Lynn and I have spent more than a month in this beautiful part of the world and I have to say I have been very pleasantly surprised at the marvellous progress that seems to have been made.
When we were still on the north coast , possibly Rathlin, we heard the news that Ian Paisley had died.
Like him or loath him he got me thinking about the process that had enabled me to sail around this coastline and eventually right into the centre of Belfast without fear or threat. Everywhere we have been in Northern Ireland Lynne and I have never had anything less than a warm welcome, in fact in most cases people have fallen over themselves to be helpful and kind.
I normally am fairly cynical about politics but in this instance it would appear to have performed a minor miracle.
Today Lynne and I visited the Botanical gardens in Belfast, we walked across town, possibly a couple of miles. We took a small diversion to visit the Victoria Square Dome. This is a remarkable thing, a glass dome in the sky with astonishing views over the city.
It's a fair walk up the steps if you choose to avoid the escalators!
We looked back towards where Dark Tarn was moored, close by the two great cranes at the Harland and Woolf yards, it was a fabulous view.
As we left the city centre and ventured further south moving towards the university and residential quarters,on one of the roads we passed a memorial to five people murdered by the UFF, a loyalist terrorist group. It was another reminder that the troubles had only ended very recently.
The botanical gardens were the venue for a horticultural show, Lynne and I walked around dodging the face painted children happily struggling through the obstacle course, families were out in the sun enjoying the displays and wandering through the hot house palms. As we were starving we bought a bag of fresh doughnuts, they were delicious, the bag at the end had enough sugar left to take home!
The sun was shining and everyone was happy and simply enjoying the day. I weakened and bought some fresh honey from a stall manned by the Ulster beekeepers Group, luckily Lynne is not a fan of honey, this stuff however was serious honey ,like fairys dancing on your tounge and leaving surgery sweet footprints.
We wandered through the gardens and eventually found ourselves outside the Ulster Museum.
This is a wonderful experience, the building itself is worthy of note, the old and the new blend (at least to my eye) seamlessly to form an harmonious whole.
Inside are an quite astonishing variety of exhibits. Off to one side was an exibition simply titled the troubles. They never seem to be too far away, seemingly just bubbling away under the surface, they are there to be sure but they are also becoming history. As we studied the collection of photos on several interactive screens there was Ian Paisley again but in one photo he was seen laughing with Martin McGuiness in the Northern Ireland assembly at Stormont, laughing with the IRA! The politics of religios intolerance would see this image as one of a traitor to the cause of nationalism, I however chose to see what was there, two men sharing an amusement together, a human interaction, for the moment politics forgotten. In that image you could see the beginning of the end.
Another image was of a mound of floral tributes on a street, it took a minute to sink in but that was the road Lynne and I had walked up, twenty years ago it had seen an act of violence that resulted in five murders, our journey at that time wouldn't have been possible due to no-go areas and army road blocks. Outside it was still a beautiful day, as we walked towards the bustop I couldn't help thinking and hoping that the peace process would continue and the images and memory's of the troubles would fade. I think that this troubled land has made a fantastic amount of progress and I wish it well for the future, I know that this won't be the last time we visit.
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