Friday 19th July Belfast

 So today we got to Belfast never been before and we were told what to do by the Shamrock Tenors last time we saw them.

Paddy’s taxis picked us up from the ship at 930 and took us on a tour round the murals and the part of Belfast where all the troubles were. It was distressing to see that there is a 10 mile wall still seperating the two area and the gates are shut every night by 9pm and reopened every morning. The loyalists have union jacks everywhere truly unbelievable and not captured well in the photos. Both sides have areas where they honour those that were killed during the atrocities but apart from religion most are random killings. We were told one guy blew peoples heads off because they would be out in an open coffin and this meant they couldn’t be, he was nicknamed the butcher.

A very educational morning the postmen still have to be from the right religion to deliver the Mail on their side of the fence.

After this we went to the Titanic Museum which is excellent, very educational and really it happened because the Captain was going too fast and ignored the warnings of icebergs in the area!, more people would also have survived if the ship nearest had gone to help instead of ignoring the distress signals. We then walked into the town centre to get the shuttle back to the ship and whilst waiting saw Danial and Tiffany  sat memebers from the Sojourn who we have known over the last few years and kept in touch with.

A disturbing but nice day.

We sailed out of the harbour passing the Sojourn which is a sister ship of the one we are on. 

In the evening had a lovely dinner and then went to see the Shamrock Tenors in their show, they were great again.