Andrea Finally Goes to Europe–Belfast, Northern Ireland

On Friday morning, April 19, 2014, we struck out for out for our last destination (sort of), Ireland.  I kind of forced Brennan to go, he was sad because he hadn’t been able to contact any of his old Mission contacts and felt some weird pressure to wow all of us.  Davis and Melissa were reconnecting with us since they had not yet explored Ireland.  That Friday morning we flew from Manchester, UK to Belfast, Northern Ireland and park of the UK.  We caught a cab, had the cutest, friendliest driver ever, who drove us to our hotel (and gave us a great dinner recommendation).  Besides the Oxford hotel, this, the Fitzwilliam Hotel was our nicest hotel, it was so nice and the staff were all the friendliest people on earth.  The rooms were so colorful and modern and fun, we loved it.  We met Davis and Melissa at the hotel, they had picked up the rental minivan and we headed out to Giant’s Causeway.  As I recall it was a several hour drive.  Bea was such a trouper, she blew us away at how patient and good-natured she was.  It was so fun to sit and chat with the 6 of us as we drove through some of the most scenic countryside we’d ever seen.  It’s everything you imagine Ireland to be, green rolling hills, old stone fences crumbling a bit, with perfect white dots of sheep adding the perfect touch to the scene.  There were little rustic houses, small and not updated at all.  There were some narrow roads, but Davis drove and managed nicely, despite Brennan’s frequent panic and passenger-seat driving .  We finally made it to Giant’s Causeway.  One of our ancestors, Mary Cunnachy, describes this as her beloved birthplace.  It was so neat to read her words about the very place we were.  When we got there, there was a visitor’s center and  then there are nice paved roads we could walk down to the Causeway on.  Giant’s Causeway is really hard to explain, we took the recorded audio tour, but I still don’t get it.  It’s a natural phenomenon that looks man made.  The legend has it that a giant was starting to build a bridge to Scotland.  Here we are on these naturally carved steps of Giant’s Causeway. 

That goes on and on and has varying heights.

It’s pretty amazing.  Here’s another angle.
 


Instead of going back up the nice paved roads, Brennan insisted we hike up the scenic non-paved trail with about a million steps, with a stroller.

Going up the Shepherd’s Steps

Davis and Melissa were up for it and Brennan and Davis carried the stroller the whole way up.

Here is the view looking down.

When we made it to the top

Next, about a half hour away was a rope bridge that Brennan made us go do.  I really dislike heights, and I really dislike bridges above heights, especially shakey, old rope ones!

Here is the bridge, but this does not give you a feel for the terrifying depth below us.

You can see a little better here, but still not how deep the distance below us goes.  You can, however see the terrifying reality of Davis carrying Bea while trying to maintain his balance and grip on the bridge.  Yikes!
On our drive back to Belfast, I managed to catch this very bad picture of the coolest tree-lined street, with branches completely entangled.  It looked like something out of a fantasy novel.
We arrived back in Belfast and dropped Davis off for a business call while the rest of us set out to find Brennan’s old mission apartment.  Not just any apartment, the apartment he had talked about his experience there for years.  He and his companion were out working and a member asked them for a ride somewhere.  They almost did it, but realized if they did they would miss their mission curfew.  They decided to be obedient and made other arrangements for the person and hurried home in time for curfew.  About 15-30 minutes after they settled into their apartment, the building they parked their car in front of blew up.  A bomb had been set in the window well of that building blowing out the windows of their car and would have most certainly injured them had they been pulling up right then.  They were safe because of their obedience.  The bombing had been in retaliation to a shooting in a bookie shop right next to their apartment. 
Brennan thought he remembered the apartment being on Shankill Road, the famous divisive road that Catholics were on one side and Protestants the other, and were not allowed to cross.  We drove up and down Shankill Rd again and again and could not find the apartment.  Brennan was frustrated, it was all familiar but something was different.  We felt badly for dragging everyone on a wild goose chase after an already long day in the car.  I said a quick prayer that we would be able to find it and then had the thought to google the name of the bookie shop where the shooting happened.  I did so and saw that the street was Ormeau Road.  We quickly looked it up and found it in a few minutes.  Here it is, his apartment was above where he is standing:

Here is the bookie shop next door with a monument to those shot

And for some stupid reason I didn’t take a picture of the building the bomb had been in.  It was so thrilling to be there to see this site that was so significant.  Brennan was emotional and so grateful for the chance to revisit it.
We went back to the hotel and finally headed to Howard Street Restaurant for another late dinner.  It was really good, and overall Belfast left a very happy impression on us.  The people were the friendliest we had encountered.   All in all a great day in Belfast!