Back to my delayed, part II post on Northern Ireland. In addition to exploring Belfast, I visited the Giant’s Causeway, an amazing geological formation with over 40,000 hexagonal shaped basalt columns formed from cooling lava. They are so regularly-shaped it’s hard to believe they aren’t man-made.
On our way to the Giant’s Causeway, we stopped by the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge which offers great views of the surrounding cliffs and a beautiful walk to get there. It was a lot windier and scarier than it looks in this picture (one large gust and you could be overboard), but I made it across.
The bus driver I had on the tour definitely had the gift of the gab (i.e. he didn’t shut up!) but was helpful at pointing out the shaggy highland cattle as well as all the “wee little lambs” frolicking about (lambing season had just ended). I didn’t get a good picture of the highland cattle, but found one on the Internet. Arent’t they cute?
I also checked out the city of Derry for a day, which during the Troubles probably wasn’t the safest place to be. It’s nicknamed the “maiden city” since her walls have never been breached despite multiple sieges on the city. Even the name is still a little controversial though since the Protestants say “Londonderry”, Republicans “Derry” and the politically correct train/bus/etc. use the extremely unwieldy “Londonderry/Derry”. Here are shots of the formidable Derry Walls (which you can walk all the way around on top) as well as the handsome red-brick Guild (i.e. City) Hall:
Derry is famous for the People’s Galleries which are murals done by the Bogside artists in Bogside, which is where Bloody Sunday took place in 1972. Before visiting Derry I had no real concept of what actually happened, only a vague idea from U2’s song of the same name. Bloody Sunday refers to an incident which occurred during a civil rights march in which soldiers from the British Army shot and killed thirteen men. Two investigations were held by the British government. The first one (the Widgery Tribunal) was held immediately after the event, and cleared the soldiers and British authorities of all blame. The backslash from the public was enormous, with the result that many started to support and join the IRA. Even now in 2010 Bloody Sunday is still making headlines since the second investigation (the Saville Inquiry) which was established in 1998 to reinvestigate the event was only made public this June(!). This time, the report found that all of those shot were unarmed and that the killings were "unjustified and unjustifiable."
The entrance to the Bogside, a Catholic-controlled area which was also known as “Free Derry”. The graffiti “Set the Truth free” is a movement organized by the friends and families of the victims of Bloody Sunday to force the government to release the results of the Saville Inquiry.
Blood-stained Derry Civil Rights banner used on Bloody Sunday.
Other murals commemorating civil rights marches and spunky young MP Bernadette Devlin (elected to Parliament at the age of 21!). She is also famous for having punched the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he made a statement to Parliament on Bloody Sunday stating that the British Army had fired in self-defence.
During the fighting and skirmishes in the Bogside over the years, many rubber bullets were fired by the British Army to deter rioters. These were mounted and prized by Catholic school children.
On the Protestant side of the city of Derry, there are also controversial murals and signs of conflict, including one mural taken from an Iron Maiden album cover:
Although Derry has had a sad history, at least things seem to be improving (slowly) and hopefully Derry can put its past behind it.
