A LegenDerry Weekend in Northern Ireland

Today was a perfect fall day in Spiddal! After a three-hour history class, we are done with classes until Monday afternoon. I am already not sure how it is going to go next spring when I will actually have five days of classes a week. I walked to Spiddal with some friends to pick up a few groceries, and because it was such a nice day, we decided to buy ice cream bars and sit by the ocean soaking up the sun while we have the chance! Last week we had a five day trip to Northern Ireland...here's how it went!

After only two days back in Spiddal, we were on the road again! We left for Northern Ireland on Wednesday afternoon after two three-hour classes, and after a four-hour bus ride, I was more than happy to arrive in Derry (or Londonderry, or according to our tour guide Martin, LegenDerry).  We stayed in a hostel that reminded me a lot of Our House in Iceland! A small group of us actually stayed in a different house around the corner from the rest, but it was really nice to just share a room with two other people.  As a group, we got our first glimpse of Derry when we walked to Badger’s pub for dinner.  The dinner was budgeted in to our excursion, so I decided to go all out and get the Guinness and beef stew and the Baihley’s cheesecake. On the way back, we stopped to withdraw some pounds because Northern Ireland is technically a different country and part of the United Kingdom.  It was hard to remember we were actually in a different country.  On Thursday, we went to the Tower Museum about the entire history of Derry. Our tour guide was Jerry from Derry, and he did a great job of explaining each portion of Derry’s history.  The most interesting section for me was the more recent history and the Troubles, the conflicts between Catholics and Protestants.  Jackie (one of our professors who joined us)  had some unbelievable stories about what it was like to live there during that time.  After lunch, we went to another museum, the Free Derry Museum, specifically about Bloody Sunday.  I was shocked to learn that some people were killed on the sidewalk literally right outside the building.  The museum followed the events in the years leading up to Bloody Sunday, so we had great context information because I didn’t really know much about the history of it before.  There were also a lot of artifacts from the actual day, including clothes with bullet holes worn by the people who were killed.  We learned that just last summer the British government admitted that the people who were killed were innocent victims and not gunmen, as they had been called in the past.   After the museum, we met Martin, our tour guide for a walking tour of Derry.  We walked all around the area around the museum and the walled area, looking at the many murals painted on buildings.  They all had to do with the Troubles and what was even more interesting was that most of them were painted on or near the spot that they depicted.  On our way back to the hostel, Jackie brought us all to a pub to celebrate Arthur Guinness’s birthday! 

We found some delicious desserts at a cute little cafe. Of course, I had to get the cupcake!

The Free Derry Museum about the Bloody Sunday massacre

The beginning of our walking tour of the city

Our tour guide Martin explaining the murals

The victims of Bloody Sunday

A mural dedicated to a 14-year-old girl who was shot and killed on her way to school during the Troubles

After leaving Derry, we made two stops on the way to Belfast.  First, we had a tour and lunch at the Bushmill’s Distillery.  My favorite part was watching the bottling of the whiskey, and it was pretty amazing to me that the whiskey being produced when we were watching won’t be sold for at least three years, but probably even more! We had lunch and a free drink in the café, and I tried a hot toddy, but I don’t think I am much of a whiskey drinker.  Next, we drove just a few miles to the Giant’s Causeway, a naturally occurring rock formation that was formed 60 million years ago. We had an hour to get out and explore.  It was a really nice day, so it was great to be able to be outside in beautiful surroundings.  We made our last leg of the trip to Belfast and arrived later in the afternoon.  After dinner, a group of us went out to explore a Culture Night festival that we had heard about.  It turned out to be a big celebration for the city and there were many people and families all over the cathedral quarter.  We got there just at the end of a parade featuring drumming pirates, a human hamster wheel and flag twirlers.  There were also puppet shows, live music and art displays all around the streets.  The next day our tour guide Colin joined us for a “hop on-hop off” tour of Belfast.  First, we drove along the more affluent part of Belfast and Queens University before going to the still-divided areas.  In the Catholic area of West Belfast, we saw a wall painted with murals depicting protests during the Troubles but also showing other social issues from the past, showing that the people from that area stood in solidarity with others from around the world being unfairly oppressed.  Driving along the “peace wall” separating the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods was very moving. It is hard to imagine living your whole life on one side and not even knowing anyone in the next neighborhood, separated by just a few feet.  The next stop was the Northern Ireland parliament building.  It was still hard to fathom that we were technically in another country than the Republic.  Our last stop on the tour was at Belfast castle with its gorgeous gardens and view of the city.  Legend has it that if you find all nine cat statues hidden around the garden, you will have good luck.  Not being much of a cat person, however, I decided to risk it and just enjoy the sunshine! We were all happy to notice that it rains significantly less in the North than in Galway!  We got dropped off near the city center for the free afternoon.  A group of us found a Chipotle-like burrito restaurant for lunch that had been highly recommended.  Eating a carnitas fajita burrito was a taste of home that I definitely needed! After church that night, a few friends and I went to Jaipur Kebabs, right across the street from our hostel, that  my brother had told me was a must-do in Belfast.  His word was good and we all devoured our kebabs in record time. What a great end to the weekend :)