NORTHERN IRELAND, BELFAST CITY TOUR PART II

 July 11, 2024

We had one more day and one more city tour planned for Belfast. Bob had booked a street art tour, not realizing that a lot of the street art would be covered in the political "two sides" tour we had already gone on. Oh well, we didn't mind some overlap.

Unfortunately, on our way out of B&B, I stumbled on the door sill and went *SPLAT* onto that concrete block patch to the right of the door. As I was wearing a full backpack, I went down hard and awkwardly and had to call for Bob to help me get up.

Yeah, I'm a klutz.

Initially, I was more concerned about my elbow and hip, which seemed to take the most impact, but gradually, my ribs began to hurt, and while I did okay during the day, trying to lie down on a bed at night was excruciating, which made sleep difficult. A few days after I got home, and after the pain seemed to be increasing rather than decreasing, I finally went in for an x-ray and learned I had broken three ribs. As if that wasn't bad enough, I got Covid five days after visiting urgent care, and I'm pretty sure that's where I got it.

But I digress.

We met a new guide for the second tour near a small shopping mall that included a store with this window display:

I was, of course, looking for medicinal relief for my aching body. These helped.

Outside the mall is this bronze statue by Louise Walsh entitled Monument to the Unknown Woman Worker. The women are carrying symbols of what is traditionally women's work--a colander, a typewriter, a phone, a shopping basket, etc.

Another sculpture that we saw after connecting with our guide is entitled Mother Daughter Sister. 

Here is the inscription at the base. I love that the verse from "Que Sera" from the Hitchcock movie The Man Who Knew to Much is included.

Our guide pointed out several towers of wood in various forms throughout the day. This one was a stack of wood pallets. It was Eleventh Night, aka "Bonfire Night," an annual celebration in Northern Ireland's Protestant Loyalist neighborhoods that commemorates the 1690 Battle of the Boyne in which Protestant King William III (aka William of Orange) defeated Catholic King James II. The official holiday is the next day, "Orangemen's Day."

Here is another pyre that we saw later in the day.

And here is the original Orangeman himself.

This beautiful building is the Grand Opera House, which opened in 1895. Stars who have performed here include Charlie Chaplin, Sarah Bernhardt, Laurel and Hardy, Lena Horne, Orson Welles, and Luciano Pavarotti.

We saw a few more things in the Shankill Road neighborhood, the center of conflict during The Troubles, that we hadn't seen the previous day, such as this welcome sign . . . 

. . . and this one:

. . . neither of which looked too welcoming to me.

Our guide took us to a residential neighborhood where flying the British flag/colors is part of the HOA.

Even the curb is painted red, white, and blue.

At the end of the apartment building, a quote from Margaret Mead is painted on the wall: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."  It seems a strange choice for a mantra for a people backed by the British government.

Stevie McCrea, according to this mural that covers the entire end of another block of apartments, was "murdered by the enemies of Ulster, 18th February 1989" shortly after being released from prison. McCrea had been incarcerated for 15 years for  killing a 17-year-old Catholic boy. He had been a member of the Red Hand Commando, an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group that opposed the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Scroll up a few pictures and see the "red hand" on the Welcome to Shankill signs.

Here is the Loyalist version of what happened:

This mural commemorates the beginning of The Troubles when rioting broke out in Belfast and continued for three days, resulting in the deaths of eight Catholics and the mobilization of the British army to quell the disturbance.

In very sharp contrast, this mural promotes community and the restorative justice process.

There are two interesting things in the photo below: 1) the chilling mural with the soldiers wearing gas masks and aiming their guns at the viewer, and 2) the mural restoration or replacement happening on the end wall. We were told that because of the climate, murals only last a year or two.

This mural is dedicated to Stevie McKeag, a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary and commander who was responsible for many killings of Irish republicans and Catholics. As a youth, he was part of a neo-nazi group. He ultimately died of a drug overdose. The text at the bottom reads "They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them."

I think my favorite mural on the Loyalist/Protestant tour is "The Women's Quilt," created by a women's group of the Lower Shankill district using the theme of a traditional family quilt, which is often made by family members working together and is handed down through the generations. The creators decorate this "quilt" with words that described themselves and their family members. Belfast should put more women in charge of murals, don't you think?

Our guide told us to point to the worde that we identify with. We were somewhat limited by what we could reach, but I chose "Mother" and Bob chose "Stubborn."  

We had heard a lot about people being tried and imprisoned for various crimes during The Troubles, so it was interesting to se the Crumlin Road Courthouse, which was built in 1850 and connected by an underground passage to the gaol across the street. Very efficient. However, this building was too cramped to handle all the work that needed to be done during The Troubles, so a new courthouse was built in 1970. The empty building was purchased with the intent to make it into a hotel, but fires in 2009 and 2020 did extensive damage and it remains eerily empty.

The Crumlin Road Gaol (prison) across the street, however, is a successful tourist attraction. Known as "Europe's Alcatraz," it was finished in 1845, first occupied in 1846, and was one of the most advanced prisons of its day. It could hold 475 prisoners in 12' x 7' cells. It included an execution chamber that was used until 1961. Seventeen prisoners were executed here, including a few members of the IRA.  The gaol stopped functioning as a prison in 1996 and after being empty for many years, became a tourist attraction in 2012.

Carlisle Memorial Church, built in 1876 in the Gothic Revival style, was once a busy Methodist church, but by 1982, it ceased to be used as a place of worship because of both its declining congregation and its location at the nexus of Catholic and Protestant populations. It is used occasionally for cultural events, but is fairly decrepit.

What was once the church hall is now the Indian Community Centre.

Not too far away is the Belfast Orange Hall, a Victorian-style building which houses the Loyal Orange Institute, aka Orange Order, an international Protestant fraternal order associated with Ulster Protestants. William of Orange himself is riding his horse across the roof.

This mural is the squirrel version of King Kong climbing the Empire State Building.

Our guide pointed out the Rainbow LGBTQ+ neighborhood of Belfast:

Belfast has quite the array of mural art styles, and four or five are represented in this long mural on a busy street:

When our guide discovered that we liked religious sites, he took us to the Church of Ireland Belfast Cathedral, aka St. Anne's Cathedral. The cornerstone was laid in 1899, and as soon as the nave was finished in 1904, it was put to use. However, expansions in the 1920s and 1930s greatly expanded the original, but then a German bomb almost destroyed it all in 1941. Reconstruction and an expanding footprint followed in  the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

I never would have guessed it was such a hodge podge. It was beautiful inside.

I had two favorite things in the cathedral. First is this young, somber World War I soldier standing atop the lectern, which holds eight volumes holding the names of the Irish killed during the Great War (World War I).

Second is this powerful poem describing the entry of young soldiers into heaven.

We finished up at the cathedral and headed out to walk around the neighborhood some more. I got a kick out of the name of this liquor store: The Friend at Hand. 

What kind of shop would you expect The Dark Horse to be? It's a pub, of course. I love the poem on the door that reads, "My Aunt Jane / She called me in, / She gave me tea / Out of her wee tin./ Half a bap, sugar on top, / Three black lumps / Out of her wee shop." 

 

I'm always on the lookout for "Umbrella Alleys" like the one in the town where I live. Belfast did not disappoint.

There truly are murals of every dimension and style in Belfast. Few paintable spaces go to waste.

It is a little difficult to see in this picture taken through the car window, but this mish-mash of wooden strips is hiding three faces bulging out from the background. Can you see them?

Let's say good-bye to Belfast with a photo of the 113-foot-tall Albert Memorial Clock, completed in 1869 as a memorial to Queen Victoria's dearly departed husband Prince Albert and now one of Belfast's best known landmarks.

Belfast, you were full of surprises, and we loved learning about your history!