Northern Ireland and County Donegal

Where could be a better destination for an Easter long weekend than
Northern Ireland?  Sure this is an important Christian holiday and the
area has a history of sectarian violence and religious intolerance,
but we have to keep things interesting for our loyal readers, don't
we?

First off, the weekend was great, Northern Ireland is a beautiful
location with lots of friendly people and nice scenery.  "The
Troubles" as the Irish and British call the Protestant/Catholic
violence, is no longer as overt as it was, and the place has a booming
tourist industry with comfy bed and breakfasts cropping up all over
the place.

On Friday, Laura and I flew into Belfast and landed after a 1 hour
flight.  We opted to rent a car  because we did very little planning
and didn't want to be stuck without a means of getting around.  Also,
because it was Easter, we knew that everything would be closed in
Belfast so we wanted to be able to make an exit if things got boring.

Laura's sister Mary came up to Belfast for the weekend too!  So we met
up and spent Friday afternoon and evening wandering around Belfast. 
This is the second time that we've met up with Mary in Ireland.  Well
it is a small island with a comparatively small population, I suppose
statistically we're fairly likely to see Mary when we pop across the
Irish channel.  I'm sure I could whip up a mathematical equation to
predict the likely hood of having a Mary-sighting at various locations
around Europe, but I'll leave that for another day.

Laura and I checked into our hotel then we all drove to Belfast
Castle, which is now used as a little museum and has over 100 weddings
a year!  Not surprisingly we happened upon one.


Then we floundered our way back into Belfast.  Without the help of a
proper map, we felt our way, rather than headed in any decisive 
direction back into the city.

On the west end, there are still the vestiges of sectarianism from the
Protestant and Catholic Troubles.  The so called "Peace Wall" is still
quite a reality and it effectively divides Protestant and Catholic
neighbours.  This 6 meter wall of brick and tightly woven steal
fencing is used both to divide ideologies and keep brick hurling to a
minimum.  There are over 5km of walls in Belfast, with the latest
section being built in 2000.

The gates are still closed at night, but there are no longer armed
guards searching vehicles.

On one side you'll have Union Jacks flying and curbs painted red white
and blue, on the other side of the wall, there is a sea of Irish
flags.  This in itself is just rampant nationalism, which I feel is
usually unhealthy in the first place, but the scary thing are the
three storey political paintings on the sides of buildings.

Both the Loyalists and the Republicans get in on the action and paint
to commemorate the dead, further their cause and to taunt the other
side.

Given the history of catholic repression there are some posters
advocating for other separatist movements including ETA in Spain, the
Kurds in Iraq, and of course the Palestinians in and around Israel.


The North uses Pound Sterling as their form of currency, but it is
printed differently from the rest of the UK.

These are legal tender in England as well, but I've never seen them before.

We visited their city hall, and some nice pubs


After exhausting most of the Easter Friday open cafes/pubs/restaurants
in downtown Belfast, we went to a super market to buy cookies, a
little chocolate cake and fruit smoothies.  Then we headed back to
Laura and my hotel room where we chatted and snacked.


We then dropped Mary off at her hostel and got some sleep before
starting off early the next morning to explore the north coast and
eventually make our way to our bed and breakfast in County Donegal in
the Irish Republic.

Spectacular coastlines were punctuated with ancient castle ruins and
nesting sea-birds.


Fisherman used to use the rocky outcroppings and islands to fish for
salmon, and so created a 10 meter rope bridge about 20 meters above
the ocean to get to one of their favorite locations.  Laura and I
wandered across rather hesitantly.


Then it was off to the Giant's Causeway.  This is an interesting
geological spot where the coastline is made up of vertical hexagonal
columns.  These columns can also be found on the Scottish coast just
across the channel.

No these aren't roman columns.  "Scientists" claim that these occurred
when lava cooled and dried in a very specific way.  Much like when mud
dries and cracks in hexagonal patterns.  But the Irish and Scottish
know the true story.  A giant named Finn McCool (I'm not kidding)
built a bridge to Scotland using these hexagonal rocks.  When he got
there he saw a Scottish giant who was much larger than he.  So he ran
back to Ireland with the Scottish giant in pursuit, where he told his
wife about his predicament.  His wife dressed him up as a baby and put
him in bed.  When the Scottish giant arrived, Finn's wife told him
that Fin was not around, but here was his baby!  The Scottish giant
figured that if Finn's baby was that large, then Finn himself must be
enormous!  So he ran back to Scotland tearing up the bridge as he
went.  The Scots also tell this story, but not surprisingly, they
reverse the roles of the two giants.

After the Giant's Causeway, it was off to Derry/Londonderry.  This is
one of the other larger cities in Northern Ireland.  It's also the
site of most of the Troubles and the place where Republicanism is most
strong.  With a population of 60% catholics, it doesn't have a
majority of Protestants as do most places in Northern Ireland.  The
first thing that we noted was the distinct absence of road signs that
say the name of the city.  So arriving at roundabouts, you'll see
signs that say "City Centre 5km -->", rather than "Londonderry 5km
-->".  This is because the act of saying the city name is political
statement.  Derry is the original Irish name of the city, but it was
renamed Londonderry under British rule.  The city council has voted to
rename the city "Derry" a few times, but Westminister has refused.  At
first, this might seem terrible on the part of the British government,
but there is a large loyalist population who feel that they need all
the protection that they can get.


Belfast has the air of a city that is healing from its past.  In
Derry/Londonderry, the sectarian views are strong and the animosity
still feels raw.  The city centre is a 17th century medieval walled
city. Until very recently, the city gates were reverted back to their
original purpose and acted as British army checkpoints to keep tabs on
things.  Up above the city walls on the top of the highest point of
the city is a fortified compound with a 30 meter observation tower
with CCTV cameras permanently pointed down at Bogside, the east side
of the city which is predominately Catholic.


As if in response to this observation, the residence of Bogside have
painted their roofs with IRA slogans, put up political paintings and
memorials all the way along the bottom of this hill.


Bogside doesn't feel like a nice place to be after dark, and Laura and
I didn't linger even in mid afternoon.


In rather poinient contrast to all the violent imagry is a large painting
of a 14 year old girl who was shot and killed in IRA/British crossfire in
the 1980s.  At the top left of this painting is an unfinished butterfly.
The artists are waiting for a lasting peace before they finish the
butterfly as a symbol of peace and unification.


All that being said, the city centre is very nice and Laura and I
enjoyed lunch at a little tea house before continuing on to the Irish
Republic to check in at our Bed and Breakfast in Letterkenny in County
Donegal.

The first thing the owner of the BnB said to me when we arrived was,
"Where are you from?"  We gave our usual nebulous response of being
Canadians but we're currently living in London.  She said, "Ah, but
with a name like McDermott, someone in your past must have lived
around here".  County Donegal is where our branch of the McDermotts
originally came to Canada from in the 1820's.  We didn't get a chance
to do any genealogical exploration, but I'm sure there is much to be
done.

Our BnB was great, and Letterkenny has the longest high street in
Ireland.  We enjoyed a great Irish breakfast before dodging all the
Easter church-goers to head along the numerous coastal roads County
Donegal has to offer.


Let me just say that driving in southern Ireland and Wales was
challenging.  But driving in County Donegal required rally car racing
skills.  When we first got our little rental car, a Kia Picanto (oddly
enough it's the same car we had when we were in Portugal, only a right
hand drive), it only had 600 miles on it.  When we were done with it,
we returned it with 1150 very hard driven miles.  Most of these were
done going up and down very steep hills and around absurd
switch-backs.  Hills requiring first gear, 12 foot wide roads with
blind hills tops along cliff faces did nothing to reduce the 100km/h
speed limit.  I was either "whooping" with delight as we screeched
around corners at the limit of the little Kia's cornering
capabilities, or we "whooped" with fear as lorries took up three
quarters of the road.

The landscape was awe inspiring and in my mind, quintessentially Irish.


We took a regional road (which is always a gamble) to a valley that
our guidebook told us was the "most beautiful place in Europe".  On
the drive up the road we met many many sheep.  One came out to say hi
to Laura.


This is an isolated part of the country, and there are many little
communities dotting the area, but they are indeed little and isolated.
 I really liked this little town right in a sandy bay protected by a
naturally occurring sand dune.


Our goal was to reach Donegal Town before heading back inland to catch
our 8pm flight in Belfast.  So we parked in the town centre of Donegal
Town along with all the post-church goers.  Everyone was going out for
Easter Dinner (lunch), so I was very tempted to sit down for a big
yummy turkey and roast, but Laura restrained me.

Instead we grabbed a quick bite at a little cafe before heading back to
the M11 for a refreshingly brainless highway drive back to Belfast.

We wandered around Belfast a little more before jumping on our Easyjet
flight back to Stanstead airport.


Here are all of the pictures.
The weekend after next, Laura and I are heading to Barcelona Spain!

Also, just to keep everyone updated, Laura has given notice at her job
that we will be leaving in June.  These days, I'm doing contract work
from home for the company I used to be working for full time in Soho. 
Yesterday I received confirmation that I've been unconditionally
accepted into the MBA (Masters of Business Administration) at Laurier
in Waterloo, so come late August I'm going back to school.  Fun Fun