Belfast's troubled past

A full day of activity in Belfast today including an interesting bus trip this afternoon. Even though Belfast is a small city, it seems to have very different sectors to it, Work & Music in the east, Wealth in the north and trouble in the west and brains in the south.

My first business of the day was to secure a car park for the Merc for the day, second point of order was to find another hotel, last nights accommodation was pretty ordinary and over priced for what it was. So I booked into the Europa Hotel around the corner for GBP 85 B&B. President Clinton stayed here as President in 1995. I have also subsequently learnt (thanks to tour guide commentary) that the Belfast Europa was bombed 37 times by the IRA and is still standing. Apparently at one time, when you stayed here you got a letter with your name on it stating that you had stayed and were given a Europa tie.  I guess mine got lost in the mail.


The City

The Europa Hotel - Belfast

2 of the the 3 pubs i went to last night and directly across the road from Europa Hotel

3rd Pub last night which had Live Music,

A coffee Cart

Belfast Town Hall

Queen Victoria's Albert Clock

Maddens Bar

English & Gaelic message

More pics inside the pub.

The  East.

The easy of Belfast has historically been nothing more than a shipyard, the biggest in the world in its day. East Belfast was a working class area with Shipyard workers. Producing such people as James Galway, Van Morrison and George Best (The footballer).

The above are images of the Titanic building, built on the reclaimed land of the Belfast Dockyards.

Modern Belfast Sculpture

Largest Celtic Cross in the UK

The North

The North of Belfast is home to Belfast Castle, Fort William and a load of very nice houses and where the money is.

Belfast Castle looking back over Belfast.

The West - where the Troubles were

The Bulletproof CCTV cameras at one of the Junctions between the Loyalists (protestant) and the Nationalist (Catholic)

The Intersection above where the CCTV cameras are

Crumlin Rd

Crumlin Rd Prison

A Border crossing between Loyalist and Nationalist areas (gates used to shut at 2.30pm)

A peace wall to keep the Neighbourhoods apart (built in 1969)

Graffiti and Murals on the wall

Loyalist Areas

Above - A journey down the Shankhill Rd

Below - Over towards the Falls Rd and the Nationalist area

Bobby Sands 

One of the many heavily fortified Police stations

The South - Where the brains are

A new building which is part of Royal Belfast Hospital. When it was opened by Price Charles, he reportedly said afterwards it was one of the Ugliest things he has ever seen. The locals now call it "Camilla"

Belfast University

Belfast, is well worth a visit and I am glad I came here.