Belfast

We also did a couple of trips out of town: one closer, the other further away. The closer one was to Malahide Castle in County Swords. It's about 15 km north of Dublin. If you go to the tourist office on O'Connell Street you'll get all the info and you can buy the tickets directly. The bus leaves in front of the tourist office. It's an ancient castle owned by an old Irish family from 1185 to 1976! It's said that the ghost Puck roams the rooms of the castle and there are numerous accounts of sightings... adjacent to the castle you can also visit the Botanic Gardens, very beautiful.

The second trip (more demanding) was to Belfast, capital of Northern Ireland. It takes about two hours by train from Dublin to Belfast and I must say that unfortunately one day isn't enough to visit the capital of Northern Ireland. When we decided to go to Ireland we'd planned a trip to the area of the "troubles", the unrest that marked the harsh and violent years of the struggle between Catholics and Protestants, between unionists and Orangemen. It's a decadent spectacle to go to a place to immortalise the tragedies of a people with your own camera. If I could go back I wouldn't do it again... but the desire to see whether what was written and said corresponded to reality was too strong... we set off early in the morning to try to enjoy the whole day. Arrived at Belfast Central station we immediately understand that the climate isn't the calmest.

There are riot police on every corner, armoured vehicles at the station exit... we regret it almost immediately. But in reality we understand almost immediately that these are only preventive measures and soon you get used to it (unfortunately...). On foot we reach the city centre walking along York Street and visit the Belfast City Hall, the scene of numerous hardline demonstrations. We head towards the commercial area (Cornmarket) and then go towards the tourist office in North Street. Here we're offered a tour on a "people taxi" through the hot neighbourhoods of the city, where the troubles were strong, the clashes bloody and where even today there's a certain distrust between Catholics and Protestants. There are two areas: Falls Road and Shankill Road. They're squalid areas were it not for the murals painted on the houses that recall the darkest moments of Ireland's recent history.

The Catholic area is the one bordered by Falls Road while the Protestant one by Shankill Road. The "people taxi" is a Transit with about ten seats that is obviously loaded with only (stupid, me included...) tourists who enter the only "safe" way into the two areas to see the most disreputable places of the city. The tour costs £10 per person. The two areas immediately appear devoid of any interest, were it not for the murals (beautiful but full of hatred and deep indignation towards the rival side) and for the streets often coloured with Irish flags (in the Catholic part) and British flags (in the Protestant part instead). The tour also includes the various police stations (heavily fortified), the areas of the clashes, the "gate" that divides the two areas and that even today is closed (in July) during the commemoration of William of Orange's victory over the Catholics.

This demonstration is the scene of clashes even in our days and the walls of the area are daubed with paint and the windows of the houses screened with protections against stone-throwing by the "enemies". The driver also acts as a guide but I must say that partly the dialect, partly my ignorance... understanding everything wasn't exactly simple... at various points you can get off but the advice is not to stray from the group. The inhabitants of the area look at you (rightly!) like a lion in a cage looks at the visitor... they feel like zoo animals and this can't please them. It's clear, though, that the guides pay a part of the takings to the various families to avoid problems with this source of income...

Another piece of advice: if you get out of the taxi and one of the inhabitants offers to take a photo of you in front of a mural DON'T ACCEPT! It's a little trick to take your camera and run off!!! The guide repeated it 10 times and when we got off we were approached by a guy who asked to take our photo... never was a prophecy so right!!! The police are present everywhere with armoured vehicles (as seen in the film "Bloody Sunday") and people walk quickly on the pavements. The guide told us that at the moment the problems are reduced to clashes between youth gangs, more thuggish than religious... When the tour is over there's only time to grab a few souvenirs in the streets of central Belfast, return to the station and head for Dublin.