Shankhill & Falls

Belfast has been created in my mind by stories of the SAS and films like "Mona Lisa" & "In the name of the Father" and from news footage throughout the 70's and 80's.  I was scared to death at the thought of being posted there in the Army.

I had told a couple of locals that I was interested in visiting Shankhill and they didn't share the same enthusiasm as me.  Surely things couldn't be that bad now could they?  In fact Shankhill Road ranks as No. 18 on Trip Advisor's "Things to see in Belfast" (I didn't check how many things there were to see in Belfast!) and tours take place viewing the murals.

Firstly we visited Shankhill Road, stronghold of the loyalist working class.  The area is adorned with union jacks and portraits of the queen and many murals with a Pro-English message.  As a youngster I attended a catholic school and I had friends who had Irish parents and grand-parents, these too were catholic.  I had been told stories about how the English took over Ireland and became the oppressor and as a result of this I always thought in my naive way that the Protestants were the baddies.  Yet as a Englishman now I felt quite safe in the Protestant areas.

Then we went through the peace lines on Northumberland Road over to the catholic side of the fence.  Road signs are written in both Gaelic and English and there isn't a union jack in sight, plenty of Irish flags though.  And the murals and graffiti tend to be a little more "to the point" on Falls Road.  I wasn't going to be trying my twattish Irish accent around these parts, memories of the Corporals killings were still quite vivid.

And what's all this with the "Dirty Protest"?  I'm not too sure I get it.  OK, if Bobby Sands (the king of the dirty protest) was using all he had to be remembered for a very long time by rubbing his shit all over his cell walls, then maybe I should be quite impressed.  But there are still signs asking people to support the Maghaberry Dirty Protest?  How?  I guess sectarian politics might be beyond me.

Any road, I enjoyed Belfast and was amused to see a WiFi company named "Boutye.com" and a crisp vendor named "Tayto".

"William of Orange"

"Scary Man of Ulster"

"Eiri Amach Na Casa"

"Graffiti off the Falls Road"