Stretching my legs, sorting out a peace, and finally more geekly stuff.
The Wandering Nerd August 8th, 2007
Hit up the ‘hop on/hop off’ tour here in
Covered a lot of ground on the bus. Saw where the Titanic was built and all of the ‘urban reclamation’ of the industrial areas around it. The shipbuilding industry has long since moved on, only the two giant cranes (which can lift 16 thousand tons) remain. From there the trek out to ‘Stromont’ – the Northern Ireland Parliament building – made me question the weather again. Yeah, sure, it’s sunny here, but it’s still only about 13C, which in an open topped bus doing about 60km makes it a bit nippy.
The tour guide gave warning that there had been an attack on Stromont within the past six months. A guy came in with grenades, live grenades, and then later claimed it was a piece of performance art. He had to spend some time in jail, apparently the judge was a critic. I can only imagine the media furor had that happened in the current
The next part of the tour went through the more contested areas. Just as a brief history, as there’s no way I could or would even begin to try to explain the true situation, historically or currently here, I think I need to cover some things. The ‘sides’ here are the people what want ‘one island, one country’ and those that want ‘one island, two counties.’ The 1:1 are the Irish/Catholics/Nationalists/Republicans/Sinn Fein/IRA, the 1:2 people are the British/Protestants/Unionists/Loyalists/Ulsters/UVA/RUC. It’s much more complicated, but that’s a very convenient lie about how it breaks down. From what I gather, it’s moved from being a religious struggle onto a more political arena so the last 40 odd years have been more regarding the governance of the area. But another convenient lie is to use the labels Protestant and Catholic, so play along for a bit. The Protestant area is based around
In the pics you’ll see I walked back and forth between the communities, to tell the difference, generally of course, if the message is peace or unity, or if there are British flags of course, then it’s Shankill, if the message is freedom or there are cameras it’s more likely Falls Road. There’s a photo right before the kids skateboarding that is
After all of the heavy history, even with the peace as it is now, I needed to get a break from it. I saw a billboard about the W5 center when I got into town. It’s like a big science museum/exposition center for kids…of course I had to go. I’m just saying if you have drunken monkeys, I mean children, and you happen to be in
While I’m showering you with adoration, I may have some bad news. I’m not sure what my connectivity is going to be like for a while, I’m heading to the
But in the meantime, enjoy!
diet coke,
i’m on my knees
-mika