Out and About: Remainder of Ireland

I took a 2.5 hour bus from Dublin to Belfast and met up with my host, Phil, whom I met through couchsurfing.org.

We went grocery shopping at Tesco (like Walmart, but with a much better selection of food), made dinner together, and went to a local pub. It was really nice - the conversations were interesting and easy, and I felt very comfortable.

The next day I took a bus tour up the coast of Northern Ireland. First stop, Carrickfergus Castle:

Next, we drove to the rope bridge - it was very scenic.

A charging station for electronic cars:

We stopped off at Bushmill's, an old whiskey distillery, for a few minutes and then finally arrived at the Giant's Causeway, which is notable for the hexagonal columns resulting from a volcanic eruption. Looking at 5 sided rocks lost my interest rather quickly, but the place was gorgeous:

If you wanted, you could climb 140+ steep stairs to get higher - I did not.

The following day I made french toast for breakfast (a small and insufficient way of saying thank you to Phil) and took a black cab tour of Belfast with fellow couch surfers. Black cab tours in Belfast are somewhat famous - the guides are locals who lived through the Troubles and they drive you through the city, showing you the peace wall, the gates that shut nightly, and various murals throughout the city - while explaining the source of current tension by providing some insight to the Troubles.

The tour began at the city center - they are preparing for the Olympics:

I don't know the whole story and can't tell you exactly what happened or why, because the people who know (those who lived through it) have varying perspectives and beliefs. Our driver was a middle aged man who had grown up in Belfast and was Catholic, as evidenced by him remaining in the cab while we explored the Protestant murals, and escorting us through the Catholic memorial and providing detailed stories of the Catholics that lost their lives at the hands of Protestants. These pictures are from a Protestant neighborhood. The blue structure is for a bonfire:

Random things were strewn about, like this old bike:

And there were many murals dedicated to Protestant leaders during the Troubles. The murals were painted at the ends of rows of townhouses.

Then we drove to part of the peace wall. This was across the way:

Many people sign the wall asking for peace, etc - we were given black sharpies and encouraged to do so as well. I particularly liked this one:

Then we visited a Catholic memorial. To it's right was a row of homes that butted up against the peace wall. They had cages in the back for protection from projectiles.

Street art on the way back to city hall:

As someone who was brought up in a secular government and understands that there's but a theological sliver of difference between Protestants and Catholics, I found it confusing that they should dislike each other so much - but nothing is ever that simple, and the terms Protestant and Catholic do not just refer to two religious beliefs, but describe a unique political landscape associated with each. I've only heard the story told from one side, so I can't say what exactly the differences are, but our cab driver alluded to perceived economic inequalities between the two communities. What I do know is a peace wall was constructed in Belfast in the early 70s to divide the Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods. It was intended to be a temporary solution, but has persisted. There are gates along the wall, which close daily at 1900 and open at 0700. You can still cross from one side to another at night, you just have to trek around the wall, which goes on for several miles. Our tour guide told us that politicians frequently speak of taking the wall down, but he doesn't feel that will happen for a few more generations and thinks the politicians don't grasp the the hostility that exists amongst the communities that border the wall because they don't live there. Further, (my own observation) the murals and walls are a fresh, daily reminder of what adults in Belfast lived through and experienced - I imagine it'd be all but impossible to break out of a mindset that was impressed upon you through fear and pain at such a young age. I gather this is why our tour guide thought it'd take several decades to raise a generation sufficiently distanced from the Troubles to bring the wall down.

Our tour guide's wife works with Belfast's youth as a social worker to encourage peace between the two communities. The schools are now integrated and many hope that rearing the children together in schools will create shared experiences -> understanding-> peace, etc. However, there are still children who are brought up to dislike the other side and this is the focus of her work. The condition of the houses, vehicles, and streets on either side of the fence were similar, but our tour guide said you could identify Belfast locals as Protestant or Catholic by subtle differences in the clothing style.

I returned to Dublin and took a day tour to the south west coast. The tour is owned and operated by the MacCoole family and stops by the family farm. The farm sits at the base of a limestone plat in the Burren area (very, very rocky) - we hiked up a hillside and got soaking wet in true Irish fashion. Afterwards, we ate homemade apple pie (made with apples grown on the farm) and drank coffee by a fire.

Bottle feeding a baby sheep whose mother turned it away after birth:

A wall of rain heading our way:

Freshly baked apple pie. mmmmmmm.

Our tour guide was a ~30 year old male - I don't think there's many straight men that can pull off being a warm and kind farm hand, tour guide, and pie maker while singing old Irish songs in Gaelic with an apron on, but he certainly did.

If you are interested, there's a matchmaker in the nearby town; this is his advertisement:

And then… and then I went to the Cliifs of Moher. After seeing them I realized I sometimes use the word "beautiful" to describe things that are not deserving of the description. The cliffs are beautiful and I wished I knew more about taking pictures.