Ireland trip day nine

Sorry we haven't updated, there wasn't any Internet access the last few days. I will try and catch you up now.


Sunday June 7th, 2010 Day nine

We woke up in Galway after a fitful night of sleep. Let's just say that the partying went all night and morning long... But on a positive note, we got breakfast free at the hotel. It was included with the room but we felt extra special.

We went from Galway all the way to Derry/Londonderry. This was the longest drive of the trip. We tried to break it up by stopping in Donegal City. Donegal was a sweet little town that has absolutely nothing open on Sundays except the church. We did find a very old castle right smack dab in the middle of the town. And it was open too! The castle dated back to the early 1600s. It was owned by the clans/families of the O'Donalds and the O'Neills. They hardily fought the take over from the British but eventually fell to Oliver Cromwell. An Englishman named Brooke took over the castle, expanded it, and made it into a veritable fortress. We got to see what it would have looked like in the 1700s. Part of it was redone but most of it was all the original stone work. Quite impressive that it lasted so long!

We made it to Derry by early afternoon. Since we had such a long journey to get to Derry we read about the history of the town. Some of you may be familiar with the town from the popular song "Sunday, Bloody, Sunday" by U2. The song does not tell the story clearly enough. In brief, the Catholics/Republicans/IRA were fighting for equal jobs, pay, and housing as the Protestant/Unionists/UVF/British/UK. The sides of this war are very blurred and you will need to look up the info to fully understand it. The Republicans put up a blockade in part of the town, attempting to establish their own government/area separate from the Unionists. Things got a little heated and bullets were fired from the Unionist side. 12 men were murdered that day and over 50 died in all of the civil infighting. When we first got to Derry we were immediately confronted with the Bloody Sunday conflict as there are murals everywhere depicting the day. The murals have become a symbol of hope and of peace in the town. We walked down the same street that the tanks rolled down. We saw countless memorials to all the people who died in the conflicts they themselves label as the "Troubles". It was so interesting to see the battle that took place for civil rights in Ireland at the same time that the battle for civil rights was happening in America. We took many pictures of this site.

There are two main wars that took place in Derry. The first took place in the 1600s way before all that civil rights stuff, but it was basically the same battle Catholics vs. Protestants. I was going to write about it here but there is really too much information for me to type and potentially get wrong to do it. So google it and get in your history lesson. But regardless, the first conflict, "The Apprentice Boys" took place within the walls of Derry. There is a huge Wall of China barrier that surrounds the city. You can actually walk on the wall and go all the way around the inner city limits. Coolest thing ever! There is a ton of history in this city. Many monuments and churches all dating back to medieval times.

While we were walking the wall we had an interesting incident that happened with some boys. There is still a LOT of political turmoil in Derry and much of the town is segregated. In fact, there is a peace wall that keeps them separate. Well, as we passed the "peace wall" while walking on the city wall there was a group of tween boys having a gang argument. To resolve whatever issue they had (we suspect it was a Catholic/Protestant thing) they were throwing glass bottles and rocks. Michael was taking pictures of buildings and I wanted to run. I was going to saunter over to an area I thought was safer but I was waiting on him. It's a good thing I have Michael because 3 seconds later the area I was going to saunter over to got crashed by a giant green glass bottle and shards went everywhere. The boys were not including us in this battle, they just had very bad aim-baseball is America's past time after all. Totally appalled by their actions we hastily moved on to a different part of the wall. But unfortunately for us, that was where the one gang of boys were stationed. We were still above them on the city wall but they could clearly see us. It is also unfortunate that they happened to be in a beautiful scenic part of the town. We were taking pictures of the skyline and old buildings when I heard "f*** off." I moved away not knowing if they were aiming that at us or not. Michael was unaware of what they said and was still looking in their direction when they got their point across to him by throwing a rock at him. Don't worry, their aim is bad. They weren't even really close but it was definitely aimed at us. We decided it was time to move on and went about our business in a different section of town.

With a history so rich of civil infighting, is it any wonder that we witnessed some of it? It was a scary experience but not any more scary than walking late at night in downtown Atlanta. At least in Ireland we weren't afraid of a drive by shooting.

We ended our day with a lovely dinner in a local restaurant. Michael had chicken wrapped in "bacon"/ham and stuffed with cream cheese. I had a vegetable stir fry wrapped in a pancake and covered with goat cheese. YUM! Our taste buds were very satisfied.

It is getting late so I need to go. Next up is the story on Belfast.

Have a blessed evening and thanks for reading my blog!