Derry
Derry was our first stop in Northern Ireland. We visited the Bloody Sunday museum and walked along the 18 ft. high city walls. It was sad that along the city checkpoints, there are metal surveillance towers with slews of cameras and microphones that are today inactive (supposedly). Outside the city walls, we took some photos in the Free Derry Corner in the Bogside neighborhood.
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Belfast
A three-hour bus ride from Dublin took us to Belfast. The city center was quite the metropolis. Took a tour of city hall, walked around the docks - saw the Harland & Wolf dock where the Titanic was built, and visited a few other sights. We walked to West Belfast along the Protestant area of Shankill. You could see the sectarianism immediately. The sidewalk edges were painted blue and red and the murals were scary. Lots of men in black militant garb and ski masks holding machine guns. Saw parts of the peace line - the 20 ft. high metal sheet of wall that separates the Protestant from the Catholic area.
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Tried to walk the Catholic area of Divis Street and the Falls but after a mile or so, we gave up. We came back the next day and tried to see more murals by taking a Black Cab to Andersonstown. A friendly local woman and her daughter, who we were sharing the cab with, became our quasi-tour guide and were a wealth of information to us. She pointed out the significance of particular streets, murals, buildings, etc. We saw a couple of Sinn Fein offices and many GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) Leagues. She told us about how residents used to keep their front doors open so people could run from house to house for cover during gunfire. It was all very surreal to be in the midst of living history.
Mural of Bobby Sands
