Thursday, 30 March 2006

Northern Ireland and Ireland - March 2006

We flew into Belfast expecting little except to stay a night with Pete and his family at a hostel they had booked, have a few beers and catch up. We had also planned to take a walking trip through either the Falls Road area or the Shankhill Road area, Catholic and Protestant, respectively. This proved to be rather interesting.

Not having any particular preference in which side to head to and not having any great religious affiliation or problem with either group, we headed to the Belfast tourist centre and asked about the walking tour. They were rather helpful and they rang the group who organised the tour through the Catholic area….only a few pounds each, laughing.



Pete and his family in Belfast

Off we headed, walking to a large residential tower block where we were to meet our guide.

Turns out the area was 100% catholic, except for the top floor of this apartment block which was formerly occupied by, incredibly, the British Army, who used the top floor as the perfect vantage point to see what the Catholics were up to!

We walked onwards with the tour guide, viewing some of the various murals for which the area is famous for. Eventually we walked to Sinn Fein headquarters, something that we had seen on TV many times before in Australia, so it was interesting to be there and in fact, we headed inside as they have a bookshop. Didn’t go as far as buying any IRA books….after all, not particularly keen to support terrorists, so we headed back outside and continued the tour.


There is a massive wall that separates the two areas, and also a gated area to keep out the Protestants and vice versa. We also learned about all the people who had been murdered on both sides…pretty amazing, and stupid really, but onwards we trundled until the guide noted some people across the road, inspecting some new housing, conveniently paid for by the British taxpayers (ironic isn’t it!). Turns out it was Gerry Adams, Martin McGuiness and Jerry Kelly, the brainstrust of the IRA and now politicians for Sinn Fein.

Jokingly, Samantha said, oh, we should get our photo taken with them…at which the guide said, yeah, great idea and off he started to talk to them….with Samantha saying she was only joking. Our guide had worked with Sinn Fein as he explained later and knew them well. They were all friendly enough and we had our photo taken with them after being in Belfast for a grand total of 4 hours! Speaking later to locals, some had never seen them in ten years of living there!
Sorting out the NI peace process!

We ended the tour later in a cemetery where some nutcases had attacked Catholic mourners in the past and headed on our way to catch up with Pete and his family, who had spent the day up north, in the countryside. (Incidentally, the same nutcase who attacked the mourners has been let out of prison a while ago and the other day (December ), he tried to get into the Northern Ireland Parliament (Stormont), armed with guns and bombs….they had let him out due to some accord and he wasn’t happy with the peace process that has just begun, so he wanted to kill Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness….which made me think that perhaps it wasn’t as safe as we initially thought getting our photo taken with them earlier in the year!!! Still you do what you do and just get on with it, don’t you!)

The following day we headed to Dublin to collect our hire car and we then drove across to Galway, where Pete and Marie's wedding was to be held.


Galway

Irish Weddings are a big thing, and they go for days, well, at least this one did!!!

We had a great time meeting everyone and the Irish hospitality is second to none, let me assure you, as Marie, Peter’s wife, and her family were absolutely brilliant with their hospitality.

We ate, we drank, and we had a great time!

Eventually, a few days later, we went to the wedding and had a great time. It must be noted that the wedding didn’t end at 11pm or midnight as is the case in Australia. Oh no, more like 6 or 7 am and then you go out drinking again the next day! The Irish sure can drink!











Pete and Marie's wedding

We had a great time as mentioned, plus we saved a small dog from certain death, (by contacting the Fire Brigade and insisting very strongly that they come out) as he had been stranded on a ledge above the VERY fast flowing river in Galway. This was our good deed for the day and we were happy that the little fella was saved as he wasn’t happy about his situation, perched precariously above the river.

The small dog we helped with the fantastic Galway Fire Brigade who did the hard work!

After Galway, we travelled to the Cliffs of Moher but unfortunately it was raining and foggy there….who’d have thought it, rain in Ireland!!!! So, we were slightly disappointed, but we don’t worry about the weather as it’s beyond our control, so onwards we travelled.

We did plan to visit the Dingle Peninsula, so we stayed in Dingle overnight and a major highlight was venturing to Ashe’s Hotel in Dingle for a meal.

This was a small, somewhat shabby looking establishment, with a restaurant in what looked like the front living room of a house….but the food….let me say, one word….BRILLIANT!!!!

Samantha ate mussels, with coriander and ginger based soup and I had Guinness and beef pie….continuing with our prevalence for eating as much local food as possible. This meal was truly fantastic.

Dingle Peninsula

The next day we even had a deep fried mars bar….not great, very sweet and I don’t think I’d go for it again, but we tried it. I can still recall the taste very vividly.



We did drive around the Dingle Peninsula and this was a fabulous place to visit…better even than The Ring of Kerry, which we went to straight after. Both are spectacular though, with a highlight being when we were taking some photos at a lookout and we noticed a tractor heading up the road towards us…..let me say that Tractors are wide, slow and a major pain to be stuck behind, so we raced to the car and just managed to beat it onto the road, so we didn’t get stuck behind it!!!!!

We continued through Ireland, visiting Cork briefly and also Cashel, which we discovered accidentally and was quite a nice place. There is a massive rock there, called the Rock of Cashel, and it has a monastery and church atop….this was quite interesting and we visited it the next day. We ended in Dublin….the next day.

Dublin is a decent place but is only a small town….although we did visit the Dublin Post Office, scene of a civil uprising about 100 years ago (still has the bullet holes in the wall). The Guinness factory tour was very interesting….explains about the Guinness making process in great detail and was well worth it, we thought.


Oscar Wilde (or is it Hugh Grant?)


Samantha managed to get a 24 hour virus (the worst illness I have ever had I thought I was dying….Samantha) so she wasn’t too well, but in the meantime, because our hotel was close to Lansdowne Road, the home of Irish Rugby, I walked down there to have a look…very old and in great need of a revamp, which is being done now.

Overall, Dublin was a good town, but not heaps to do there in reality…however, I must say, there are several coloured house doors in Dublin, so I managed to take a photo of as many different coloured house front doors as possible!