Ireland in 6 Days: Northern Ireland

Alternative titles for this series of posts included "Six Days on a Bus Tour Around Ireland with 22 Australians, a Kiwi and an American" and "The Australian Cricket Team Goes to Ireland" (I'll explain later), but I thought these was a bit cumbersome and opted for one that was short, sweet and to the point. This rarely happens. I hope you appreciate the opportunity you've been afforded here!

Day 3:
Bright and early on December 17 (and when I say bright, I mean dark because it was long before 8am), Talaira and I packed up our bags and walked off to find our tour. We nervously sat in the tour office glancing around us and sizing up our companions for the next six days. We had booked a tour with Paddywagon Tours, and we were faintly hopeful that we'd made a good decision based on the fact that every time we emailed them a question they responded to our emails with "Thanks a million for your question!" which, I personally feel, is hard to resist. Who doesn't like being thanked for asking questions about information that is probably easily located on their website? It felt sincere, anyway.

Our hopes were answered in the form of Gabe, an Irishman who had been giving tours with Paddywagons for 14 years... happy days! He was full of songs, questionable humour and irresistible turns of phrase. He taught us that "feck" is not, in fact, a swear word. You can choose to believe what you want... and in the meantime, you can watch this video.

Another favourite of Gabe's was "shep". Gabe explained it as meaning anything. It can be positive or negative. It can be an adjective or a noun (a shep or a shepina). And it can be used in any situation. Having looked this word up upon my return, I can say with good confidence that he invented it, but that doesn't make it any less catchy. I'm part of a scheme to bring it to other English-speaking nations. (Start using it now, you sheps and shepinas!) Some of his other sayings included "wakey wakey", "okey pokey", and my personal favourite: "bingo, bango, bonk, off down the road". Please don't ask my why. I just find it incredibly amusing. It's tight, like, you know. By the end of the trip, I know longer knew what the word "tight" even meant or it what contexts it could be used, and so with the tone of our trip set by our colourful tour guide, we began introductions. You may have guessed that we were approximately 22 Australians, 1 New Zealander, 2 Canadians and an American. All but 8 of us were teachers (and I'm a teacher candidate...) on summer holidays.

Soon after we left, we stopped for a quick photo opportunity of Dunluce Castle which is now really just the ruins of the castle on the edge of a cliff over the ocean. "At one point, part of the kitchen next to the cliff face collapsed into the sea, after which the wife of the owner refused to live in the castle any longer. According to a legend, when the kitchen fell into the sea only a kitchen boy survived, as he was sitting in the corner of the kitchen which did not collapse." (Wikipedia) It is a striking sight.

One of the first proper stops on our tour was in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which is a part of the U.K. It was a visit to the site of Titanic's construction and a view of the massive cranes and dry docks that were used to construct it. The size of these things was mind-boggling.

However, our tour really began with a harrowing recounting of the history of violence by the famous Black Taxi Tour company. The drivers were incredibly informative explaining the origins of the dispute and the influence of different historical events, and adding personal elements to those explanations. We saw the murals on buildings in neighbourhoods flying the Union Jack and heard stories about innocent men being shot in a bar simply for being Catholic or for being Protestant. Each religious affiliation tends to link to a feeling of patriotism. Catholics generally feel Irish and Protestants generally feel British.

The conflict dates back to the conquest of Ireland by Oliver Cromwell which was brutal - immediately following the war there was a bubonic plague which led to famine and all the Irish people had their property stripped from their possession in favour of British immigrants. They estimate that anywhere from 15-50% of the Irish population died or left Ireland as a result and approximately 50 000 Irish were deported from Ireland as indentured slaves. The tours brought us to the Peace Wall that was constructed to keep the Catholic and the Protestant sides of the city separated and we signed it.

Our tour group had dinner at Ryan's Bar and Restaurant and got to know each other a little better, followed by a few pints at a local pub. On our way to this pub, however, we noticed that a part of the road had been barricaded and that there was an active police duty there. There were sirens heard all over the city and our new friend, Nathan, decided to ask the police what was going on. Apparently, riots had broken out in the rougher part of the city. The tension was due to controversy about the flying of the Union Jack on public buildings.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20654329

The police assured us that we were safe on the side of town that we were on, so we weren't too concerned. The bar had live Irish music and real live Irish men. We became friends with Liz and Tim, a couple of med students from Adelaide, and Nathan (teacher) and Mel (project coordinator). Through the course of our time at the bar, we amused ourselves with people watching and soon notice that two "gentlemen" had taken an interest in our table. Specifically the end featuring 16 female teachers. The men took turns approaching the table and speaking with the women at the end. Eventually, they overstayed their welcome, and those crafty teachers decided to tell them that we were in Belfast for a cricket tournament as we were, in fact, the Australian cricket team. This was a hard sell, so they called on Nathan to play the part of our cricket coach (who also insisted they were not to accept drinks from strangers). They could not have chosen better. We decided that any non-Australians had chosen to go to Australia because it had the best women's cricket program. Our game was we-didn't-know-where at an unnamed time in the morning and our main aim was to try to increase the popularity of cricket in Ireland. After a while, even I was convinced, and the whole charade concluded with the older man telling Nathan that he hated him because he had the best job in the world.

Talaira and I chose this moment to return to the Paddywagon's hostel accommodation and to get some sleep. However, we got lost on our way... (of course, we were bound to get lost the night that there were riots around the city). We found our way to the University and from there it was smooth-ish sailing. We'd only taken one wrong turn. We tucked ourselves in and tried to drown out our snoring roommates.

Day 4:
The next day was jam-packed. We were off early in the morning to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge and we were lucky to have gorgeous weather for the occasion. This rope bridge links the mainland to the tiny island of Carrickarede. It is 20 metres long and 30 metres above the water and rocks below. It was originally built by salmon fishermen. From this area, you can see Rathlin Island and we had our first glimpse of Scotland. The views were breathtaking.

 

 

 

Our next stop was the Giant's Causeway:

"Legend tells of an Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill, who built a causeway to Scotland. One version of the legend tells that Fionn was challenged by a Scottish giant, Benandonner. Now Benandonner was much much larger than Fionn, so he tried to think of a way out. His wife, Oonagh, came up with an ingenious idea. When Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him, Oonagh disguised Fionn as a baby and tucked him in a cradle. When Benandonner came, Oonagh told him that Fionn was out woodcutting, but he should be back soon. She showed him 'Fionn's son'. When Benandonner saw the size of the baby, he had no desire to see the father! Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway behind him, so the 'enormous Finn MacCool', would not follow him." (from Wikipedia)

This tourist attraction is a UNESCO World Heritage site and was formed by volcanic activity.

For lunch, I had a hearty Irish stew at The Nook restaurant. Pub food was still a novelty at this point. It was delicious. Our afternoon drive brought us to Derry/Londonderry (I'll explain soon). It was legen... wait for it... DERRY! We had a bit of free time so we went to the Christmas market to look for souvenirs and something to eat for snack. There were some Irish boys serving baked potatoes with various toppings and at first we didn't think there was anything special about them... but then they spoke. I don't like to be on the bandwagon of girls that swoon over an accent, but there I was goggling at them like they were the most interesting people I'd ever met. If only my accent had the same effect on them....

We peeled ourselves away from the food stand in time to see a model of the Delorean Flux Capacitor in a souvenir shop. It was not worth the time it took to walk there, and they charged money for you to take photos of it, so if you ever find yourself in Derry and someone suggests you go and see it, don't.

We checked into our hostel and met our hostel host, Stephen, who doubled as a tour guide on a walking tour of Derry. Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Daire or Doire meaning "oak grove". In 1613, the "London" prefix was added, changing the name of the city to Londonderry. The majority of people in the city call it Derry, but Londonderry is used by the Loyalists and is still the legal name. "Derry is the only remaining completely intact walled city in Ireland and one of the finest examples of a walled city in Europe." (Wikipedia) Stephen told us that these walls were built in the 17th century by the Irish to defend against the Scots and Brits. Despite being generally less equipped for battle than the Brits or Scots, the Irish were good at making friends. He told us the story of the Siege of Derry where 6000 French soldiers came with King James I to help him regain his territory after the "Glorious Revolution" (when Mary and William of Orange, Protestant rules kicked him out of power). Basically, they fought for 105 days in which time the French had given up and the city was relieved by British war ships.

In a different tone, he told us of the discrimination faced by Catholics in Northern Ireland because of the Protestant government in place there until the Civil Rights demonstrations of the 1970's and Bloody Sunday (similar to the situation of the Québécois in English-ruled Canada until the introduction of French language laws in the 70's, which also followed a Civil Rights movement). In England, the Irish were treated as lower class citizens than Blacks, even by the 1960's, and they were inspired by the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Black Power Movement in the United States to fight for their rights. The British government recently issued a formal apology for the events of Bloody Sunday, which Stephen described as having been felt deeply by the Catholic population in the city. Although the city has been increasingly divided into Protestant areas and Catholic areas, there are efforts going on currently to encourage tolerance.

He concluded, however, on a positive note. Even though the majority of Protestants on the "Catholic" side of the River Foyle seem to live in a gated community with wire fences around them, Derry recently built a peace bridge that measures traffic between the two sides of the river and it was much higher than anyone expected, meaning that people do pass from one side to the other. And, he remarked that the city has changed profoundly. Previously, only members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) had served as role models to the children growing up. Now, Derry can boast that it is the hometown of Damian McGinty who won the Glee Project as well as several famous footballers (soccer players) who play for the Republic of Ireland football team.

That night, we had dinner at the Ice Wharf, a restaurant similar to Wetherspoons, which was cheap and delicious. We bonded more with Nathan, Mel, Liz and Tim, and built the foundation for the makings of an Ace Gang. We went to a bar with Gabe, and it was at this point that I started not feeling the greatest. I went to bed in the hopes that it would pass by the time we took off in the morning for Galway.