Day 27: Béal Feirste

Today I was able to visit Belfast City and the Titanic Museum. This was a planned trip created by the study abroad office at UCD, Our bus driver/ tour guide did a great job providing the political history and problems that are accompanied with Northern Ireland.

When we got into the city, we took a 30 minute tour of the different murals around the city wall and some of the big attractions in the city center. When visiting all of the murals, we looked at the ones on the nationalist and loyalist sides of the city. There was one wall that had pictures showing support for many different political battles around the world. They also had several memorials painted to remember the deaths of nationalists. On the loyalist side of the wall, we were all able to sign our names onto the peace wall with all of the people that have visited before us.

some of the many murals

the 10 people who passed away from the hunger strike

the Peace Wall

what I wrote on the wall

some of the things that people have written on the wall

After that, we had some free time to explore the center of Belfast on our own and to grab some food. A couple other people and I went to St. George's Market. It is like a food market for local farmers to sell their products, a bunch of mini food vendors to buy a snack, and some local craftsmen. After buying some delicious garlic focaccia bread, I sat down and listened to some music and enjoyed a small lunch.

view from the entrance of the market

local musician putting on a show

focaccia bread

freshly caught seafood

outside of the market

On the way back to the bus, we passed City Hall and outside we saw a bunch of Royalists protesting for the flying of the Union Jack on the building. They do this everyday for about 1-2 hours. The difference between the two sides is still there as shown through this demonstration, but has become much calmer.

the City Hall

protesters outside City Hall

When everyone regrouped after that break, we all had the opportunity to visit and walk through the Titanic Museum. Belfast is actually where the Titanic was built and on the shipyard where it was built, they created a museum for people to walk through the whole process and history of the Titanic. It started with the process of it being built to the aftermath of the sinking, to the discovery of it in the ocean. It was very fascinating to learn about the ship and the complexities of building it to designing all of the space inside, to figuring out what happened at the time of the sinking.

company that funded the building of the Titanic

part of the layout for the D deck of the Titanic

Titanic launching

last messages recieved from the Titanic

video of the discovery of the Titanic

view of the Museum; each corner is a replica of the front of the Titanic

Overall, the day was full of learning and fun. I came back very exhausted, but ready to face anything knowing that the people here have lived through much worse. I am excited to see what the rest of my time here is like and the other journeys that will occur in the following weeks around Ireland and western Europe.

me at the Harbor where the Titanic first started its journey

sunset view on my way back from Belfast