Belfast, North Ireland

June 27, 2026

We left Glascow today and traveled to the ferry that would take us to Northern Ireland.

After a pleasant ride on the ferry, we reboarded the bus and headed to Belfast for a tour of the city.

Our first stop was the Titanic Belfast, a museum on the grounds of the Harland and Wolff shipyard where the doomed ship, Titanic, was built. Each of the four wings of the building resemble the hull of the Titanic.

Once inside the Titanic Experience museum, you learn about the construction of the Titanic and the inner workings of the shipyard. You can go on the Shipyard Ride which takes you through a replica of the shipyard in the 1900s and the building of the Titanic.

There are interactive exhibits such as this one that lets you operate the giant crane, the Arrol Gantry, that was used to build the Titanic.

There were even models of the different cabins including this example of a second-class cabin.

Outside of the museum, we passed by Samson and Goliath, the huge cranes used by the shipyard when it was active.

We also passed by Titanic Studios where the popular series, The Game of Thrones was filmed.

The lamp posts on the Queens Bridge were built during the Victorian era. They were once gas-powered. The locals call them "fish lamps" because of the sea creatures coiled around the base.

Outside the Belfast City Hall are statues of historical figures. This statue of Mary McCracken was erected on On International Women's Day in March, 2024. Mary fought to abolish slavery in the 19th century. She supported education for women, as well as the right to vote. She cared for the poor of Belfast and educated and found apprenticeships for many poor children.

It also contains the Titanic Memorial in remembrance to those who perished in the tragedy.

We did a brief stop to peer through the fence at the Queen's University Belfast and its magnificent Lanyon Building.

Outside its main entrance is the War Memorial by Thomas Brock, originally sculpted for the soldiers who fought in the Great War (World War I) but later also dedicated to the soldiers of World War II.

The Doulton Fountain is the world's largest terracotta fountain.

The entrance to the John Bell House is crowned with a relief of the Belfast coat of arms which shows the chained Irish wolf (symbolizing harnessing the fierce power of the wolf to protect the city) and a seahorse (symbolizing Belfast's profitable port industry and maritime success) The Latin motto "Pro tanto quid retribuamus" asks "What shall we give for so much?"

These pallets are being stacked up for the 11th night bonfire to celebrate the 1690 Battle of the Boyne when the Protestant King William of Orange defeated the Catholic King James II of England on July 12. The bonfire is built to remember the giant beacons his supporters lit to guide him safely through the Belfast Lough at night. However this bonfire of the Ulsters (the Loyalists who supported King William) continue to cause controversy both for the potential danger of the huge fire as well as the memory of the all-too-recent Troubles that pitted Protestants and Catholics against each other.

The roots in the troubles were planted when King William brought over English and Scottish Protestants to settle in the town of Ulster. At the same time, he created Penal Laws that stripped Catholics across Ireland of their lands and gave them to his Protestant followers. Later in 1795, the Orange Order was formed and named in his honor to support the unionist policies of Great Britain. These policies granted more and more power and economic support to loyalists while Catholic nationalists often struggled with poverty. The July 12 marches of the "Orange Men" to celebrate his victory, often fomented violence and riots as they were an unintended reminder of the inequities created by King William's Penal Laws. Although Northern Ireland is at peace now, the bonfires still raise memories of the violence of the past.

However, King William was not the sole root of the troubles. In 1921, Ireland gained its independence from Great Britain and became its own country. However, Northern Ireland remained a part of Great Britain, due in part to its economic value and in part because so many loyal unionists had settled in Northern Ireland and wished to remain a part of Great Britian. This decision further separated the Irish nationalists from their roots.

Despite their beleagured history, the Catholic nationalists were not innocents in the Troubles. Their feelings of rage and helplessness over their plight gave rise to a terrorist organization in the 1960s, the Irish Republican Army (the IRA) which had its beginnings with the Irish Volunteers who fought Britain in the Irish War of Indepence. They fought to reunite Ireland and end the British rule of Northern Ireland. Although the official branch of the army sought to resolve the differences politically, the provisional branch favored a more direct method. Their methods were often violent and Northern Ireland was beset with gunfire and bombing that eventually spread through Europe from the 1970s to the 1990s.

The Unionists returned violence with violence. It became an endless cycle with each death on one side sparking an equal retaliation from the other side. The lethal feuding proved the warning that "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." (This quote is possibly from Mahatma Gandhi, although there is some debate over whether he actually said this.)

One martyr of the movement was Bobbie Sands who died at the age of 27 from a hunger strike while imprisoned for planning the bombing of the Balmoral Furniture Company in Dunmurry.

The Europa Hotel in Belfast became the most bombed hotel in the world because of this persistent terrorist campaign.

Finally, the violence was ended in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement which made provisions for more equal power sharing between the unionists and nationalists. It allowed citizens to claim both British and Irish citizenship and remove the military checkpoints from the border with Ireland. Both the unionist and nationalist paramilitary groups agreed to disarm.

Next came the difficult road back to peace after so much suffering. The Belfast Peace Wall was created from a concrete barrier that separates the Protestant and Catholic communities. Although not enough trust has been created to tear down the barrier, it is now covered with graffiti and messages of peace from people around the world.

Brent and I each wrote our own messages of peace on the wall.

The Beacon of Hope in Thanksgiving Square was created by Andy Scott in 2007 to stand for harmony and unity in place of the Troubles that divided Belfast and all of Northern Ireland from the late 1960s through the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Even now there are still distinct Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods in Belfast. On a lighter note, this statue is called fondly by locals, "Nuala with the Hula".

The "Dreams" mural by Rita Duffy was painted in 2004. It captures the hopes and dreams of the children of Belfast. The glass square in the middle of each set of portraits contains scrolls on which the children of Belfast wrote down their dreams for the future.

"Neighbors (a window in the sky) was painted by Alice Pasquini and UNO in 2023. It also focus on dreams and human connection.