First up, Happy 21st Birthday to Niamh...we'll be having a partay once home!!!!

Onto the events of the day. Took on the drive over to Belfast this morning. Some adventures en route with a tyre inflation warning coming on. We looked up a petrol station some 25 minutes ahead and cautiously continued there. On arrival we found it required coins to access the air pump, so Bronnie was able to fulfil the dream of having some CASH...1st time since leaving home such is the convenience (and no doubt money skimming nature) of modern banking. It was down compared to the other tyres, so with about 40 minutes up our sleeve before the black taxi tour timeslot, we drove to a nearby service centre. "Nah, sorry, we don't do tyres, but there's one about 5 minutes away". So off we set for Macky's tyre centre...clock ticking. On arrival we found a most agreeable fellow who removed the tyre, located the offending screw that had punctured it causing the slow leak, and he promptly plugged it for 10 pounds and we were on our way. According to the map, we still had 10 minutes in hand! The added stress with tyre issues here is partly the relatively low population in this area, combined with the reality that this car does not carry a spare tyre, not even a space saver. It carries a puncture repair kit. How is it possible that in 2024 manufactured, $110000 car that you can have a whopper battery that only charges to a range of 50km, fuel economy worse than the much cheaper vehicle the Vauxhal Moka we just had, and no spare. Madness.

Crisis averted, we made it to our meeting spot that we chose, to be greeted by our guide Antony, which was incidentally no more than 2 minutes drive from the location of the tour. How good was our random selection of a carpark? Anyway, what ensued was a really interesting deep dive into the history and ongoing tension between Catholic and Protestant areas within West Belfast. We were shown the "peace wall" on both sides. The Catholic side had lots of images of people who had died in hunger strikes/dirty strikes (poo on walls)/uniform strikes (refusal to wear prison clothes, instead opting for a blanket only), Palestine solidarity images and lots of Gaelic writing and green. We saw a building top that was used by the British military to surveil the streets during the 1960s-1995. We saw the protestant side with its characteristic red, white and blue motifs with nationalistic representations. Surprisingly, there are significant tensions not only between the two groups but within subgroups in each side.

At 7:15pm each night there are a series of gates along roads, including buffer zones in the middle, that are closed to prevent access between nearby housing areas. It is an area that is mostly public housing/working class people. There are issues at the moment that young kids say 9-11 years old, who are coming out to these gates at night and causing trouble throwing rocks and being a pain, so there is talk of closing them earlier. All a bit weird to me, but as Antony (catholic) said, when you live here and have grown up with it, it all makes sense. Family conversations over dinner etc and the pride from fathers to sons about "doing something", combined with the reality that many people have died at the hands of the neighbours effectively, it's just a thing. Ironic that the Christian message that both "sides" lay claim to being central to the identity of the conflict is most certainly not rooted in a vengeful/hateful God, but a merciful, gracious God who is forgiving of even the worst of sins. Oh well, not my war but it does all seem somewhat pointless and unnecessary. Our guide said he thought the solution would be to put all the kids together in schools from very young. Me, I'm not so sure.

Joining us on the tour too was their social media photographer and boss too, who asked if me minded being filmed etc. Slightly stressful but it seems that sensibly, the focus was on our guide and not us. Some fun videos with his accent and explanations are floating around online if any of our regular readers are keen...drop me an email or whattsapp message and I'll hook you up ;)

After that we went to the highly rated fish n chip shop John Long's for some haddock, chips and a burger. Carron's in Scotland still in the lead there, sorry Ireland. It was good though!

Then a choice of either Titanic experience or some retail therapy. Titanic was the winner and it was a great little afternoon outing. A series of exhibits placing the history of Belfast's textile industry (linen), giving the entry to the shipping industry and the massive improvements in fitout that were occurring in the late 1800s-early 1900s. As ever the impressive benefits to a city of this sort of industrialisation were massive and seeing the building process was very cool. The stuff about how the rooms were fitted out, the 1st-3rd class cabins, the logistics of food (eg no washing facilities so all linen had to be carried) and the sequence of mistakes that were made leading up to, both construction and in operation was really very sobering. The stories of people who died and/or survived were excellent. Sobering that the odds of surviving the sinking were vastly different, depending on your sex, class of ticket and whether you were crew or passenger...not very nice to have been a man working on the titanic (nearly all died) compared to a female 1st class passenger (97% survived).

After that, back to the roads and a quick detour to see Carrickfergus castle from the outside. Rain and the time prevented us going in but a nice castle to drive by. With the days lengthening now, we had light at least until about 6:15pm with only the last hour in the dark. Seeing a night time is difficult. Narrow roads and absolutely zero reflectors, either cats eyes or posts at the sides, makes for very tricky driving. When it's wet and with quite a bit of water damage, soft edges and no signs indicating corners/suggested speeds...let's just say it's not for the inexperienced or easily put off. Anyway, home for a nice warm fire and a great day out.