Belfast Blonde

Though we only spent four days in Belfast, those days were action-packed; our professors scheduled as many things as possible so that we weren't wandering around the streets of this potentially dangerous city.  We settled into our hotel (and surviving without internet since it cost 10 pounds for 24 hours-the equivalent of $15!), but the next day we were shipped off to the Giant's Causeway, and incredible geological phenomenon that is bursting with mythological history. The rocks themselves are hexagonal and igneous (meaning made from magma), but the story is much more interesting. Legendary hero Finn Mac Cumhaill was threatened by a giant from Scotland, for the giant was going to cross the land bridge (the Causeway) to demolish this hero. Finn, knowing that he could never physically defeat the giant, strategically covered himself in baby's clothing. When the giant came looking for Finn, Finn's wife showed him the "baby", and the giant was terrified of this strangely manly infant. Fearing that Finn would be even greater, the giant ran back to Scotland, destroying the land bridge that is now the Causeway with him.

The sights from the Causeway were stunning, and a few of us ventured further along the marked paths until coming across a closed-off section. Did we turn back? Of course not! We hopped the fence and found ourselves surrounded by the Ampitheatre feature of the landscape, and even added a bit of graffiti to the fencing along the way.

The next day, we went on two tours of Belfast, one by an ex-IRA member and the other from a Protestant-raised community worker. The first was mainly to see the murals and memorials constructed for the Catholic Irish, but the second was much more emotional as the Protestant guide showed us the "peace walls" dividing Catholics and Protestants both physically and mentally. He also drove us to the sight where an IRA bombing took place and he had to unearth dozens of people from the rubble of a well-known shop. Seeing both sides of a conflict reinforces the senseless fighting that occurs over the problems of the past.

Following the tours, we spent hours at Queen's University where a local professor gave us a lecture on natural history of Ireland. I was excited at first to be in an Irish university, but after about 2 hours, I lost my interest in bogs and geological changes...Thankfully, the lecture ended and we escaped to visit the Botanical Gardens and spend time in the quad with Irish university students, a much preferred option.

Finally, our last day included a privilege: a tour of Long Kesh/The Maze, a prison used in the 1970s-1980s to house political prisoners, especially Bobby Sands who began the 1981 hunger strike and died as a result of Margaret Thatcher's apathy toward the Irish. Our tour guide informed us of the history of the prison, and only going into slightly more detail later when we stood in the room that Bobby Sands died in. Our guide whispered to us that she isn't supposed to let us know this information because when she gives these tours to Loyalists, they sometimes clap and cheer when hearing the history of the hunger strikers, and some of the security officers following us on the tours were ex-prison guards, so she had to watch her words carefully. This is a strangely amazing thing, to truly see how the segregation of groups exists decades after the conflict occurred.

To end our days in the North, a group of us decided to at least check out the pub scene in the town before leaving, so we spent our final hours in the famous Crown Bar where we drank some Belfast Blondes and toasted the city.