With DH going through a significant amount of exhausting emotional and physical turmoil, I thought we needed to temporarily shut down our traveling in order to repair and regenerate however, she-who-must-be-obeyed decided that the best healing solution would be to reconnect with the trip we had recently abandoned. So within a couple of weeks we had flown from Barcelona to Nanaimo B.C., and then jumped on multiple planes to make our return to Europe (Dublin, Ireland specifically)-we were well beyond jet lag since we had no idea what time/day/month it was.

Rather than fight it, we staggered off the plane in Dublin, picked up our rental car (hereafter known as the honourable Spud), drove to nearby Trim, charmed our way into an early check-in... and proceeded to sleep for close to 24 hours non-stop. We did set the alarm a couple of times so we could shift a bit and avoid bed sores. We probably would have slept longer but breakfast was included and we just weren't willing to pass on a free meal- this turned out to be our first exposure to a "Full Irish" which is likely guaranteed employment for cardiac surgeons in Ireland.

Trim turned out to be a great introduction to Ireland- it was close enough to Dublin which allowed me to get used to driving on the wrong side of the road, from the wrong side of the car, and on the narrow lane ways the Irish optimistically call roads. It was also a quaint Irish village and home to the very medieval Trim Castle- the makers of the movie 'Braveheart' chose Trim as the shooting location for the movie starring an Australian playing a Scot who moons the English at a location in Ireland?? In addition to being our first Irish Castle, it was also our first exposure to those many Irish expressions that have made it into modern dialogue. Trim Castle stood at the edge of the Pale, the small area of Anglo-Norman influence on Ireland’s eastern coast. To go "beyond the Pale" was to enter the hostile world of the Gaelic Irish.

We wound up our Trim time and braced ourselves for a rocky entrance to Northern Ireland... only to find that not only is the entrance not difficult but, as far as we could tell, the entrance doesn't even exist. Both countries are part of the EU which maybe explains the lack of formal borders but given the colourful history of Ireland we expected a degree of signage but it wasn't until we figured out that the speed limit signs were now in mph and not kms/hr (apparently driving at 60 kms/hr on a 60 mph road annoys the locals), that we realized we were in the North.

It wasn't so long ago that Belfast was properly grouped together with Beruit, Baghdad, and Bosnia, as the Killer B's, and they weren't on anyone's travel itinerary, but Belfast has put most of "the troubles" behind them, and we wanted to have a look around. I had always thought the Brits were the kings of understatement but absolutely everyone in Ireland will refer to the years of mayhem, butchery, and savagery (on both sides) as the rather tame sounding "the troubles". Perhaps the healing process is helped by not using more colourful and inflammatory language?

The history of Northern Ireland can be traced back to the 17th century, when the English finally succeeded in subduing the island after successfully putting down a number of rebellions. Much land, especially in the north, was subsequently colonized by Scottish and English Protestants, setting Ulster somewhat apart from the rest of Ireland, which was predominantly Catholic. The more formal political separation of Northern Ireland from the rest of Ireland did not come until the early 20th century, when Protestants and Catholics divided into two warring camps over the issue of Irish home rule. Most Irish Catholics desired complete independence from Britain, but Irish Protestants feared living in a country ruled by a Catholic majority. Following a treaty signed in 1921, a largely Catholic Irish Free Sate was created but the 6 counties of largely Protestant Ulster, which made up Northern Ireland, remained part of the United Kingdom.

Violence between Catholics and Protestants erupted again in the late 1960s; bloody riots broke out in Londonderry in 1968 and in Londonderry and Belfast in 1969. British troops were brought in to restore order, but the conflict intensified as the IRA and Protestant paramilitary groups carried out bombings and other acts of terrorism. During the 1970s and 80s, more than 3,000 people died as a result of the strife. Peace talks got serious in the 1990s and although the road was very bumpy, for the most part "The Troubles" have become part of history.

If things were to go sideways again, you get a sense that it will happen in Belfast, particularly between the relatively small communities surrounding Falls Rd (Catholic and wanting to join Ireland) and Shankill Rd (Protestant and wanting to stay aligned with England). During the peace process, there was conversation around tearing down the huge walls that had been built, and periodically increased in height, in order to keep the warring factions apart, but the residents themselves have voted to keep them there indefinitely. There are gates on roads connecting the communities that are still closed and locked at night. Homes adjacent to the walls have mesh fencing forming a dome over their back yards to protect against items that are thrown over the walls. It may take a generation or two before these walls are ready to come down.

We did take a Black Cab tour with a driver in one of those Hanson cabs through both neighbourhoods and it was a fabulous, if somewhat disheartening journey through The Troubles. His slightly unbalanced view of the IRA as the guardians of puppies and small children vs the Protestant militias as drug lords and thugs was probably just as insightful as the various stops we made. Obviously a Catholic, he was the product of a school system that remains rigidly segregated to this day.

Another tragic claim to fame for the city of Belfast is as the home base of the ill-fated Titanic. Along with a couple of sister ships, the unsinkable Titanic was built in the bustling (at the time) shipyards of Belfast only to sink on her maiden voyage after hitting an iceberg. The Titanic Quarter gave us great insight into the building of this colossal ship even floating the idea that the ship was sunk because one of the onboard owners had a wager on the speed of the crossing and had insisted on a direct line through a known iceberg alley at a relatively unsafe speed (this quality dude was also one of the few men who ignored the famous 'women and children first' directive and found himself in an uncrowded lifeboat refusing to pick up others floundering in the freezing water- although shamed in the trials that followed, because he had money, there was no serious consequence- similar to our current justice system? ). The sinking did result in a number of maritime safety improvements (and is probably the reason we have to do that pointless lifeboat drill on cruise ships).

Slotted around these journeys through history were visits to the infamous Crumlin Rd Gaol (prison known as 'The Crum'), St George's Mkt, the Golden Mile, and most of the other big sites of Belfast. We weren't sure that we were making the right decision by traveling so soon after sad recent events but the hospitality and charm we've experienced in Ireland early in our trip has us thinking that this is where we are meant to be.