Sunday, July 7, 2019 Dana And Mark Tour Northern Ireland

We got up early and walked 15 minutes to the collection point for our Elegant Irish Tour of Northern Ireland.

Rowland, or Row, our driver and tour guide, and Mark, who is very grateful that he is not driving today.

Did you know that 8 million people lived in Ireland in the late 1840s, before the Potato Famine. Four million Irish men, women and children were driven off the land by the Famine and were forced to emigrate. The ships they sailed in were very small and were called coffin ships because so many people died during the sea journey. One million of the four million people who boarded the coffin ships died during the ocean journey and never made it to their destinations. They are called The Lost Million. The majority of the Irish immigrants came to America and settled in Boston and New York because the cheapest fares were from Ireland to New York or Boston. Ireland’s current population is close to 5 million people. Ireland has never recovered from the Famine.

A little bit of Irish slang.

ATM – Drink link. Your ATM card is you link to getting a drink.

Fun – Crack. As in: “Tonight we are going out to have a bit of crack.”

Giving someone a hard time – Slagging. As in: ” I am just slagging you.”

We drove through Belfast to The Giant’s Causeway.

The Giant’s Causeway is marked by the stacked stones at the top of this map.

We had such a beautiful day to tour The Giant’s Causeway. What stunning scenery.

The Giant’s Causeway is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Legend has it that the Irish giant Finn McCool built the causeway so he could walk to Scotland. Once he completed the Causeway he walked to Scotland. He quickly realized that Scotland was a bleak and barren land full of barbarians and quickly returned to the Emerald Isle. He then torn down the Causeway to prevent the Scots from using it to invade Ireland. Or it was created when two tectonic plates came together and pushed lava up to the earth’s surface forming the eerily geometric rock formations. You get to choose which story you want to believe.

We got a quick bowl of fish chowder at the pub next to the car park, parking lot in American english, and then it was back on the bus for our one hour drive back to Belfast and our Black Cab tour. The Black Cab Tour will be driving us around Belfast showing us the city. This tour concentrates on what the Irish call “The Troubles.” The Unionists and Loyalists are Protestants and are fiercely loyal to England. The Unionists are largely nonviolent while the Loyalists advocate violence to achieve their aims. Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England are affiliated, somewhat like the various states in the United States, and this affiliated entity is known as the United Kingdom 🇬🇧.

The Nationalists and Republicans are Catholic and are fiercely loyal to the Republic of Ireland. The Nationalists are nonviolent while the Republicans espouse violence to achieve their goal of uniting Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland.

Belfast had a majority Protestant Unionist/Loyalist population. Currently the population of Belfast is split almost evenly between Protestants and Catholics. The Protestant Loyalists have spent years and years violently discriminating against the Catholics of Belfast who hate England and want to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland. You guessed it. This has been a recipe for disaster. And this particular disaster of sectarian violence is called The Troubles.

July 12 is the anniversary of the day that William of Orange, a Protestant, defeated King James, the last Catholic King of Ireland.

We started on the Protestant side of the Wall separating the Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods in West Belfast.

This is a mural to honor Stevie “Top Gun” Mckeag. He was a Protestant hero and earned the nickname “Top Gun” based on the number of Catholics he gunned down during the most violent years of The Troubles. He died of a drug overdose.

Leading up to the July 12th Orange Day celebration the Protestant neighborhoods are covered with Union Jacks.

The Protestants build massive bonfires out of old wooden pallets and set them aflame at sunset on July 12th.

This is a work in progress that we saw near the Wall.

This is what the finished product will look like. This one is ready to set ablaze.

This is the Wall that runs three miles from the city center of Belfast to the foothills west of Belfast. This Wall separates the Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods in West Belfast.

After we visited the Wall, our tour guide drove us to the Catholic side of the Wall, where there are blocks of murals.

The ten faces in this mural are the ten members of the IRA who went on a hunger strike and died while in a Northern Ireland prison.

The current version of the Troubles started in 1969 and ended with a peace treaty brokered by the United States and signed by the Protestants and Catholics on Good Friday, 1998. Thirty five hundred people lost their lives during this twenty nine year period of time.

We had a choice of the Black Cab Tour or the Titanic museum for our afternoon in Belfast. I am glad we choose the Black Cab Tour. It was very interesting and educational

For those of you who are interested, this is the Titanic Museum.

Across the street from the Titanic Museum is the studio that does all the computer generated scenes for the Game of Thrones. Did you know that many of the live scenes for the Game of Thrones were filmed in Northern Ireland.

We got back to Dublin at about 7:00 PM and grabbed a quick bite to eat at a pizza place about a block from our apartment.

I had a cold beer.

Dana and I split a salad and a pizza.

It wasn’t a tasting menu but it was a very nice dinner. Dana and I are both pooped so it will be an early bedtime tonight.

Tomorrow Dana flies back to Denver and I fly to Glasgow. I will really miss Dana. She has been such a joy and spending this time with her has been such a blessing.

I hope everyone had a restful Sunday.

Goodnight from Dublin, Ireland. 🇮🇪