European Odyssey 2015/16 Part 1 Belfast
By Darraghgirl
July 16 2015
The first in a short series of articles on the places we will be visiting next season on our journey to qualify for the knock-out stages of the European Champions Cup. Well we have to keep the site alive some how! The first "odyssey" visits Belfast, just across the Irish Sea.
The City of Belfast, capital of Northern Ireland, will be well-known to many Saracens supporters who travelled to the Province in 2013. Saracens dramatic and historic victory at Ravenhill remains one of the Club’s best performances. So what will be in store for those who once again cross the Irish Sea to follow the Men in Black.
Belfast is a port city and birthplace of RMS Titanic, the passenger liner which sunk when she hit an iceberg on 15th April 1915. Titanic Belfast, situated in the eponymus Titanic district of the city, is well worth a visit. This modern museum takes visitors on a choreographic journey from the earliest days of the ship’s conception at the White Star Line through the building of the ship at Harland and Wolff, her launch into the Lagan River and her doomed maiden voyage across the Atlantic. I hadn’t realized that prior to Titanic, each shipping company had its own distress signal and SOS only became the international distress signal after the disaster. The Belfast experience also includes a visit to the SS Nomadic, the last of the White Star Line vessels, which carried the likes of Charlie Chaplin & Richard and Elizabeth Burton, Afternoon Tea in the Titanic Suite, and the Titanic Discovery Tour. Ships may no longer be launched in Belfast’s seaways but the huge yellow H & W cranes Samson and Goliath were preserved in 2003 and they have become Belfast’s most famous landmarks.
For many, the street names of Belfast are synonymous with the “Troubles”. Falls Road, Shankhill Road, Crumlin Road – they all bring back memories. You can visit Crumlin Road Gaol and relive the experience of 25,000 prisoners over 150 years who were incarcerated there. But just walking around the city, you pass numerous notorious sites. Along the Ormeau Road, for instance, which leads from central Belfast to Ravenhill, you pass Sean Graham’s Bookmakers where the UDA murdered 5 and The Rose and Crown Pub, site of a UVF bomb in 1974.
Belfast City Hall stands in Donegall Square. Built from Portland Stone, it is a stern Victorian building. Most days, loyalist protestors sit outside the hall objecting to the reduction in the number days the Union flag can fly (18). Beside the Hall is the Titanic memorial garden where plaques list the names on all 1,512 people who died on the ship. There is another more moving memorial in St Anne’s Cathedral – a beautiful blue embroidered tapestry, Titanic Pall, which features a large central silver cross and 1,511 smaller crosses, one for everyone who died. The Cathedral also has the Spire of Hope, a controversial lightweight spire over the church (the cathedral is slowly sinking into the mud or “sleech” of Belfast and couldn’t support the weight of a more conventional tower). If you are lucky, the Dean will be lurking in his cathedral – a lovely man full of interesting and funny anecdotes to share with all and sundry (we got the impression the English were very much “sundry”)
There is no shortage of Irish bars in Belfast. One of the most famous is the Duke of York. Set in a narrow cobbled street in Belfast’s “Fleet street” it was where the young Gerry Adams poured pints in the early 60’s and where Snow Patrol played their first ever gig in the 1990’s. Or there is the Crown, a former coaching Inn and the only working bar owned by the National Trust. Dating from 1720, Kelly’s Cellars is the place to be for traditional Irish Music as is nearby Madden’s Bar.
When it comes to eating, it would be hard to beat Mourne’s Seafood Bar. Sunday lunch is first come, first served and a long queue develops before the doors open at 12.00 but it is definitely worth the effort! For a bit of free food, visit St George’s market where there are so many “tastings” on offer that it is possible to enjoy a very passable lunch for nothing!
There are many other attractions – something for everyone really – from Belfast Zoo, home to Tree Kangaroos and Visayan Warty Pigs, to Titanic Studios, where Game of Thrones was filmed, and further afield the UNESCO World Heritage Site that is Giants Causeway (legend has it that it was created by the Giant Finn McCool) and the beautiful Mountains of Mourne topped by Slieve Donard at 2,790 feet.
And of course there is Ravenhill – now the Kingspan Stadium. It may look a bit different to 2013 complete with new stands and the Nevin Spence Centre, but somehow I think the result will be just the same!
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2015:08:15:11:07:59 by Darraghgirl.
though if the Titanic exhibition claims that the Titanic sank in 1915 I couldn't see myself going :-)
It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!
Quote:TonyTaff
Aye, when I saw the 1915 inaccuracy, I thought Graham Hughes had hacked DG's account
I suspect Graham Hughes would say that he could clearly see the Titanic not sinking.
Thanks for the article, DG. In 2013 we did a taxi tour around the troubled areas. Fascinating and depressing in equal measure and one wonders if the communities will ever be truely reconciled.