Northern Ireland

This week my family is visiting me and I have lots to do at school, so I apologize if this post is a little rushed!  This past weekend I was in Northern Ireland traveling through Belfast and Derry (and Sligo on the west coast as a pit stop).  The immediately noticeable differences were that Northern Ireland uses pounds sterling for currency instead of the euro, and the accents in the north are incredibly difficult to understand.  Friday we stopped in Sligo to visit Carrowmore, a megalithic passsage tomb site.  While at this point all the megalithic sites are starting to feel like just more rocks to me, we had great weather and it was cool to see.
Saturday we had a bus tour of Belfast, which still feels very sectarian despite the peace talks and efforts of community leaders to bring the two sides of conflict together.  Some areas still had metal bars/cages over windows and doors to prevent vandals from breaking glass.  The Protestant areas were also marked by red, white, and blue curbs to represent the Union Jack.  We also stopped at the "peace wall" separating the Catholic and Protestant communities.  It was strange to see an area that is still very much separated by religious conflict.  Since the late 90's about 30 more "peace walls" have been added to keep violence between the two communities at bay. 
Sunday was spent on a bus/walking tour of Derry (also called Londonderry by some, but my allegiances lie with the south, so Derry it is).  This city is the location of the 1973 Bloody Sunday massacre and we actually walked the streets in the Bogside where the violence took place.  It was sobering to see the place in which the massacre took place and to walk to same streets as the protesters did.  Our tour guide actually told us that the movie Bloody Sunday depicts the real life events extremely accurately and that he knew all the people involved well and even they think the movie did justice to the real life events.  Despite Derry's sectarian past it felt much more settled than Belfast did.  The tour guides we had in both cities were Catholic and it was important to understand their biases in touring cities with such tumultuous pasts.  In Derry we had a lovely tour guide named Garvin who used to be a postman in the city so EVERY person that we passed knew who he was and stopped briefly to say hello.  It was refreshing to see such a close knit community.  Derry is also one of the only remaining fully-walled city from around the 1600s if I am remembering correctly.  We also got to walk across the Peace Bridge which was recently constructed to bring the two sides of the River Foyle together.

The Stormont Parliament in Belfast

Belfast City Hall

Beautiful ceiling at Belfast City Hall

Our tour guide was very eccentric and would repeat things multiple times to a point of ridiculousness.  For example, the Italian marble in City Hall was Italian marble imported from Italy of Italian origin. It's from Italy, we get it.

The seats at the head of Belfast City Hall

Some people got to try on the members of City Hall's robes

Carrowmore, Co. Sligo, a megalithic burial site

Absolutely gorgeous day!  The contrast of the blue sky and green grass will never get old

The mountains in the background are actually the foothills to the Appalachians and before continental drift they were connected to the Eastern region of North America

"Big Pile o' Rocks" aka the Main Passage Tomb on the site

The site of about six cremated remains

This pony was pretty curious and tried to nibble at my camera bag!

We fit 11 people inside this rock formation!  The guide figured we would only get about 8 but we proved him wrong.

The empty rock formation

Sign post in Derry City

Forget about trying to keep the name of the city straight-- whether you think of it as Derry, Doire, or Londonderry, it is still LegenDerry

View of the clocktower at the Guild Hall

The Derry Peace Bridge

A group of us posing on the Peace Bridge

Looking down the River Foyle

Shaking hands to make our thumbs imitate the structure of the bridge

One of many rainbows we saw this weekend

The Peace Bridge

Guild Hall, Derry

View over the city from the old wall battlements

A mass grave for people killed during the city siege in the 1600s

Protestant area of the city, showing their loyalty to the British crown with red, white, and blue curbs

Our lovely and charming tour guide, Garvin

Some old cannons

A VERY tight archway that we drove through in the coach bus!  Garvin asked us all to suck in our stomachs to make the pass easier!

Derry Peace mural in the distance, of a dove flying in front of an oak leaf.  It was designed by school children in the area as Doire means Oak Grove (or something close to it)

A trio of murals in Derry depicting parts of the civil rights movement

"The Death of Innocence" mural showing a young girl who was shot and killed by a British soldier on her way to school.

More murals in the Bogside

Mural showing a young man being carried away on Bloody Sunday, based on an original photograph; three minutes after the picture was taken the young man died after being gunned down by British soldiers.

A rainbow appeared over the "Defiance" mural showing a young man standing in front of a British army vehicle.

Bloody Sunday Memorial Garden

Civil Rights Mural in the Bogside

Northern Ireland was an interesting trip to take part in since I have been learning about the troubles in class here, and it was shocking to see some of the problems that still exist.  I'll be going back to Northern Ireland around Thanksgiving with Mike to see Giant's Causeway and some other coastal areas so stay tuned for those pictures to come.