British Isles Explorer: Belfast, Northern Ireland I (4/1/2022)

Friday, April 1, 2022

View from our stateroom; we were docked about
2.5 miles from the city center of Belfast, Northern Ireland

After breakfast we took the included three-hour motorcoach shore excursion at 9:45.

Beacon of Hope (2007, by Andy Scott) holds
a "ring of thanksgiving" that gives rise to
the nickname of "Nuala with the Hula [hoop]"

Waterfront Hall (1995-1997, by Peter McGuckin of the firm
Robinson McIlwaine) is a conference and entertainment center

Richardson & Owden's Warehouse (1869, by William H Lynn,
in Ruskinian-Venetian Italian Palazzo style), a linen
warehouse mentioned by Oscar Wilde as one beautiful building

Our first stop at the Titanic Memorial Garden.

Titanic Memorial (1913-1920, by Sir
Thomas Brock) memorialized the 22
men from Belfast involved in the building
and maintenance of the RMS Titanic,
who lost their lives when the ship sank in 1912

In 2012, the memorial was expanded by naming all 1,512
victims of the disaster, passengers and crew; making it the
first memorial anywhere in the world to record all of
the names of the victims on one monument

Our guide wanted us to know that the passenger list showed that people from all over the world, from all walks of life, from all religious backgrounds, lost their lives on the Titanic.

The victims included Mr & Mrs Isidor Strauss,
co-owners of Macy's department store, who
in the movie Titanic, chose to remain on
board the ship as a couple until all the women
and children were first placed in the lifeboats,
and subsequently went down with the ship

It is also known that Mrs Strauss gave her full-length mink coat to her maid to keep warm in the lifeboat, and the maid, Ellen Bird, survived.

23 Bedford Street (1871) was
another linen warehouse (KSS)

University Road Methodist Church (1865,
by William J Barre) with its "Lombard-Venetian-
Romanesque" campanile/bell tower (KSS)

The Queen's University of Belfast (chartered 1945,
Lanyon Building built 1849, designed by Sir Charles Lanyon,
in Tudor Gothic style) with a war memorial (1923-1924,
by Sir Thomas Brock) to the men and women of Queen’s
who died in two world wars; almost all were officers

Queen's University was founded as a counterpart to Trinity College in Dublin, as Trinity was primarily Anglican and Queen's University was for Catholics anad Presbyterians.

Former Elmwood Presbyterian Church (1860-1862,
by John Corry in eclectic Italianate style)
is now a concert hall at Queen's University (KSS)

Malone Road upscale terraced housing

Ulster Bank Building with Flying Figures
(1964, by Dame Elisabeth Frink)

The Crown Liquor Saloon (1826) is an
outstanding example of a Victorian gin palace,
and is elaborately decorated since the owner
had Italian craftsmen (brought to Ireland to work
on the churches) work on the pub after hours

Presbyterian Church of Ireland and Assembly
Buildings (1905, in Gothic style) is now
the mother church of Presbyterians
throughout the island of Ireland, as they
have "separated" from the Scottish church
that accepts same-sex marriage

We drove by block after block of the peace lines or peace
walls in West Belfast; covered with protest murals (KSS)

The stated purpose of the peace lines is to minimize inter-communal violence between Catholics (most of whom are nationalists who self-identify as Irish) and Protestants (most of whom are unionists who self-identify as British). We started on the Nationalist section of the painted walls.

The murals began about 2000, and are constantly
being covered by new ones; they include protests
from around the globe (2021 murals) (KSS)

From Divis Street and then Northumberland Street
with its Solidarity Wall (KSS)

Mural with Nelson Mandela (KSS)

Solidarity Wall mural (KSS)

The Socialists don't want division along religious lines (KSS)

Solidarity between Nationalists and Palestinians (2012) (KSS)

Frederick Douglass Mural "In Progress" (Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi
has been crossed out to protest persecution of the Rohingya in the country) (KSS)

On Northumberland Street we pass through a gate
to the Unionist side, then turn on Beverly Street

Now on Cupar Way, with more graffiti

Peace Wall Stories (2021, by Stephen Wilson)
can be heard through a smartphone app

Graffiti covers a section of the wall that contains a quote
by President Bill Clinton: "Strength and wisdom are not
opposing values" and a quote attributed to the Dalai Lama:
"Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values"

Although President Bill Clinton was actively involved with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, the quote was in support of the Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign in 2004. Clinton visited Northern Ireland in 1995 and somehow managed to be the one to turn on the Christmas tree lights in Belfast.

Along Shankill Road in the unionist section,
murals were painted on the ends of buildings,
many celebrating the Ulster Volunteer Force,
a unionist paramilitary group (est 1966),
based on a unionist militia founded
in 1912 to block Home Rule

Another Ulster Volunteer Force mural

Rex Bar (1865) was frequented by members of the
Ulster Volunteer Force (perhaps both iterations!)

Bayardo Bar Memorial to the victims of the bombing of the bar
by the Provisional Irish Republican Army/IRA in 1975 (KSS)

Anti-Sinn Féin (political party
of the IRA) mural (KSS)

Former Crumlin Road Courthouse (1850, by Charles Lanyon
in Neoclassical style) is across the road from the jail
and is connected by an underground passage (KSS)

Entrance to the former Crumlin Road Goal/Jail
(1843-1845, by Charles Lanyon; with an execution
chamber added in 1901 and used until 1961)

The officially named HM Prison Belfast housed
prisoners from both sides of "The Troubles" that
lasted essentially from 1968-1998

So, there is an agreement to tear the Peace Walls down by 2023, but many citizens feel the walls keep them safe from violent enemies. The walls have become a tourist attraction with all the graffiti and murals.

Next: Belfast II.