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| A statue of Queen Victoria stands haughtily in front of the City Hall with the library in the background. There was no missing that Belfast is a part of the United Kingdom. The ornate City Hall was built in 1906 after the booming industrial town was granted city status by Queen Victoria. Belfast is the second largest city on the island of Ireland. When we were there a young couple optimistically took wedding pictures in front of the City Hall. |
| "Samson and Goliath" (gigantic cranes) rise above the skyline as evidence of the once great shipbuilding industry in Belfast. These two mustard colored cranes are the largest in the world, but they are no longer used because of the decline of the shipbuilding industry. TheTitanic was built in Belfast and a memorial to the victims stands on the grounds of City Hall. |
| Queens University was established in 1848 for Catholic students. Both Catholics and Protestants make up the 15,000 students that attend now. |
| Only a few years ago Belfast was run down and decimated by conflict. Today it is being rebuilt and there is peace. The area by the riverfront is being developed and a new sports arena called Waterfront Hall was built. A sculpture at Thanksgiving Square near Queen Elizabeth Bridge symbolizes the desire to bring all people together. Sadly the dark clouds behind the sculpture also sympolize the fact that tension still exists between some people in Belfast. |
| The Falls Road area is a working class Catholic neighborhood with a wall of murals that present various political statements, some anti-American. The Sinn Fein office is at the bottom of Falls Road. |
| A concrete, corrugated steel, and wire fence called the "Peace Wall" separates the Catholic area on Falls Road from the Protestant neighborhood on Shankill Road. |
| The Shankill Road area is a strongly unionist working class neighborhood. Union Jack flags and murals supporting the separation of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland can be seen all along Shankill Road. This area has the reputation for being a "tough" area. |
| A large Orange Order march was scheduled in Belfast the day after we were there. The Orange Order is a unionist group that takes their name from William of Orange. Huge bonfires are burned and the Pope is burned in effigy. We saw piles of wood stacked for the bonfires. On Shankill Road militant groups mark their territory with the clinched red hand of Ulster. |
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