Nendrum and Belfast 3/14

I got up early and had breakfast in the pub while chatting with the owners (I stayed above the pub the night before). They are Irish living in Northern Ireland and clearly not in love with the British but also against any return to the strife of the troubles. 

Nendrum is a very early monastic site, circa 500. Pre-Norman. The site is beautiful, an island in the Lough reached by causeway via two other islands. It must've been amazing back then--it would have been completely isolated. The site was rediscovered because of the round tower. Many of the monastic sites had the round towers but it isn't clear what the purpose was always, and as the information points out, there must've been an important religious or defensive reason to spend the resources to build such an edifice. In this case they don't think it was defensive as the tower would've given them away to the Vikings and anyone else. There's also the remains of the church and several other buildings, one which may have been a space for reading and writing, and small round spaces which were probably living spaces. Those rooms were small but nice sized. I think I might have liked a space that size for just me. 

You can see the outline of one of the round spaces. 

Sundial reconstruction

Notice the thorns on that ivy!

From there I went to Belfast. That was a trip because I must've missed a sign or two and ended up east and had to find my way back...and nearly died because I turned into oncoming traffic. Thank heavens for the small turnout in just the right spot!

I am not sure how but my google map worked even without cellular data and that made it possible for me to find the place I was staying in Belfast. They were very nice and arranged for me to take a tour of the political murals in Belfast, which is one of the things to do. I didn't do the other thing which is visit the Titanic shipyards and visitors center. Anyway the murals. My guide's name was Jimmy and he was an Irish Catholic man who grew up right in the area where some of the worst of the troubles took place--he knew many of the people who died as well. I learned so much about the historical basis of the troubles--all the way back to the 1600s but also the more recent causes such as discrimination based on religion for housing, jobs and police brutality. He explained how the provisional IRA came into being. Things are much better now but the sad thing is that I am not sure what kind of "peace" requires a wall with locking gates, or includes provocative efforts in the part of both sides but especially the loyalist side (British supporters). It's still a mess really just not such a violent one. Jimmy was very clear that he felt everyone behaved badly--all the factions and communities, IRA included--during the troubles even as he was very clear about how the Catholic side took the brunt of the burning and police neglect. 

I didn't take pictures because a) it felt disrespectful and b) frankly the murals themselves are not so impressive especially from an artistic standpoint. They are moreimportant  from a political one. Another thing that occurred to me as we looked at the ones in the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods was how different they were. The Catholic ones were commemorative and non-aggressive. They recalled people who had died, usually unarmed. They also had quite a few which expressed sympathy for causes other than their own--Palestinian, Leonard Peltier, etc. The Protestant side ones were far more aggressive--they had guns (one pointed a gun right at the Catholic quarter and was clearly visible from it) and celebrated people who openly boasted of killing as many Catholics as possible, in cold blood. Another interesting anecdote is that the Protestant groups arose out of the type of group in the states which we call skinheads--groups that hate anything unlike themselves. Oh and the loyalist paramilitary groups have never been asked to disarm and disband, but the IRA has supposedly decommissioned all its weapons. Definitely a set of problems which will take some time to resolve. Jimmy, the guide, told me he thought that until there was integrated education it would not happen--but the Catholics nearly all send their kids to Catholic school, often Gaelic speaking, while the Protestants send to the public schools which are English speaking. So there's some way to go. 

I think if I were Irish I would definitely be a republican (one who wants a whole Ireland). Apparently republicans say that they live in the north of Ireland instead of Northern Ireland because they don't want to be separate from the rest of Ireland. 

Driving notes. So the roads are very narrow here. Shoulders are nearly unknown.