Travels in Ireland

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your tales : IRELAND VAMP

Aussie traveller Steff Forbes spent a few days in Ireland last year and sent us her tale. She discusses some of the politics of living in Ireland from an outsiders perspective and details the splendid countryside

I went on a tour of Northern Ireland for 2 nights and 2 days of touring and a couple of days in Dublin. My tour started in Dublin and then meandered onto Belfast reaching the north-east coast before heading off to Derry. In each of these places we were treated to a historical rundown of buildings, landscape and of course politics... We saw many places of interest eg. ancient burial mounds dating back 5000 years (older than the pyramids!), old monastery towers which had the doors set 15 feet off the ground and were accessed by ladders which could be drawn up to stop vikings and anyone who didn't like them very much, the old Slane castle which for U2 fans is where their album "Unforgettable Fire" was photographed - they held a concert there with 80,000 people turning up.

Belfast was another world entirely. All helicopters in the air were military. Watchtowers all over Belfast have listening devices with a range of a few miles and camers pointing in all directions. 30 foot high walls seperate the Protestant (British supporting) areas from the Catholic (Irish Republic supporting) areas and the gates through these walls are locked every evening... still. The 4 storey murals and paintings on the walls of buildings are all over Belfast and tell of the last 30 years of 'Troubles' that have occured between the Protestants and Catholics. Memorials are everywhere to commemorate those who have died in the conflicts. The police cars were the mutant cross between a tank and a car.

Knee-cappings are still common and the hospitals put out a decree requesting that trousers be pulled down or the legs of the pants lifted above the kneecaps before shooting so that the material does not get into the wounds and at least giving them a chance to save the legs. In fact, the ambulances are called prior to the shooting to make sure the victim does not bleed to death. All this aside - there are many areas around Belfast who have Catholics and Protestants living peacefully side by side and most of the troubles have died down a little since the peace agreements (although another was shot dead the day after we left bring the total to about 7 this year but officially, the peace agreement is working).

AWAITING PICS

There are some beautiful towns up north where the sheep have the best view. Unlike in Australia, the coastline isn't always the best place to be living what with all the wind and rain. but we were lucky on our trip and the weather was lovely and the views from Ballyton and Ballycastle overlooking the ocean was simply stunning! I would love to move there.

Derry is the town where all the troubles started with a 90% destitute Catholic poplution and 10% Protestants who owned everything. we had a tour given by a young man (23) who grew up in Bogside (the poorest of the poor areas and the most volatile) where learning to make petrol bombs, surviving riots and watching people and friends and family being beaten up or shot, were part of daily life. he spoke very calmly and honestly about the troubles and really made the situation very real for us all.

The other thing about the Irish - they have long memories. The whole deal regarding the marches of the orange men is about celebrating a Protestant victory over a Catholic king over 800 years ago! the troubles occur because they then want to march into Catholic areas celebrating Catholic defeat - for some reason, this isn't well received!

But enough of the politics - I visited many Irish pubs and listened to lots of traditional music (the south - Republic of Ireland has a no smmoking policy in all public spaces which is GREAT - I can breathe in a pub for once) I even went to the famous Temple Bar in Dublin to take in the atmosphere and listen to great music. The people are friendly, the country is gorgeous (much more so than England) the service fantastic and i cannot wait to go back and visit the southern counties of Ireland.