My 2018 Belfast Trip and My Love of Day Trips

Goodbye 2010s | My 2018 Belfast Trip and My Love of Day Trips

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This post is part of my 10-week retrospective looking back at a specific trip from each year of the 2010s. Read more about the series here. Below are links to every post in this series.
My 2010 Toronto Trip and Why I Love a Quest
My 2011 Vancouver Trip and Why Repeat Visits Are Nice
My 2012 Denver Trip Was Weird And I’m Gonna Try To Explain It But Fail
My 2013 Thunder Bay Trip and How a Statue Made Me Cry
My 2014 NYC Birthday Trip and Why I Like Traveling with Friends
My 2015 Madrid Trip and Going Somewhere You Never Expected
My 2016 Tokyo Trip and Why Challenging Travel is Worth It
My 2017 Connemara Trip and Why A Quick Break Is Good
My 2018 Belfast Trip and My Love of Day Trips
My 2019 San Francisco Trip, and Why It’s Okay to be a Tourist

In May of 2018, I’d been working as a temp at an office job in Dublin when I found out my contract was ending. I liked the job, but I knew it was temporary. When I learned my job was ending sooner than I’d hoped I decided to come home to Canada in early June instead of in August. I spent the next few weeks travelling to places around Dublin, but I also went back to Belfast, Northern Ireland. I’d been to Belfast the year before and spent a couple of nights in the city. I wanted to go back to Belfast for a day trip to see some of the political murals in the city.

I’m going to attempt to give a little background on Irish and Northern Irish history, but I won’t be able to cover this topic the way it deserves. Here’s a brief, but also not so brief summary. Ireland (referring to the whole geographical island here) was once under British rule. During this time some people wanted to break away from British control (known as Nationalists or Republicans). Other people wanted to remain under British rule (known as Unionists or Royalists). There were more nuances to it than that, but I don’t want to write a thesis paper on this complicated topic. Several independence movements started, which resulted in a civil war (the Irish War of Independence) from 1919 to 1921. In 1949 all the counties on the island of Ireland voted on whether to become an independent republic or to remain under British rule. Six counties in the north Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, and Tyrone voted to remain under British rule. They formed the country of Northern Ireland and joined the United Kingdom (along with England, Scotland, and Wales). The other 32 counties became the Republic of Ireland, which we refer to as Ireland today. Belfast became the capital of Northern Ireland, and Dublin the capital of Ireland.

The story isn’t over and this is where The Troubles come in. This was a period from 1968 to 1998 when violent conflicts and bombings took place in Ireland and Northern Ireland (and some in England as well). These acts were done by both paramilitary groups and the British army and mostly stemmed from political ideologies. The main two being about how Northern Ireland should be governed, and whether or not it should join the Republic of Ireland. During this period communities, neighbourhoods, and even families were divided into Republican/Nationalists versus Unionist/Loyalists. 3,500 people died (52% being civilians) from violent conflicts and bombings. On Good Friday in 1998 the Belfast Agreement (also known as the Good Friday Agreement) was put forth. Both sides surrendered and a ceasefire was declared. In The Northern Ireland Assembly, both Republican and Unionist parties would have equal power. As well at any time, a referendum could be held for Northern Ireland to vote on whether to stay in the United Kingdom or join the Republic of Ireland.

That brief overview was quite long, but I know missed a ton of stuff. I apologize for that, but there’s no way I can cover this topic in depth. The too long didn’t read the summary (tl;dr) is basically, the history of Ireland and Northern Ireland is very complicated. In 2018 when I was there I could travel freely from Northern Ireland to Ireland and vice versa without any issues. I’m not sure if that will change with Brexit. I hope not because from my understanding that would create a hard border (one with border patrol) between the two countries, which could cause problems.

Belfast still has some scars from its time in The Troubles. There are “peace walls” in certain parts of the city separating Unionist/Loyalist neighbourhoods and Nationalist/Republican ones. In these divided neighbourhoods are murals to pro-Unionist/Loyalist or pro-Nationalist/Republican community members. Depending on who you ask the people on the murals might be seen as heroes or they might be seen as villains. History and people are complicated, and there’s no singular truth or easy answer.

There are companies that will offer tours of these murals in Belfast, and that’s why I went back for a day trip. The tour I took was about 90 minutes and we went through several neighbourhoods. While you could do a walking tour on your own, I recommend finding one of the cab/car companies that do this tour. You’ll get a perspective on the murals from someone who lives in Belfast, and knows the history of the city and Northern Ireland. If I’d walked around on my own I wouldn’t have any context for what I was seeing (plus I’d likely get lost, because that’s how I roll).

One of the peace walls in Belfast.
Mural of Republican activist Bobby Sands, who died from a hunger strike. There’s actually a really interesting documentary about Sands called 66 Days that’s worth checking out if you’re interested in learning more about Northern Ireland and The Troubles.
There are also murals done by community members calling for peace.

The legacy of The Troubles is a complicated one. While a peace wall doesn’t make sense to me I also understand that living through something is different than just hearing about it. One thing I came to appreciate about my time in Ireland and Northern Ireland was learning more about the history of these two countries. Belfast is an interesting city, and the energy there is very different from Dublin. It’s only about 2 hours from Dublin to Belfast by train and is a great place to go for a day trip (or even better for a few days). Aside from seeing the murals I also spent some time checking out the market at Belfast City Hall and wandering around The Cathedral Quarter.

I would like to go back to Belfast and spend some more time there, and see more places in Northern Ireland at some point. However, I am happy I got to go back to Belfast for a day trip and learn more about the political murals there.


Things To Know
While my 2018 trip to Belfast was just a day trip I did spend a night in the city the year before where I stayed at the Belfast International Youth Hostel. The hostel has a fun vibe and is a short walk to the centre of Belfast. I stayed in a dorm room for one night, which cost me about €30. If you’re planning to visit Belfast for more than one day you can book your hotel here.


Would you take a mural tour in Belfast?

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