The Troubles in Belfast

To make a very long story short "The Troubles" refers to the conflicts between the Catholic Nationalists (republicans) and the Protestant Unionists (loyalists). You also have to remember the English came over and established themselves in Northern Ireland first, while the original Irish inhabitants were Catholic. When Belfast became prosperous the Catholics got poorer and poorer, under the English land owners. The Irish Catholics wanted independence from England. In 1921 Northern Ireland was made part of Britain, and the rest of Ireland was declared free state.  In the 1960's the Catholics began to campaign for civil rights, end to religious discrimination in housing and jobs. Belfast suffered in the late 20th century from a decline in its industries.  This led to many of the troubles as Northern Ireland's Catholic population grew in Belfast.  Since the 1990's Belfast has become a tourist destination since the violence has slowed down, with people wanting to see the sites of some of the incidents that occurred in the segregated neighborhoods.   

After we left the Titanic Museum we drove over to the Catholic Falls Road area. This is the only area in Belfast where you will see signs in Gaelic. The Protestant area is on the Shankill Road and they are divided by a huge Peace Wall. The road that runs between the two areas is still closed at night and the gates are closed to avoid troubles. The murals in Northern Ireland have become a symbol showing the region's past and present political and religious divisions. 

The Sinn Féin headquarters office is located on Falls Road. The Sinn Féin is an Irish republican political party in the Repubic and Northern Ireland. The name is Gaelic for "ourselves." This party is currently the second largest party in the North and the 4th largest in the Republic. Outside the headquarters there is the famous mural of Bobby Sands, who went on a hunger strike for prison rights. After his death there were widespread riots in Europe burning the Union Jack flag. I am sure there is much more to this story but I don't understand it all. 

Literally two minutes down the road is the Peace Wall. This is a huge 45 foot wall to divide the Catholics and Protestant neighborhoods. We drove through the gates and we were now in the Protestant neighborhood. What was a little disturbing were the houses that literally were on each side of this wall. They look out their front door or back yard everyday and see this huge wall. 

Here is a picture I found on the internet that has an ariel view of the wall. This is just one of the 17 walls in Belfast. 

Black cabs waiting to take people on tours of the neighborhoods. If you want a Catholic tour you hop in a cab on Falls Road, or get in a cab on Shankill for the Protestant tour. 

The Shankill Road is the Protestant area and they have their own set of murals. This area are the loyalists that side with England. This area also took on lots of violence especially by the IRA (Irish Republican Army). 

We also saw one of these riot police trucks..very creepy!!