Although we usually stay put once we are in a place, we recently visited Belfast, a two-hour train ride from Dublin. Neither of us had been to Northern Ireland, so we thought it would be fun to see its main city. It was a quick trip, though we did get to spend the better part of two days there. And we are glad we did visit. Belfast deserves significantly more than a couple of days, but we tried to get in as much as we could!
left: Beacon of Hope
We arrived mid-morning on a Thursday, and the sky was gloomy – so we knew we were still in Ireland! We headed for the Lagan river where we discovered a really attractive mile-long walkway, the Maritime Mile. It features many signs indicating the high points of Belfast’s history. Belfast, we learned, was the world’s main producer of linen in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was even nicknamed ‘Linenopolis’. After linen had its day, Belfast became an important centre for shipbuilding. There are many remnants of its importance throughout the city, but especially along the river. (Belfast was also known for rope making and tea machinery.)
The most famous ship built in Belfast is … the Titanic! Who knew? (Maybe you did!) But yes, the Titanic was built here at the Harland & Wolf shipbuilding company. And of course there is a Titanic Museum right along the river. You wouldn’t think you’d take such pride in a ship that lasted only 14 hours on its maiden (only) voyage, but it was a marvel of shipbuilding, even if the story has a tragic ending. The Museum itself is a really cool building which is meant to evoke a ship. And the interior is terrific with lots of glass elevators and soaring spaces.
Further along we saw HMS Caroline, the only surviving ship from the 1916 Battle of Jutland. This battle (the placard informed us) was the greatest naval battle in history. We thought it was Salamis, but then, we would…
After our walk along the Maritime Mile we walked all around Belfast and eventually made it to our hotel, a lovely little place called the Malone. It is only three stories and is in a neighbourhood just up from the Botanical Gardens and Queens University Belfast. You could easily pass it by without realising it was a hotel.
Belfast has an excellent food scene and though we were only there for two days, we intended to make the most of it! We had a glorious pub meal in the Crown Liquor Saloon, and an even better dinner at Yügo, an Asian fusion small-plates place that used to be impossible to get into. (And is still not easy – the only reservation we could get was at 5.00!) We’d be hard-pressed to pick our faourite dish here, since they have several dishes with eggplant and lamb plus dumplings and bao buns. But the monkfish with curried cauliflower was certainly one of the prettiest. We also managed to find a few snacks at the St. George market, which features local food and crafts.
On our second day we had booked a ‘History of Terror’ tour with DC Tours. Its theme was the Troubles, with a special emphasis on the early 1970s. If you are younger than we are, you may not know about the Troubles: it’s the name given to the decades-long conflict (often violent) between those who wished to retain allegiance to the United Kingdom and those who wished Northern Ireland to be incorporated into the Republic of Ireland. (That one side was largely Protestant and the other mostly Catholic did not help, of course.) The conflict was not always of the same intensity, but the 1970s were a particularly violent time. The violence officially ended in 1994 with the Good Friday Accord. If you haven’t seen Derry Girls (and you should), its final episode, on the day of the referendum to ratify the Accord, is incredibly moving.
In any case, the tour was fantastic. The main reason was our tour guide, Paul Donnelly, who was amazing. He gave us an overview of the issues, while telling many individual stories, both Catholic and Protestant, affected by the violence. Many of them, of course, lost their lives, but many who survived had their lives changed forever. He pointed out sites where the conflict played out, told us of the differences between the Belfast of then and the Belfast of now, and emphasised repeatedly that just because people are no longer killing one another, that doesn’t mean that there are not many people still walking around with scars from that period. He managed to do all this without becoming morose or macabre. The tour was 2 and a half hours long, and our attention never flagged. If you go there, do not miss it.
We mentioned the Queen’s University, and the Botanical gardens, and since our hotel was in that quarter, we had many opportunities to walk on the grounds of the University and make our way through the beautiful gardens. We even had some sun on our second day in Belfast!
This is a silly thing to say, but we kept feeling unsure whether we were in Britain or Ireland. The tour we went on and the people we spoke to – not to mention recent election results – made it very clear that nobody quite knows what will happen next, or what should happen. There is no longer a border between north and south (our train ride just as if we had gone to Cork), but it’s far from integrated. Even in Belfast, Catholics and Protestants continue to live in separate neighbourhoods. The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union after the 2016 referendum has made things even more uncertain. (Northern Ireland voted 55%-45% to remain in the EU.) So we shall have to wait and see what the next chapter of Belfast’s and Northern Island’s history will look like.
