Last Day in Ireland
We started after breakfast with the Black Taxi Tour. Our taxi wasn’t black so I was a little sad about that. The tour takes you throughout the streets of Northern Ireland and details “The Troubles,” the fighting that took place between the Protestants and the Catholics. I have to be honest, I found it quite frightening.
In the Protestant neighborhoods they fly the British flag. They identify more with the British than they do with the Irish. Starting on 12 July they march for 6 months to celebrate the Battle of the Boyne won by King James. There was a parade going on while we were touring and you could see a helicopter flying above to make sure people were aware of their presence and to try to dissuade people from rioting or fighting.
The neighborhoods seemed abandoned but I’m sure the people were out marching or at the parade. All you can see are British flags flying and murals on every apartment building. The murals are in both neighborhoods and are painted by ex-prisoners. There are about 4000 murals throughout the area and if you don’t like what they painted or where it is, you move. At one place ere is a memorial for a gunman who shot several Catholics and there is a gunman painted into the mural and I don’t know how but if you walk past the buildings you will see his gun muzzle will follow you the whole way. It’s so creepy.
The Protestant neighborhood also has all of the curbs painted red, white, and blue to symbolize their patriotism. The Catholics don’t do this because they say they love their flag (the Irish flag) too much to put it on the ground. It costs 10 million pounds to pay all of the police and security while the Protestants are marching, mainly their marching causes problems because they want to march their traditional route which is now through a catholic neighborhood.
The Protestant side is made up of the UDA, the Ulster Defense Administration and the illegal organization the UFF, the Ulster Freedom Fighters. The Catholic side has the IRA, the Irish Republican Army. There are gates separating the communities. Some in more troublesome areas close every night and all weekend from Friday to Monday and others just close every night from 7pm to 7am.
At the end we got to sign the peace wall, which is a 55’ high wall that has concrete at the bottom because of the bombs that were set off and fires lit near the bottom. The houses on the opposite sides of the walls have their backyards enclosed in steel gates to prevent bricks and rocks that are thrown from breaking their windows. In addition, because of this wall and the gates it can take an ambulance around 45 minutes longer to get to you in an emergency. Our cabbie had blue and red markers to sign the wall with, I think he was on the Protestant side! He also gave us a lot more information about the Protestants than the Catholics and his taxi was blue. I really wanted to flee after I smashed his thumb completely by shutting my door while his thumb was leaning in the crease. He did a lot of swearing.
All in all it was very interesting and I’m sorry but I just find it so ignorant and also opposite of the point of both sides’ beliefs to do all this killing and fighting over religion. I know it still happens on a daily basis in several countries but it just seems such a waste.
After the tour the man dropped us off at the train station and we had our luggage stored so we could check out St. George’s market, an inside market with several booths selling so many different things from knitwear to desserts, meat, fish, crepes, jewelry, etc. On the way back we saw our B&B host with our son, they had come for the market but also I FORGOT TO GIVE HER THE KEY. I’m so smart sometimes. So thank goodness she caught us!
The train was nice, someone was in our seats again.. defeats the purpose of reserving them if people don’t pay attention!!! The ride was smooth and on time, I will miss the train!
We got to Dublin band took a taxi to the hilton airport hotel. I was initially annoyed because no one came to the handicapped entrance to let us in so I had to go through the revolving door with all of our luggage and then open the fire door for gram. The front desk staff was nice but I had to pay 5 euro for wifi and then 2 euro each for the shuttle to the airport, 15 minutes away… I thought the point of the hilton Dublin airport hotel was that it was close to the airport and provided a free shuttle? Guess not. It was extra to print our boarding passes so I did not. It was extra to do anything. We got to our room and there was one queen bed, I complained as I had booked for 2 twins. The receptionist said I had booked for a queen in their system and then I showed him my booking email which confirmed two twin beds. Then he started to sing about how in the hotel business they always overbook. I said I don’t care about any of that I reserved the room three months ago, what was the point of that if I don’t get what I RESERVED?? So he said he’d get a pull away bed but the housekeeper had mentioned she just cleaned a twin bed room so they readied it for us and gave us a voucher for 2 complimentary drinks at the hotel bar. He also left me a handwritten apology card. I felt bad for being so agitated because everyone is so nice here but I just wanted to get into the city and have fun on our last night!!!
We went shopping on Grafton street at a bunch of different places and got all the souvenirs for everyone. There were some street musicians, photo one. We went to 56 different places looking for dinner and followed a few recommendations but everything was packed or too hard to access with the wheelchair. I saw a sign for the Molly Malone statue so we went to see her, had to get a picture next to her! Then we finally ate at GBK, a burger place that also had veggie burgers.
Next we went back to the cobblestone pub and it was just as great as before except that the musicians were not as young and available ;) but they were GREAT!!! So were my last few Guinness (Guinness & musicians pictured).
We went back to the hotel to have our complementary drinks while listening to two gentleman play their guitars to American music.
Then we went to bed! Wonderful last night.