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| Raising a pint at "The Morning Star" pub in Belfast, Ireland |
We had visited the Republic of Ireland (about 18 years ago)
and always wanted to visit Northern Ireland to better understand the
differences. Northern Ireland is part of Great Britain, the currency is the
pound, and the local Protestants (known as Royalists) would be deeply offended
if you called them “Irish.” We did not experience the extreme warmth and
friendliness we remember from our time in the Republic, but given the history
of violence here, we suppose that is understandable. People were reserved
initially, altho most were very helpful, and some would even talk your ear off
once you got them started.
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| Regal British-style architecture |
We found the Irish brogue here very difficult to
understand. It was embarrassing because
obviously, we are all English-speakers, but sometimes, we couldn't understand a
word they were saying. Honestly, we
could understand the Germans with their broken English much better than the folks
in Northern Ireland!
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| The Albert Clock in the center of Belfast |
We stayed right in the city center surrounded by very
British-looking architecture including the Albert Clock that looks like a mini
“Big Ben.” Belfast is very compact and
walkable, so we did a lot of long walks and sometimes just wandering. Our hotel
was located in the Cathedral Quarter of the city, the hip part with lots of
interesting restaurants in hidden nooks and alleyways. The eating schedule here
was a bit hard to get used to. Pubs only serve food until about 5:00 p.m. or
so, and on a Sunday, eating places don’t open until 1:00 p.m. (if at all). Most businesses had iron bars on the windows
& doors, or metal doors on a track that were locked tight when the city
slept.
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| Distinctive yellow Harland & Wolff crane |
The Titanic
One of our main goals was to explore the many sites related
to “The Titanic,” which was built and sea-tested here in Belfast, circa 1909-1912,
along with her sister ships – Olympic, Britannic, and a tender called Nomadic. The area surrounding the museum is very unexciting,
capturing that cold shipyard environment, with the powerful upside down
“U-shaped” Harland and Wolff Cranes still looming overhead, colored in bright yellow
and bearing those infamous initials of H & W that can be seen from some
distance away. The H & W Company designed
and outfitted the Titanic for the White Star Line back in the early 1900’s. These
two monstrous cranes, named “Samson and Goliath,” still lower heavy parts and
cargo onto the decks of ships.
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| The very impressive "Titanic Belfast" museum |
We started our Titanic exploration at the recently completed
“Titanic Belfast” museum, located on the other side of the Lagan River. What a fabulous museum – Frank thinks it is
the best one he’s ever seen (and you know we have visited many world-class
museums all over the planet). The museum
was very well-organized with gaggles of information well-presented using a
variety of audio-visual methods.
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| Rare, original photo of the building of The Titanic |
The first gallery did an excellent job of explaining why
Belfast was the logical choice to build the largest ships in the world at that
time. Belfast had lots of waterways and
access to deep water, and was the world’s largest shipyard at the time; it was
maybe more importantly a manufacturing hub employing a vast labor force, with
all the support industries that shipbuilding requires. Some of these were: ironworks, air and
ventilation works, rope-making, textile manufacturing, and even whiskey, soft
drinks, tea, and cigar making.
Inside the museum, we took a cleverly designed
amusement-type ride that whisked us up and down the sides of an abbreviated
mock-up version of the Titanic, explaining how the Titanic was built, how the
materials were used to shape the structure, and in particular, how hand-placed
and machine-installed rivets were fastened by the builders and the rivet teams.
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| Reconstructed 1st class stateroom |
Finally, we saw reconstructed staterooms, and took a marvelous virtual
“tour” of the Titanic – a 360-degree surround view (visual & sound effects)
that made us feel as if we were actually inside, similar to being a passenger
aboard the Titanic. Like an elevator, it
lifted us slowly up a vertical slice of the Titanic, starting from the bilge, up
thru the engine room and all the lower decks, upward thru some of the staterooms,
past Titanic’s famous clock and wooden stairway, and up to the bridge where
Captain Smith spent the last moments of his life.
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| The "virtual tour" made us feel as if we were seeing the actual Titanic staircase |
We spent four hours in this museum, and could
have stayed even longer (or come back another day). Unfortunately, our limited time in Belfast
prevented another go at this museum.
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| The Thompson Graving Dock (pump house on left) |
We did return to the Titanic Quarter another day to see two other
Titanic sites. One of them was the “Thompson
Graving Dock,” which is the actual pit where the Titanic rested as it was
fitted out. A Graving Dock is a giant lock where ships go in and out when
service is required. The process is
pretty simple: by opening special gates to the river, the dock would be flooded
with water; as the ship floated in, the ship’s keel would be guided into
position on top of keel blocks that lined the very center bottom of the graving dock. Then pumps from the powerful Pump House removed
the millions of liters of water (in about 1-1/2 hours!), leaving the ship
exposed in a dry pit and accessible for all the remaining work. Ships used these
graving docks for maintenance, scraping barnacles off the hull, refitting, and,
in the case of the Titanic, building and outfitting. The Thompson Graving Dock was the largest graving
dock in the world at the time, built especially for the 900-foot long Titanic.
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| Anne looks like a peanut inside the immense Thompson Graving Dock. Note keel blocks down center. |
The way the Titanic building process worked was that the
keel, sides, and some of the infrastructure of the Titanic was assembled on dry
land at a different close-by location down river (we visited this spot too). Then, the Titanic was launched and towed to
the Thompson Graving Dock for the final touches and all the interior details. The
partially built ship was floated into the graving pit by dropping a watertight
gate to the Lagan River, and then, the ship was floated into the 40-foot deep dock. Once the ship’s keel was lined-up and resting
firmly on a series of keel supports, all of the water was pumped out of the
pit, leaving the dry docked ship to rest about 5 feet above the bottom of the
pit, perfectly accessible for the building process. Workers could now scurry all about in the
pit, and on scaffolding to attend to the fitting details of the ship. All of
this effort, 10 months’ worth, took place in this graving dock.
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| SS Nomadic, "a mini-Titanic" |
Our final Titanic stop was the SS Nomadic, a tender ship
used to carry passengers out to ocean liners when a harbor was too shallow for
the big ships to come in and dock. At
first, the SS Nomadic looked fairly unimpressive, but this little ship has
quite a story to tell. The SS Nomadic is
the only White Star Line ship still in existence. It was built at the same time as the Titanic,
with the same methods, and even by the same workmen as the Titanic. In many ways, it has similar features of a
mini-Titanic, even a promenade deck and wooden staircase that mimics that which
was aboard the Titanic.
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| Frank takes the helm of the SS Nomadic (Titanic Belfast Museum is in the background) |
Before setting out across the Atlantic Ocean, the Titanic
picked up 100 some passengers at the French port of Cherbourg. Cherbourg had a shallow harbor, so the SS
Nomadic carried passengers like “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” out to the Titanic.
The ride only took about 45 minutes, but the White Star Line was intent on
impressing passengers from the moment they set foot on that tender. In fact,
the SS Nomadic has three gangways: totally separate entrances for first class,
second class, and steerage passengers.
Even on this simple tender boat, the classes were meticulously
separated, and the level of decoration and standard of service in each class
varied considerably. For instance, we
got to see the original first class bar where the likes of Mr. Astor and Mr.
Guggenheim would have ordered their free drinks. Steerage passengers had to make do with a
water fountain!
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| Anne follows in the footsteps of Titanic passengers |
The SS Nomadic had quite a history after her service to the
Titanic as well – she was a troop ship in WWI, a minesweeper in WWII, and she
was only saved from the scrap heap by a French entrepreneur who turned her into
a floating restaurant on the Seine near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Eighteen months ago, the SS Nomadic was once
again ready to be scrapped when a Belfast non-profit organization with funds
from the European Union bought and refurbished her.
What impressed us most about the SS Nomadic was that walking
her decks was as close as we can ever come to boarding the actual Titanic. It gave Anne goose bumps to walk up the elegant
wooden staircase, the very one that Titanic passengers used when they left the
SS Nomadic for their rendezvous with fate on The Titanic.
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| Jennifer, whose great-grandfather worked as a riveter on The Titanic |
One last point regarding the Titanic. The building of the Titanic was such a
massive undertaking, that most of Belfast was somehow involved. One day, we
wandered into an old-fashioned candy shop, and after some small talk, the woman
behind the counter (Jennifer) told us that her great-grandfather was a riveter for
the Titanic. One night at a restaurant,
we got to talking with the couple at the table next to us, and his
great-grandfather had worked as a carpenter on the ship, and her great-grandfather
was a riveter. We found it absolutely
amazing that so many current Belfastians had kin involved with the making of
this historic vessel. But after some thought, we figured we’d just touched on
the tip of the iceberg (no pun intended) on that topic!
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| At one time, all the pubs in Belfast had cages like this at their entrances to discourage bombings |
The Troubles
“The Troubles” refers to the 30 some years of civil unrest
and violence between Catholics and Protestants. A peace accord was finally reached in 1998
after 3500 people were killed and thousands wounded in bloody street battles,
bombings, and other violence around the country. We wanted to learn more, so we took a
“Troubles Tour”’ with one of the many cab drivers who offer this type of excursion.
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| Examples of Catholict roadside murals |
Our driver, Ken, took us to the worst hit
area where Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods still stand side-by-side. What shocked us the most was that a metal
fence runs between the two neighborhoods, and it is locked every night – even
now. The people are not locked in, they
can travel north and south, but they can’t easily enter the opposing
neighborhood. We also saw homes with
metal fencing like a giant batting cage protecting their backyards from flying
objects coming over the wall.
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| The Margaret Thatcher "Wanted Poster" |
Ken showed us numerous roadside murals, both Protestant and Catholic,
which promote their causes or commemorate their battles. One Catholic mural was a wanted poster with a
picture of Margaret Thatcher and the words “wanted for murder and torture of
Irish prisoners.” We also saw many signs
declaring “We support Gaza.” Ken
explained that the local extremists now extend their support to other “freedom
fighters” around the world including groups like the Basques in Spain and the
Palestinians.
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| A Protestant mural |
Anne had read that Northern Ireland would inevitably become
part of the Republic because the Catholic population is growing faster than the
Protestant. But like all things in
Northern Ireland, nothing is quite as it seems.
Ken told us that a recent survey indicated that 75% of Catholics want to
remain a part of Great Britain, mainly because of the much better social
services, free medical care, etc.
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| Mural showing support for Gaza |
The extreme violence that occurred here is unfathomable, and
our guide Ken, along with other Irish people we met, are the first to tell you
that they can’t make sense of it themselves.
Our 63-year old cabbie Ken told us that as a young boy, he heard gun shots,
and when he went outside, he watched two 14-year-olds die in front of his eyes. Another taxi cab driver told us that his
boyhood home was equipped with bulletproof windows, a closed circuit television
to see who was coming up the walkway, and a front door that opened out (instead
of in) to make it more difficult to break the door down by kicking it in. You
have to wonder how the “children of the Troubles” are dealing with all the
things they witnessed growing up.
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| Victorian-style Crumlin Road Gaol |
We also visited the Crumlin Road Gaol (jail), originally
designed in the 1800’s to hold 500 prisoners, but packed with over 1400 during
The Troubles. Even in jail, the
Catholics and Protestants had to be kept apart, and violence often broke out in
common areas like a tunnel that lead to the courthouse.
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| Execution room at Crumlin Road Gaol |
The most shocking cell was the one reserved for prisoners
scheduled to be executed. The jail guard, who had bonded with the condemned man
over a period of days, would usually comfort the prisoner by talking about
personal issues and even offering him some booze to relax him. When execution time arrived, the condemned
man assumed he would be led from his cell out into the prison corridor to face
his fate; however, when he made a last trip to his bathroom, the guard slid a
large shelf unit aside, exposing a secret door leading right into the execution
room with the executioner & the noose ready and waiting! They thought this was a more merciful scenario,
since the stark shock to the condemned man was so shattering, he hardly had
time to ponder what lay ahead.
The executioner was paid 20 pounds per head. One interesting note: after the executioner
did his deed, he was taken to court before a judge where he was fined a “small
amount” for taking a man’s life. This
was just a formality and a way for the Crown to get some tax money from the
hangman!
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| Scenic street lined with pubs in Belfast |
Other Belfast Sights
On a lighter note, we saw the musical, “Oliver” performed at
the Grand Opera House in Belfast. Wonderful music with an energetic cast. The kids were incredible, but the guy who
played Fagan stole the show. A terrific fun
night out. Of course, we also checked
out some pubs in Belfast. Frank loved
Guinness on tap, but discovered a new favorite Irish beer: Bass Ale on tap. Anne used to be a lager girl preferring the
lighter flavor of Harp, but after sampling the beers of Belfast, even she took
a liking to the darker, heavier flavor of Bass Ale.
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| The Giant's Causeway on the Antrim Coast |
We did a day trip along the scenic coastal road tracking the
Irish Sea (and then the northern Atlantic Ocean) to the Giant’s Causeway, a
strange geological site with 40,000 interlocking basalt columns (6-sided like beehive
honeycombs), about 1-foot in diameter and varying in length) that were heaved
up to the surface during volcanic activity about 60 million years ago.
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| Our Irish double rainbow at the Giant's Causeway |
We were fortunate to visit on a sunny day,
although we did get drenched by a sudden cloudburst. We didn’t really mind because we got a double
rainbow!
Although we are glad to have experienced it, we would
probably not return to Northern Ireland. For a future trip, we would choose the
Republic instead. However, lots of
cruise ships stop here in Belfast, and we wouldn’t mind coming ashore for a day
to see more of the city.
More pics of Belfast:
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| At the "Titanic Belfast Museum" |
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| Mural of Bobby Sands, who died during a prison hunger strike, on the IRA headquarters building |
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| At least the people of Belfast haven't lost their sense of humor |
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| "Poundland" -- the equivalent of our dollar store |
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| The gorgeous Antrim coast |
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| Basalt columns at the Giant's Causeway |
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| The Giant's Causeway |
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| The Giant's Causeway |
That brings us to the end of this trip. As always, thanks for traveling with us! Here's an Irish toast before we go: "May the roof above us never fall down and we friends below never fall out." Slainte! (Gaelic for cheers)
