Northern Ireland
On Monday, I started off the grind by reading the majority of my book for my essay. The essay will be worth 100% of my grade for the class, so I took my time reading the book, checking its references, and comparing it to other sources. Over the next two days, I gathered all of the material that I will need to write my essay. However, after spending so much time on it in a row, I haven't been able to look at it since. I will start an outline tomorrow before I have my final exam for my Irish class tomorrow.
On Tuesday, besides working on my essay, I also went to the ResLife Winter Carnival with one of my friends! It was a free event with dinner, desserts, games, and even Christmas carols provided! It was fun to get out of the house and to get a free meal out of it as well :) On Wednesday, I woke up early to go to the National Library of Ireland in the city centre, where they hold a large amount of genealogical data. I spent the majority of the morning and afternoon sifting through online archives, census data, and other information to find some of my ancestors. Lucky enough, I was able to pinpoint some locations in Ireland where my family has been tied to- County Monaghan and County Cork in the Republic, and County Antrim in the North! It was a really fun day to get to feel like I was connecting with people from the past.
After that, I met a friend downtown and we did a little bit of shopping. As you've seen, the Christmas lights are all set up in Dublin and it's super cute! We then wandered our way to a falafel restaurant that was absolutely to die for! It was filled with the most delicious ingredients, none of which I can remember, besides falafel. Here's a picture of it...
On Thursday, I started studying a little bit for my Irish exam, as well as completing a few other tasks that weren't homework related but were still necessary. I also went over to my friend's house for a girl's night complete with food, painting nails, and Love Actually. It was really fun!
The next morning, me and my friend Makenna woke up pretty early and headed out to catch a tour bus to Northern Ireland for the day! When we crossed the border into Northern Ireland, which is technically part of the UK, our tour guide told us some interesting info. First of all, there isn't a hard border between the two, meaning that there is no border or passport control. We only knew we were in the North when we saw a sign saying "Welcome to Northern Ireland." Also, they don't use the Irish language on their street signs, and they use the Sterling Pound instead of the Euro. Our tour guide mentioned that there's a sign marking the border when you cross into the North, but there's none marking your way back into the Republic because "we don't need a sign." I think this starts to show you the very distinct attitudes and opinions that people have (even today) about the North and the Republic. We got to see many things (and have many unexpected adventures) during this trip as well, so I'll narrate the day below with pictures.
Above you can see the legendary Dark Hedges, located in County Antrim. This was our first stop for the day and it was really amazing! The trees all grew naturally like this and make for some really amazing pictures. They also feature in the series Game of Thrones. According to our tour guide, Game of Thrones employs more people in Northern Ireland than the government does, as a majority of the family takes place in the North. Below you can see an open field very characteristic of the North, with a beautiful snow-topped mountain in the background. I just thought it was pretty.
Here is Dunluce Castle (well, the remnants of it, anyway). Built in the 1600s, this castle is now inaccessible to the public because it has fallen into such disrepair. But if you look closely enough beyond it, you can see the town of Derry/Londonderry. Beyond you can see mountains from the Republic's County Donegal, where our tour guide was from. The Derry/Londonderry debate is another one that shows the tense history between the North and the Republic. Before the partition of Ireland, the town was called Derry. Once it was chartered into the United Kingdom, it was renamed Londonderry. However, republican/nationalists still use the name Derry, and I read that the city council calls it Derry while it is technically named Londonderry. Interestingly enough, the rival high school of my home town, Derry, was Londonderry. I wonder if that had any roots in the Irish debate.
Once we left, we headed to Giant's Causeway. Legend has it that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (better known as Finn McCool) built a bridge from Ireland to Scotland, creating Giant's Causeway. When his rival giant, Benadonner, from Scotland was scared away by him, Benadonner destroyed the bridge from Ireland to Scotland and left behind just what you can see. What remains are 40,000 interlocking basalt columns that don't look natural! It's easy to believe in myths and fairytales when you see the beauty of this country. The next few sets of pictures are all from Giant's Causeway. It was aboslutely beautiful, with the sea right there, the beautiful rocks, and the cliffs/mountains behind us. I loved every second of our time there!
After we visited Giant's Causeway, our bus broke down. We ended up having to wait outside for another bus to pick us up for an hour, which delayed us and threw us off schedule. Thankfully, a local pub let us all in so we weren't standing in the cold the entire time. However, it definitely put us in a funky mood for the rest of the trip.
We stopped by the Caves of Cushendun briefly! They were really cool, but with the fading light, a little creepy. They were another filming location of the Game of Thrones series, which was pretty cool. Because of our earlier delay, we also didn't get too much time to explore Belfast city once we got there. I had heard from other friends that Belfast wasn't their favorite city, so I originally wasn't too upset. However, by the time we used the bathroom and got off the bus, we only had about 15 minutes to "explore" the city, which meant we didn't even get to see the Christmas markets :( However, we did get to hear a lot about Belfast's history, because it was such an important place during the Troubles. That almost made up for it!
More on the history of Northern Ireland, from both my own knowledge and from our tour guide's stories... The Troubles took place from the 1968-1998, and they were a period of violence, terrorism, and fear in Northern Ireland. What initially started as a civil rights campaign for the Catholic minority ended with over 3,500 deaths and an additional 45,000 injuries, mainly civilan. In Belfast alone, the Europa Hotel holds the record for being the most bombed hotel- it was bombed 43 times in the Troubles. A common punishment during this time was to shoot a traitor in the knee, so the doctors at the hospital became world-renowned for their abilities in knee surgery. Even to this day, Belfast doctors are sought out by many people with knee problems.
This conflict time pitted neighbor against neighbor in what became a clash of religion and allegiance. The unionist, mainly Protestant majority felt a stronger allegiance to the British crown, while the republican/nationalist, mainly Catholic minority, felt a stronger allegiance to a United Ireland. Even today, with the Good Friday Agreement and the worst of the Troubles behind us in the past, clear distinctions of loyalty are present in Belfast.
One side of the city is largely Catholic. They fly the tricolor flag of the Republic of Ireland as a show of their allegiance. The other side of the town is traditionally Protestant, and they fly the Union Jack to proclaim their allegiance to the Crown. Many conflicts have happened in Belfast and across Northern Ireland as conflicting opinions on religion and nationality have come up over the years. Even now, things are tense and very clearly divided. All in all, I expected the North to feel more like Ireland than the UK. The countryside was distinctly Irish, but Belfast as a city felt more like the UK to me.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the North with Brexit fast approaching. As you may or may not know, with the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, it is still up for debate whether a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland will be reintroduced. This is because the Republic will remain a part of the EU, while the North will technically not be. The terms of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 that ended the Troubles specifically stated that if a hard border between the North and the Republic is ever reconstructed, a referendum must be held. This referendum will ask the citizens of the North whether they wish to remain in the UK or to become part of a united Ireland. Of course, this might mean a re-escalation of past tensions. The Troubles only ended 19 years ago, and for many people, this would bring back up some sore subjects. I look forward to hearing about what will happen with the border and I hope that the response is peaceful.
Yesterday, I did a lot of studying for my Irish exam, and today, I am doing mostly the same. I also had a quesadilla dinner night with my friend Abbey earlier, and that was wonderful!
For the rest of the week, besides taking finals, studying for finals, and writing my essay, I'm also planning on taking a day trip to Cork! I've wanted to visit Cork since coming to Ireland and now that I know that I have a familial connection to the county, I want to go even more!! Other than that, I have to start thinking about packing up for the flight home, which will be on Monday midday. I plan on writing one blog post on Sunday, and perhaps another one to wrap things up within the next week after that. I don't know where the time has gone, but suddenly, it's almost time to go home! Here's hoping the remainder of my time here goes smoothly :) Slán go fóill (bye for now)!
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