The day started off filled with Sleet, Rain and Snow, during our drive to Belfast. It was quite the miserable drive, as they would say in Northern Ireland, I would agree. The drive from Dundelik to Belfast was a little over an hour. It was quite the drive as it started off with a steady rain which turn into sleet and not long after turned to snow. Now our driver Patrick Smiley claims that in one day you can have each of the four seasons, but I see Ireland more as a late fall type of country. It was a chilly 0 Celsius for most of the day, but it did get as high as 1 Celsius. How could you tell though?
Once we arrived in Belfast, we met our great local guide Joe. I would say that he was one of the best local guides that I have ever experienced because of his great knowledge of his city and the troubled years. We had the opportunity to see the gates that separate the Protestants and Catholics. Which to my surprise still function today. He took us through the various murals that show the pain of the issue between Protestants and Catholics, plus the issue between England and Ireland. We found out about numerous people who were political prisoners during this time. One of them Bobby Sands actually was elected to the British Government, which they did not recognize him as so, he died of a hunger strike after 62 days. He refused to wear the prisoner’s uniform and choose to wear a blanket instead. There was also a memorial to the man who killed the most Catholics, he died at a young age of 30, but is memorialized through a mural on the protestant side of the fence. After our history lesson through the city, we headed to the Titanic Belfast museum. I was quite excited about visiting this museum as were most of the students. As a young lad, my Great-Grandmother used to tell me stories about the Titanic, World War I and II and how these events affected her life. She had these newspapers she would read to me about these events and I would say that is probably why I teach history today. The museum was quite beautiful and it took you through the history of the city of Belfast, White Star (the Owners of the Titanic), H & W (The builders of the Titanic), the actual people of built the ship (We had a great opportunity to take a 6 minute ride through the building of the ship) and the Titanic’ maiden Voyage. We should all know what happened during the voyage. The museum was quite informative and was a great opportunity for our students to not only learn about the history of Belfast, but about the Titanic and the lives lost. After our visit to the Titanic, it was time to check into our hotel. We found out that during the 80’s our hotel was the most bombed hotel in all of Europe. It is also a very beautiful hotel that President Clinton stayed here in 1995. We had about 15 minutes and then we had to take a horrendous walk through cold bone chilling rain to dinner. Our dinner was a chicken sandwich with fries. The ice cream dessert was quite delicious. After dinner, it was back to the hotel for some much needed rest and the opportunity to get dry from all of the rain. Tomorrow we head to Giants Causeway and we have the opportunity to eat some delicious fish.
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AuthorMr. Lopez is the primary author of our blogs. However, on each trip Mr. Lopez invites guest bloggers to add their flair to our experiences. Guest bloggers will be noted at the bottom of the blog. Archives
April 2018
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