Belfast: A Divided City

Today we departed for Belfast in Northern Ireland. When we arrived we were immediately greeted by our Belfast tour guide, who gave us a coach tour around the city.

What we began to notice about Belfast is that the city is extremely political. Belfast is divided into two sections: one section is the republican side and the other is the unionists/loyalist side. Republicans support Ireland as its own republic, apart from the rule of the Queen. The unionists, on the other hand, support Northern Ireland as a part of Great Britain under the rule of the Queen and British Parliament.

There is still much conflict between the two groups. When we drove around Belfast, we noticed many murals of political images. They were shocking; images of terrorists from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) dressed in all black and snipers aiming their guns directly at you invoked fear among citizens. We all signed the Peace Wall, which is a wall that divides the two factions within Belfast. When you think about that, it seems almost counterintuitive.

We then headed to the Titanic Museum, which was on the very dock where the Titanic was built. We learned about the workers and working conditions in Belfast at that time, and how the Titanic was built. The most interesting bit to me was the stories and documentaries of the people on the ship – both those who died and survived.

One of the boys at the hostel who works there for free housing, an Australian named Henry, made us all cheeseburgers on the “barby” (or “barbeque”). Even though this hostel had the worst rooms ever, it was so great because we got to meet and hang out with people our age from Australia, France, Montana and New York in the United States, etc. We all went out that night and had a great experience in Belfast.