Day 10 - Belfast

We docked on the River Lagan. With our excursion scheduled for the afternoon, we elected to visit the Titanic Museum on our own in the AM. This tech-savvy museum offered numerous immersive experiences highlighting the development of the ship-building industry in Belfast, the construction of the Titanic, a 360 tour of the inside of the Titanic, and the discovery of the wreckage. The four wings of the museum building look like ships' prows and are actually the shape and height of the bow of the Titanic. From above it looks like the star for the White Star Line. Although the cranes and drydock are long-gone, we were able to look down the ways where the Titanic was launched. White Star had some other unsuccessful new ships after the Titanic, and Cunard bought them in 1934.

Belfast is also a relatively modern city. Populated by English Protestants, its initial growth was based on linen manufacturing, which huge factories for converting flax to thread and thread to linen fabric. The prosperity drew many Catholics suffering from the potato famine in Ireland. The shipbuilding industry followed. Its clear the engineering and support companies for the linen makers helped to support shipbuilding. Due to shipbuilding competition and synthetic fabrics the two lead industries declined following WWII. From the 1960's until 1998 there was little business investment due to The Troubles. Since then, there has been substantial revitalization.

Belfast Castle is not a traditional defensive fortification, but a manor house built by the family of the Marquess of Donegall in the late 1800s. This family was given their land by the English king in the early 1600s as part of the Great Plantation of Ireland.

While the Republic of Ireland is 70% Catholic, the split in Northern Ireland is 50/50. We saw many reminders that the divisions that led to The Troubles still exist. See the murals and Union Jacks in the pix. This was very upsetting to us.

It was difficult to take many pictures during the bus tour, but some highlights not pictured below include the hospital, opera house, prison, pedestrian shopping area, cathedrals, and city hall.

Rory McIlroy is from Holywood near Belfast where his parents still live. Many other notables such as CS Lewis are also from Belfast.

Titanic Museum

Belfast Castle

Belfast Castle Gardens

Dog Sculpture in Belfast Castle Gardens

Peace Gate and Murals

Shankill Street (Protestant)

Queens College

Parliament Building - Stormont