Hop on hop off

Today mom & I took the hop on hop off bus around Belfast. We toured the political murals, St. Anne's Cathedral, the dockyards, Customs House, the High Court--with its 10-foot reinforced concrete wall to protect it during the car bomb era--the "peace wall" on the "interface" boundary between Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods, the memorial gardens, where Catholic and Protestant victims of The Troubles are buried.
These photos are taken from the bus, not ideal.


St. Anne's.

Here is what I wanted mom to see at St. Anne's: the Titanic Pall. Each cross floating out into the Moroccan felt represents one of the victims of the sinking, with the cross representing the ship.

Unfortunately, you had to take a tour to go right round the cathedral. It used to be you could walk right up to the pall, but that has changed, so mom saw it from a distance.
In the dockyards, we learned that the sign in front of the museum is the same width as the anchor.

We also learned that the shape of the museum from above is a white star, just like the White Star Line that owned Titanic. We also learned that the Giants ice hockey team was brought to Belfast as a means of bringing Catholics and Protestants together. No legacy teams, as with soccer.
We learned lots of other things. Like when Samuel Beckett left the elite Campbell College, he was told he was losing the opportunity to teach the cream of society. Yes, they are just like cream, he answered, rich and thick. C.S. Lewis went to Campbell and the gas lights there figured in his Narnia tales.
We learned lots of minutiae but you will have to take the tour to learn more.
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