In many ways Belfast symbolises the industrialisation. In the mid 1800s population quadrupled and the bustling city was producing ships and linen. It was here that Titanic was built.
It is a very interesting city in another way as well - it's still a divided city (although they tell me that the split is slowly disappearing among young people). The 'troubles' is officially over but last year the gates that keep the Protestants and the Catholics apart were closed seven times. And the driver, who is catholic but married to a protestant lives outside the city as 'the city don't like mixed marriages'. The city is obviously not healed. The way that both catholics and protestants express themselves is through murals - there are a lot of them. The picture was repeated in Londonderry, or Derry as it is also known (depends on whether you are protestant or catholic), the city where the Bloody Sunday took place in January 1972.
Hotel Europa is Belfast's only 5 star hotel (or so I have been told). It is also the most bombed hotel in Europe...
It is a very interesting city in another way as well - it's still a divided city (although they tell me that the split is slowly disappearing among young people). The 'troubles' is officially over but last year the gates that keep the Protestants and the Catholics apart were closed seven times. And the driver, who is catholic but married to a protestant lives outside the city as 'the city don't like mixed marriages'. The city is obviously not healed. The way that both catholics and protestants express themselves is through murals - there are a lot of them. The picture was repeated in Londonderry, or Derry as it is also known (depends on whether you are protestant or catholic), the city where the Bloody Sunday took place in January 1972.
Hotel Europa is Belfast's only 5 star hotel (or so I have been told). It is also the most bombed hotel in Europe...
Following the 'Bloody Sunday' in Derry the riots spread to Belfast, which saw the most bloody rioting during the 30 year conflict known as 'the troubles'. It all started in Bombay Street, which was burnt to the ground by a Loyalist mob on 15 August 1969.
Sinn Fein's (political wing of IRA) headquarter on Falls Road
Catholic murals
The peace wall. Keeps catholics and protestants apart.
Protestant mural
Protestant neighbourhood
Protestant mural. Titanic mural in the background
CS Lewis was from Belfast. He is examining the wardrobe leading to Narnia in 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'
Parliament
Maria in action
Derry. The place of 'Bloody Sunday'
Neighbourhoods are quite territorial. Catholic part...
...and the protestant part
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