Derry/ Londonderry

Derry/ Londonderry is in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.  This means that the money is in Sterling instead of Euros and distances are measured in miles rather than kilometers.

For many decades, Derry/ Londonderry was one of the most violent cities in the world.  This period of time is known as The Troubles.  We were fortunate enough to get a tour with the famous Martin McCrosson.

He told a passionate and very balanced story of the history of the city from medieval times to the present.  We've been on dozens of these historic walking tours and I've never been so moved. We laughed, we teared up, and we left with a better appreciation of the price of war.

Derry is a very old city.  It is a walled city from the early 1600s.  Originally, there were only four gates to get into the city.

Here's one of them.

You might be wondering why this city as two names.  The original name of the city was Derry until it was taken over by the English who changed the name to Londonderry.  If ou are a Nationalist/Republican/Catholic, you will call the city Derry.  If you are a Unionist/Loyalist/Protestant you will call the city Londonderry.  It was these kinds sectarian/political conflicts that underlie the Troubles; over 30 years of conflict that resulted in massive destruction and lives lost.

The Troubles are commemorated through a series of murals in the Bogside neigborhood.  This was the Catholic section of town whose residents were both instigators and targets of political violence.  Here are just a few of them.  

The Trouble in Derry started with a march to protest the discrimination against Catholics in access housing and jobs.  

The British government thought that they could quash the protests using force.  This led to the Bloody Sunday Massacre.  British soldiers forced unarmed marchers onto a particular street and then opened fire on them.

The people were not so easily suppressed.  The city of Derry was occupied by Britiish forces for about 40 years.

The young girl seen here was the first child victim of the Troubles.  She was shot in the back of the head on the way to school. When this mural was originally painted, the butterfly was in black and white and the gun was a whole. The artists recently came back to repaint the mural at the request of the residents.  They painted the butterfly in color and gun as broken to symbolilze the Peace Process holding. 

Not that there still isn't tension.  

The city is still segregated although the population of Protestants has declined dramatically since the Troubles began.

The ambiguitiy over the name is part of the continuing division, although the Peace Process is actually healing the city.  This is seen in the construction of the Peace Bridge.

Derry/Londonderry was named the City of Culture as part of a year long celebration in the U.K.  This pedestrian bridge was actually closed because of a concert that was taking place on the other side of the river. You had to have a ticket in order to get on the bridge. The police and security were gracious enough to allow Marcos and I on the bridge just to take pictures (see the gallery for that).

We spent the rest of the evening wandering around before heading to our hotel for the night.

A hot toddy, a hike soggy, and a rope bridge

There were three stops on the way to Belfast which made for a very full day.  The first stop was at the Bushmills Whiskey distillery.

"Oh great. Whiskey at 10 am."

Lorna made a friend in the waiting area before the tour.

"Hi. My name is Lorna. Why are you ignoring me?"

Bushmills is one the world's oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the world.  It's been in operation (at least officially) since 1608.  They triple distill their whiskey, which along with the water, the specific grain, and the different barrels they use to age the whiskey make for its distinctive flavor.  It was interesting to learn that they use barrels that have been previously used to make other liquors, including bourbon (from the US), sherry (from Portugal), and Madeira wines (from Spain).  At the end of the tour, we had the option of tasting one of several types.  Lorna and I chose to have a hot toddy.

"Nice and warm."

After boozing it up, we headed out to the Giant's Causeway, which is a UNESCO world heritage site and a natural wonder.  It was created by volcanic eruptions 60 million years ago.  

These cliffs are over 500 feet high. 

We hiked down to the polygnol columns that makes this place famous.  I hiked out onto those columns and just as I got out to the tallest one, it started pouring rain.  Not like the drizzle of Dun Aeghan.  Soak through your clothes wet.  At least it would have been except that we were better prepared.

In about 15 minutes, the weather changed to blue skies again.

We hiked all the way up to the pipe organ looking rock formation and then took the high route back to the visitor center.

Those pretty yellow flowers are actually an invasive species that they've been trying to get rid of for while.

After we left the Causeway, we made one last stop at the top of the causeaway. There's a rope beidge you have to cross to get to an island to see some spectacular views of the coastline. You'll have to go to the gallery to see me face my fear if heights and cross the rope bridge.

Aran Islands

On Saturday, we hopped on a ferry to the Aran Islands.  There are three islands, Inishmore, Inishmar, and Inishmere.  

"I've never been here before."

We went to Inishmore and took a bus tour around the island.  Our tour guide was a character.  The entire time it was raining, although all of the locals called it drizzling and really nice weather.  All I can say is that I am glad that we were properly dressed.

You need a hat, a good rain jacket and waterproof shoes when you go visit Ireland.

The two stops were the Seven Churches, which isn't really seven churches.  It is the ruins of a single that had seven priests.  The most interesting stop was Dun Aeghan, which is a hike up a very slippery hillside to some type of neolithic forification.  No one really knows who built it or why.  It was definitely worth the wet.

We spent our last evening in Galway at Lunares, a Spanish Tapas restaurant with Susan, a Salem State alum who was part of our group.  

"I like tapas!"

Wonderful food and company.  We ended  up back at the hotel much later than intended.  Tomorrow we head to Derry.

Galway

We spent two full days in Galway.  The morning after our first night, we headed to the University of Ireland, Galway for two lectures by two local professors.  The first was on the history of The Troubles.  The second was about community development.

Lorna found the lecture on the history political violence in Ireland fascinating.  

The lectures were over by noon, which was great because it also happened to be our anniversary.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Galway.  We had lunch at McSwiggen's, which is a famous restaurant and pub.  The food was great.  We wandered around trying to decide what to do before heading back to the hotel for a bath and a nap.  We headed back to town for dinner at Martine's, which we highly recommend.

Day One: Flying to Ireland

Our flight to Dublin left at 9 pm.  It was a short flight; only six hours.  Aer Lingus is nice airline. Clean, reasonable prices for wine, and very nice and efficient flight attendants.  The only thing I didn't care for was that they kept the lights on and provided dinner at what, for us was 11 pm.  I don't think they turned off the lights until three hours into the flight.  We only got a couple of hours of sleep.

Our bus driver and tour guide is PJ (it stands for Patrick Joseph).  PJ tells a lot of jokes when he tells us about the history of the places we're driving through.  Historically, Ireland was completely forested. The story goes that if a squirrel rsn up a tree, it could go to the other end of the island without ever coming down from a tree.  But, according to PJ, it would probably be quite lost.

We slept a little on the us before stopping for breakfast.  

The roadside travel plazas have good food and fresh coffee.

We had a full day before checking into our hotel in Galway.  We stopped at the Cliffs of Moher, which were pretty spectacular.

These are about 700 feet.  This was as close to the edge as I was getting.

We also met our Irish guide, Lorna.

"I will take you all around."

Then we passed through the Burren, which are limestone fields which account for a large proportion of the Ireland's flora.

This landscape goes on in all directions for miles and miles and miles.

Over 75% of Ireland's ecological diversity is found in th Burren.

From here we went straight to the Clybaun Hotel for our three night stay in Glaway.