Trouble with the Troubles…

After three ferries, three trains a bus ride, a hike across Glasgow and taxi ride we arrived at our hostel in Belfast, Ireland. I was a little nervous about spending time here after we have learned about the troubles. But in the light of day it looked like a regular city with normal people just going about their everyday lives. On the ferry across Patrick read about a plot to blow up police cars in the Northern part of the city. That certainly did not help my awkward feelings about the place. The driver dropped us off at half past 10 in the evening. We climbed the two flights of stairs of a very run-down ( I suppose some could say overly homey) hostel and entered our room. It was a hostel… Although not as bad as the one in Galway that seemed more like a rent-a-bed than an actual place to stay the night. The only difference was the comforter was clean and the bed did not cave in the middle.

The following morning I just wanted to sleep… I was emotionally and physically exhausted after all the traveling and hearing about my aunt. I could have stayed in bed all day if Patrick would have let me. I really was not in the right frame of mind to go out mural hunting so I talked Patrick into going to the Ulster Museum just down the street from us. It has three floors ranging from art, nature, prehistory, history and some very kewl “discovery zones” for children where they can play. They also had a neet display of costumes worn by famous people in different movies. My favorite was the one of Drew Barrymore in Ever After with the wings she wore while standing in the beautiful lights. They also had one of Colin Firth’s where he played Mr. Darcy… YUM!!

Anyway… We made our way through, beginning at the top. We looked at art from the 1800’s and some more modern pieces. There was an interesting section on watercolors that I found particularly fascinating. Almost all of them had an outline around the images that were colored. We were taught that was a no-no. Just goes to confirm art is in the eye of the beholder.

We spiraled our way down looking at the natural world exhibit with all of the animals, rocks and make-up of the area. There was a small piece of moon rock that I thought was interesting…

The most interesting moment for me was a mummy, fully preserved, in the Egypt section. Her name is Takabuti and she was shipped over here for entertainment purposes… Finally she fell into the right hands and that owner gifted her to the Uslter Museum. During some renovations she went into exile which gave scientists and anthropologists a chance to dissect who she was and what she looked like. It was an incredible exhibit with artifacts all around and a video about how they did research on her and what they found out about her. There was also a mummified cat in the exhibit. You could see its little baby teeth………

As we began to wind down we found the Ulster history section about the Troubles and how they began. One of the most emotional spots for me was when we walked along the area that had gas masks on display. There was a Mickey Mouse gas mask… Not only was it necessary for children to have them because of the fighting and fear mongering, but the need was great they commercialized it… This brought up a lot of memories for both Patrick and I and we began to walk a little faster. They had an entire section of videos playing about the bombings and the attacks that took place here and in other parts of Northern Ireland. We read the walls and watched the horrific sites on the television sets… How do you recover from this??

At the end of the exhibit, Patrick went out to have a smoke and I perused the little pool with coins being tossed in. I joined him shortly after to find him talking to an older gentleman. I walked up and he nervously looked me, stopping his sentence and made sure I was supposed to be in the conversation. They had begun talking about the exhibit and the section on the Troubles. This man had fought for the British during the time of the rebellions. He said we were more like “piggy in the middle” trying to keep both forces at bay. It was a very unfortunate time for everyone… He said at first the Catholics were happy they were there and would greet them in the streets with tea and biscuits. But when orders started coming down from headquarters as to who they should evict and place into camps the men on the streets were in shock. He told us of a few times where they were supposed to evict this and that family… But in reality it was these other people that were the ones who should have been evicted. Even after telling his superiors look these are good honest people you are hurting here, and these people are the ones you should be taking. They would just look at him and say, these are your orders!! He said, but we knew who the bad people were, everyone on the streets knew who they were…  I love getting other peoples interpretations of these events!!  There is so much more than black and white in these situations…

After leaving the museum we decided to head back to the hostel and find where the car rental place was so we could find it easily the next morning. We found it easy enough and took some pictures around the down town area. Then we headed home. On the way we found a huge sign that said, “You are now entering loyalist Sandy Row, Heartland of South Belfast, Ulster Freedom Fighters”. Patrick went to go take a picture of it… Meanwhile I think I am going to throw up…

We head down this “row” and the first thing I spy are the curbs painted red, white and blue with the Union Jack flag running ALL up and down the street. There were multiple murals, some depicting memorials some depicting people fighting - they looked like masked guerillas. I felt a bit uneasy about the place… But it was the light of day and they would not hurt tourists, right????

Of course we made it out just fine but I definitely have a renewed perspective… It would be kewl to go back and do the mural tour so I could get a sense of the other side of this conflict…

I keep remembering the man on the steps of the museum… He loves Belfast!!  He met his wife their and now they live there together in peace and with love. It seemed to me his dream was for others to recognize the beauty in this space and to understand that not all are fighting. It seems to me they have forgotten what they are fighting for… Not I that I would go around spouting that… However, in the museum I did hum, “and the pikes will be together by the rising of the moon…”