the lovely Scottish lady comes running after us, discretely presses an access code pass into Loriene’s hand and says to her quietly ‘Here you go- I think you look like you should be in first class’.
I thank her profusely for saving my life and we climb the stairs again to the top deck….
A pleasant voyage was then had by all.

On arriving in Belfast and after eventually prising Loss out of her seat, we drove straight from the ferry into the CBD of Belfast and within 20 minutes of departing the ferry we were parked and walking to board our ‘Hop on / off’ bus from the city centre. We did a full lap of the route, listening as carefully as possible to the broad-accented Irish commentary before getting off.

We then walked to the Titanic memorial, which lists the name of every individual who perished on that ill-fated maiden voyage. We also looked up the Christadelphian Magazine for details about Bro and Sis Henry Sulley, who were travelling on another vessel in the Atlantic at the same time the Titanic sunk. Here is a little snippet of his account:

“Sister Sulley had been unwell for three weeks before we left England. Upon advice of the doctor the journey was delayed a week, and I began to fear I might require to take the journey alone (not to be thought of unless imperatively impelled). Towards the end of the week the prospect brightened. The question then arose, shall we delay our journey four more days, and take passage on what proved to be the ill-fated Titanic? Sister Sulley said “No; we have delayed a week, I think we ought to start as soon as possible.” So, the doctor having given permission to make the journey, providing sister S. kept in her room till the day she travelled to Liverpool, we took not the ill-fated Titanic, but the safer, and, I think, the more carefully managed Cunarder called Carmania, whose commander, under the hand of God, conveyed us safely to our destination.”

Next we moved on to Belfast’s premier attraction which is the relatively new, multi million pound Titanic Exhibition. It has everything in it to do with things Titanic but as we had seen quite a few of these in recent years (including in Sydney) we skipped the exorbitant entry fee and just toured the ‘Nomadic’ which was the tender for the Titanic. The Nomadic delivered passengers from the White Star Line’s French port onboard the Titanic before it then set sail for New York.

We then did another lap on The Big Red Bus, understanding much better the second time around the various sections of the city, the incredibly violent past from 1969 until 1998 and the political and religious divisions that caused such harm and bloodshed for so many years.
A key issue was the status of Northern Ireland. Unionists and loyalists, who for historical reasons were mostly Ulster Protestants, wanted Northern Ireland to remain within the United Kingdom. Irish nationalists and republicans, who were mostly Irish Catholics, wanted Northern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom and join a united Ireland. We saw absolute evidence of this division as we drove around.

After finishing our second lap of the city, we sought out a few points of interest on foot, returned to the car then made the short drive to our apartment for the evening. Loriene has managed to whip up an amazing roast chicken dinner (using some more ingredients brought from home - but not the chicken, thankfully) in less time than it has taken to type this out.Read more