Day One Hundred Seventy-Two June 26

Today was an eye opener and the final port in Europe before crossing the Atlantic Ocean on our way to St. John's Newfoundland for Canada Day.

Janice booked a private 2.5-hour tour with Viator in a supposedly black taxicab which turned out to be blue to learn some of the history of Northern Ireland. Presently, it is part of the United Kingdom along with England, Scotland and Wales.

When the Brexit vote was held the following happened:

• England Leave 53.4% Remain 46.6%
• Scotland Leave 38.0% Remain 62.0%
• Wales Leave 52.5% Remain 47.5%
• N.I. Leave 44.2% Remain 55.8%

As you can see England and Wales wanted to leave while Scotland and Northern Ireland wanted to remain part of the European Union. Well, that's a topic for another discussion.

Our shuttle bus brought us into the city directly across from the City Hall where we were to meet our guide, Stevie. Ilona came along with us as Keith was still in isolation with Covid.

Our first stop was to murals found in the Catholic neighborhood of Belfast. Some of the murals refer to individuals who took to demonstrations through hunger strikes or violence to try and achieve their goal of unification of Northern Ireland with the rest of Ireland. I am not sure whether spending an entire day looking at these murals throughout both neighborhoods would be a good thing or a bad thing. It maybe too depressing.

During the 1970s and early 1980s Belfast unfortunately was not a place anyone would want to visit due to safety issues.

Janice asked our guide if he had seen the movie Belfast and whether it was a true depiction of the times . His reply was No he had not seen the movie, but went on to say it was worst. Back then people would be killed on either side Catholics (Republicans) or Protestants (Unionists) for no reason. He mentioned one time his cousin was injured while at the beach so instead of taking the bus back to the city they stopped at a nearby pharmacy to get some bandages. The bus they would have been on was blown up.

Our second stop was to the Bobby Sands Tribute located on Falls Road. This mural is a tribute to IRA (Irish Republican Army) volunteer who died on a hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland.

Making our way to the Protestant neighborhood area of Belfast we travel through large steel gates which are closed automatically by the police nightly at 22:00 to minimize possible violence between Catholics and Protestants youth.

A Peace Wall separating the two religious sectors can be found here where murals adorn the Protestant side and I imagine the same can be found on the Catholic side as well. The Peace Wall we saw stretched for five kilometers and was made of iron, brick, and steel. It looks to be well over 7 meters high.

You can see the Union Jack flying proudly in the Protestant neighborhood. A final stop here was to the Bayardo Bar Memorial for the five victims who died when the bar was bombed 1 August 1975. In the same area a patchwork quilt is displayed for those individuals that had their lives stolen by terrorism.

Janice is 44% Irish and Catholic and experienced religious discrimination in the form of bullying when she grew up so it was a little difficult for her to see. The sad thing to witness is that this discrimination is still happening today. Travelling the world and meeting new friends from every religion and race we can only hope for a more united world where everyone will be seen as equal.

As we travel back to the city centre through the Catholic side more murals can be seen before Stevie drops us off at the St. George's Market. All type of goods and services can be found here.

A visit to The Crown Pub found on Greater Victoria Street was worth a visit if just to see the inside to view the ten booths or snugs which can be reserved. They look like confessional booths as per Janice. We arrived before the rush and were able to grab one of the booths as it was not reserved until 17:00. Several other passengers from the ship joined us here. I was however somewhat disappointed with the Fish and Chips though.

There was still some time left to find the shopping mall to pick up some items for the crew as they were prevented from leaving the ship due to Covid restrictions at the time.

While waiting for the shuttle bus another Orangemen March occurred in the shopping area. These are marches are carried out by Protestants. In fact, on 28 May 2022 to mark the centenary of Northern Ireland some 25,000 people took part in the parade.

We are now safely back on the ship and will be at sea for the next four days before arriving in St. John's Newfoundland on July 1. We are thrilled that we got to visit Belfast which was on our bucket list.

Time to begin packing….