Drink The Wild Air

Today’s expedition to Belfast was an emotional roller coaster.

Our day began bright and early since we had to be on the bus at 6:15 a.m. to begin the long ride to Northern Ireland a.k.a. part of the United Kingdom. We were greeted by a bright and cheery Garbhan, who luckily Brad convinced to be our tour guide once again. One the way to the Titanic exhibit in Belfast, Garbhan gave us some background on the unique situation in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland was created in 1921, when Ireland was partitioned between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland by an act of the British parliament. Unlike Southern Ireland, which would become the Irish Free State in 1922, the majority of Northern Ireland’s population were unionists or loyalists, who wanted to remain within the United Kingdom, most of whom were the Protestant descendants of colonists from Great Britain; however, a significant minority, mostly Catholics, were nationalists or republicans who wanted a united Ireland independent of British rule. For most of the 20th century, when it came into existence, Northern Ireland was marked by discrimination and hostility between these two communities. In the late 1960s, conflict between the two communities, and involving state forces, erupted into three decades of violence known as the Troubles, which claimed over 3,000 lives and caused over 50,000 casualties.The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 was a major step in the peace process although sectarianism and religious segregation still remain major social problems. As a result a resident of Northern Ireland can have either a British passport or an Irish passport, it’s based on their own personal preference.

I had been introduced to the uniqueness of Northern Ireland last weekend when talking to Irish locals in Galway. A number of the people we met were residents of Belfast or other Northern Ireland cities. The professional footballer and the optometrist told me that in Northern Ireland when you’re talking to someone in a casual setting, let’s say a pub, the conversation will always somehow turn to your religious preference. The tensions between protestants and catholics are still very apparent today. However these two fellas made sure to say that “although they’re both protestant, they believe that everyone should love everyone and it shouldn’t matter what you are.” Hopefully their generations positive thinking will begin to change the overall thinking of that region.

When we arrived that the Titanic Belfast exhibit I was speechless. The Titanic was constructed in Belfast (in a place visible from the museum’s window) and the museum was built to match the height of the ship – it was massive. I have long been fascinated with the story of Titanic and when I was younger I longed to venture to “this far away place called Belfast” so I could see in person what I was seeing on the Discovery Channel. The museum was very well constructed and I cried at multiple points during the the experience. Especially when I read the stories of Isidor & Ida Straus and that of Titanic’s Unknown Child. Once interesting thing I noticed that made this exhibit different from the travellng Titanic exhibits I have seen in the states is that no recovered artifacts from the ship were displayed in the museum. When I asked Brad about this observation he said that for the Belfast museum, not displaying the artifacts is a matter of ethics. Since the Titanic is in fact a giant gravesite curators of the Belfast exhibit don’t think it’s appropriate to disturb the site in order to profit off of it.

After the leaving the Titanic exhibit we left Belfast to drive to Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, one of my favorite places I have visited thus far in Ireland. Dare I say it, but I think the view from the rope bridge is more breathtaking than the The Cliffs of Moher. From the bridge we could see a faint outline of Scotland, and the view once you cross is unmatched. I snapped a lot of pictures, but at one point I just had to stop taking pictures and take it all in without looking through a lens. Another interesting tidbit is that in Northern Ireland the currency is in pounds. So when I went a Choc Pop, a traditional Northern Irish ice cream, at the gift shop I was a little taken aback.

Even though the bus ride was painfully long, the sights we had the chance to see were more than worth it. I honestly wish I had more time to spend in Belfast because we didn’t even have a chance to stop by the Giant’s Causeway.

Also just a shoutout to Meredith and Rohan for their stellarness this evening, when I fixated on the one thing that cannot be found with a 10 mile radius of the UCD campus – a pizza. After a long day on the bus all I wanted was a nice, warm pizza but Centra disappointed me when I saw their kitchen was closed, almost inducing a small mental breakdown. But these two nugs then trekked all the way across campus to the on-campus pub because we heard that they served pizza. Although as expected with our luck they were sold out. So then we went back to Centra and I bought a frozen pizza, which we learned the hard way, could only be cooked in an oven…a microwave was not sufficient. So even though we were defeated, I would like to recognize their noble actions.

*Update: There is a Pizza Hut across from the entrance of UCD. Praise Jesus.