Weekend trip, part 1

Are you up for a LOT of pictures? Because, I am finally doing s bit of touristy stuff. I booked a 3-day-trip to Northern Ireland including visits to Belfast, the Giant's Causeway, Derry and a lot of things in between.
To give you a heads-up, some pictures are just snapshots taken out of a driving tourbus.
Okay, the trip started at 0800 hrs in Dublin with our driver Seanie radiating a lot of enthusiasm.
Well seasoned traveller me charged all the batteries necessary: cell phone, computer and even my internal battery (halfway, though). What I DID forget to charge were the batteries for my camery. That I found out on my way to the meeting point while I was trying to take  apicture of a nice restaurant/hotel.
Starting the tour, we drove by a few sights of Dublin, but as this is not about the south, we didn't stop. What I picked up, though, is that I should try and go to Pheonix Park during my last weekend in Ireland. Since there are some geocaches hidden in that particular area, I don't think it would be hardship to do so. Who's up for it? Lemme know :)
Leaving Dublin, we first went to a place called Drogheda, pronounced Drh-heeda. This town is supposedly well known for the fact of being actor Pierce Brosnan's hometown (yepp, 007) and its cathedral. In that cathedral is the head of Sir Oliver Plunkett of catholic rebellious fame. He was beheaded for standing to his religion back in 1671 or so.

I'm sure, in his day, he looked a lot better

After Drogheda, we went on to visit the remains of an old meonestary called Monasterboice.

The round tower is really typical for Ireland. The monks used to keep their treasures in the 2 rooms within the structure. When the vikings then came, they just holed themselfes up in there. What the vikings then did, was smoke them out.
Also, the monastery is known to have three high crosses, which were used to teach the farmers the story of Christ:

That, for today, was the pleasant part of the trip. It went on to Belfast. While I was in the Army, I thought I wa around a bunch of weird places. But Belfast, especially the Shankil Road protestant stringhold (trying to avoid the word ghetto) really gave me the creeps.
We took a Black Taxi tour and you couldn't help but feel the narrow-mindedness paired with a feeling of being besieged in your own homes. Funny thing is, the Protestants are the majority in Northern Ireland.
All over the area we were at, they had murals up to celebrate "fallen heroes" or to remember  times of glories past.
Some examples:

Something going for both sides, but found in Shankill:

They seem to be like little kids throwing a fit, if they don't get what they want- absolut restoration of the old days of Protestant supremacy.
Leaving Shankill, you had to pass a so-called Peacewall. They are set up to separate religious strongholds without too much presence of the Security Forces. Having been grown up in Berlin, the Wall there was eerie.
But this thing fits best into Israel:

The set-up is so no idiot could lob any crap over it and possibly fuel a new round of street riots. Weird thing, some of the gates are closed at certain times, emposing a curfew. And they are grown-up people. Believe it or not.
You could tell whether you are in a Loyalist area by the brit colors being displayed. They say, the Northern Irish Protestants are even more british than the mainland Brits...

If you entered a catholic area, you MIGHT see the republican Tricolor. Colors being Green for the catholics, orange for the protestants divided by white for them two living in peace together. It'S all striped like the italian flag.
Being in Falls Road area, which is 100% catholic, the murals were a bit different: they made the effort in putting the IRA in the same league as the PLO or other world-wide known fighting groups (trying to avoid saying terrorists or freedom-fighters). Some of the murals were even funny.
One incident, I heard of (Milltown cemetery massacre after the killing of the Gibraltar 3 by the SAS).

One of the guides telling us about the murals pointed out how smart the catholics were by trying to associate with internationl groups. But that guy himself was a protestant. They also kept pointing out, how it is now possible to enter any of those strongholds without worrying.
Funny thing, before the Troubles started in 1969, Falls Road and Shankill were PREDOMINANTLY catholic, respectivley protestant.
After 1969, they were 100% each, becaus ethe homes of the opposing religion were just destroyed.
Okay. Enough of that.
To put a cherry on the cake, we went to the Titanic Experience, which I had to leave. It was all too depressing learning about so many people drowning while the ship sank.
Some pics of Belfast downtown, neutral ground:

Beldast City Hall with old lady Queen Victoria (the good ol' days)

Self-explaining

Europe Hotel, being blown up 4 times during the troubles with only 7 people injured

And just to show, they haven't quite overcome the troubles, two pics of the police:

That basically concludes my day. I just need to find dinner and then hit the sack. I fell asleep on the bus from Titanic back to Downtown. Maybe, I'm tired :)
Hopefully, tomorrow is a bit more cheerful.