"Rest" day in Belfast: E2 Day 37

My planned rest day turned into an informative tour of Belfast and its past.

I briefly visited Belfast three times in the late 1990s, a little before the Good Friday Agreement ended the period of death and violence known as the "Troubles". Much has changed. Then the city appeared pretty dead at night, this time the centre was lively with bars and young people. There were new shopping centres, hotels, public sculptures, tourists and a sense of life and energy. To learn more joined a walking tour run by Arthur Magee called "Troubles Tour, Walls and Bridges". He spoke of the attrocties and demagogues, the emotions and economics, the Delorean car and the Undertones. The fear, the people who have left (although he has returned) and the hope that young, rational people will now stay. He spoke of how the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended the armed conflict, has saved many lives, but the "Peace Wall", built to separate the two warring communities, still stands, the double sets of gates are still locked at night, separating people, keeping them isolated. The Peace Wall, snaking up the street, has even been extended since the Good Friday agreement. There were many messages of hope written on the wall, but by tourists and presidents. Graffiti elsewhere can tell a different story, of divisions not easily overcome. 

One view of the Good Friday Peace Agreement.

Peace Wall - still on place.

Afterwards, on my tour around the City Hall I missed Arthur's reminders about old pop groups and his jokes that flew passed, too quick for me to spot. On his advice I also visited the "Titanic Experience" near the Harland & Wolff shipyard where the ocean liner was built. An impressive exhibition covering Belfast history as well as how the vessel was constructed, sailed and sank over a hundred years ago, told from the viewpoint of the people who were part of the story. However I thought it a poor advert for a shipyard that the major attraction of Belfast concerned the loss of a ship they built, on its maiden voyage, with the loss of 1500 lives. For comparison 3720 people were killed in the troubles.

"Nula of the Hula" a public sculpture meant to symbolise something. 

In the evening I had a pint of Red Smithwicks at Kelly's cellars to hear a little traditional Irish music. The notes of the fiddle and flute tumbled out so very quickly, the music full of foot tapping energy, although it felt part of some older, lost world. Nobody seemed to be listening. Perhaps I should have asked Arthur where to go to hear the latest songs.