Day 2 - Walking Tour - Belfast, Northern

Today we have a 3 hour walking tour of Belfast booked with local guide, Arthur, who is a Belfast native, co-author of “The Little Book of Belfast” and a once member of an unpopular 1980s Manchester pop group.

Starting at Belfast City Hall, we walked to the Peace Walls with detailed commentary provided by Arthur, giving us the historical and political background to “The Troubles”.

The Troubles was a conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. The conflict began in the late 1960s and is deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

The conflict was primarily political and nationality fuelled by historical events. It also had an ethnic or sectarian dimension, yet despite the use of terms Protestant and Catholic to refer to the 2 sides, it was not a religious conflict. 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 UK and join a United Ireland.

Peace Walls were built in some areas to keep the 2 communities apart. We walked through several huge gates of the Peace Walled area, which are still locked shut every evening.

The Peace Walls are adorned with murals depicting scenes related to the Troubles.

Arthur presented the information in a personally informative and sometimes gruesome manner. We all agreed that we had learnt was informative and, at times, emotionally confronting. Arthur’s tour explained the Troubles in great detail, and added to the reality by Arthur’s own personal account of his own experiences at the time. He also looked forward and placed Belfast within the context of a fast changing, post industrial world.

He also took us to the City Centre and the Cathedral Quarter, where we were last night, and to the Albert Memorial Clock in Queen’s Square in Belfast. Completed in 1869, it is one of Belfast’s best known landmarks. It has a 4 degree lean caused by it being built on soft soil.

Today’s lunch consisted of a buffet style meal at a pub, it was interesting as they kept saying there was to be a top up of the buffet coming, it never seemed to come through. Though the meal was nice in a nice traditional pub with some cheery locals.

The pint today for Dad and I was a beer brewed for English Heritage, which I bought at Stonehenge, called Wassail, a strong chestnut ruby premium ale with an oaky aroma containing sherry and mature fruit. Drinkable but probably won’t rush to purchase another. Desma resorted to a blood orange gin and tonic, along with Katie.Read more