Bus Tour Of Belfast – Had to WALK Back!

Bus Tour Of Belfast – Had to WALK Back!

Right, morning. It’s our last day in Northern Ireland. Uh, today we had a really great day yesterday. Thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the Elsa Aviation Museum and uh uh being shown around all those aircraft and sitting in those cockpits. That was real a real highlight. Hopefully today might top that highlight. We’re heading into Belfast and we’re going to the Titanic exhibition and uh we’ll see what that’s like. So, do keep watching and we’ll let you know how we get [Music] on. So, we’re just coming up there. There’s gates to Stormmont. So, you can walk up there. Half a mile. Turn right onto Queens Road. This is really now the Titanic quarter. Crane’s right in front of Titanic Center which is just this amazing building here is the Titanic building, Titanic Belfast. I know we’re not going to be able to film inside, but uh I think we’ll give you a little uh description of what it’s like when we come out. Yeah, that’s the where it was built, isn’t it? Down there. The slipway. The slipway. Yeah, where those poles are. Where the plate queen is? Is it plate queen? Yeah. Where the poles are. All right. In between the two rows of poles. Oh, we can see the other row of poles there. Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. Okay. So, we booked an anytime ticket, haven’t we? Yeah, we booked an anytime ticket, which means you can come anytime. On the on today. During today, doesn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. It’s Yeah. Anytime during the day. That’s right. And you can book online. There’s a little code here if you if you do want to come. I’m going to switch off after showing you the code. I don’t know about you, but that was stunning. It was really, really good. Such a pity we can’t show you what was going on there. I have taken some film some um pictures. It was fascinating. It was uplifting. Yeah, it was really really sad. I I do wonder whether you needed the audio thing guide. You weren’t sure about the audio guide. Yeah. No, cuz I sort of be playing that and then I think well really I could read all that or Yeah. I don’t know. I don’t know whether it added a lot. I didn’t see many people using it using it. I mean it was an extra £10, wasn’t it? Yeah, it was £5 each, wasn’t it? So we thought we’d give it a go because we didn’t have poppies. Yeah, cuz normally we, you know, no chance of one of those. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz you won’t wait, will she? At point two or whatever. But really, really, if you’re if you’re in in Northern Ireland or if you’re in Ireland, you’ve got to come and see this exhibition. It’s fantastic. The ship of dreams. Really was. Yeah. I love the bit where they took you around uh the boatyard. They put you in a little um little pod thing. Pod thing. Yeah, you go around and you you’ve got somebody talking saying what everybody was doing and they got some of the original um recordings from people who survived as well, you know, describing what it was like when it was going down. That’s one of the survivors, I’m sure, was the woman that’s in the Titanic film. Yeah. You know, where they go go to meet her. Yeah. I’m sure that was her. Yeah. Uh we got to watch the film again now. Yeah. Got to. Quite an amazing building as well. This is the SS Nomadic, the world’s last remain white star white star line vessel. Think we got to go that way, haven’t we? Good grief. Is that What’s that there liner? Welcome to Hamilton Graving Dock, home to the SS Nomadic, RMS Titanic’s little sister and the only surviving white line ship in the world. And it’s part of the Titanic ticket. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to film anything film of it, but it’s a case on here, a hollow deck which closed off the entrance to the dock shaped like a ship’s hole. was made of rorought iron and hollow inside. So that’s constructed in 1867. The queson is one of the oldest surviving vessels built by Harland and Wolf. All right. So that’s what that is. Yeah. When filled with water, it sank down into the grooves at the entrance of the dock and closed it off. Oh. That’s incredible. Until we got invaded by 65 billion kids. It’s still up there. there all are still up there somewhere. But no, I mean that is if you go and come to the Titanic, stick the Nomadic on the list as well. It’s well worth a visit. It gives you a real feeling of what the Titanic was like. It was uh the smaller sister ship of the Titanic. And there’s quite a story with it as well. I won’t spoil it here, but yeah, if you’re coming, book a trip. There’s a little bit of a Morris Miner display here. Morris Miner owners club young members. This is the slipway incidentally that we could see from the Titanic display. So these columns represent where the gantry uh went for building the Titanic. It’s nice, isn’t it? Nice metallic color. Uh classic Mory Traveler. You can get the scale size of the scale of Titanic as well. He standing here looking up there. Morris Miner four-door saloon deluxe model. New stock for 1970. There’s the trackways for the gantry. This is where the uh gantry ran and lifted things up onto the the structure. Yeah, this one’s Percy. You can follow Percy on Instagram. Very nice. Let’s go have a look at the bottom of the slipway pot. You got Titanic Studios over there. Amazing. [Music] So, Oh, yeah. So, that was the uh number one was a Titanic and number two was the Olympic. Yeah. Go on then. Go down here. Y’s having a snooze. But yeah, fantastic. We’re doing a bus tour. Couldn’t get upstairs, so we’re downstairs in the corner, so you can’t see anything. Yeah. Victoria, it was that you pass the honor. If you’re leaving us here, please remember to take your head on PG and the high court. They were a major target during the trolls. They are protected by last post to protect the building from car loss 43 times during that period. very few visitors in Belotanic Garden which is also home to the brilliant Olster Museum which was recently voted one of the best museums in the British Isles by the museums of the British Isles themselves. The museum entrance is also the entrance to Botanic Gardens which is a beautiful part of Belfast. Looming above the entrance is the statue of Lord Kelvin, one of the greatest thinkers of all time. He was born in Belfast, educated in Glasgow, but is buried in Westminster Abbey, Design Studios, and even Belfast Top Comedy Club used to be a church. Footballer George Best was born on the 22nd of May 1946 but began his professional career in England playing for Manchester United at the age of 17. He quickly became a legendary player scoring 179 goals in 470 games over 11 years. West Belfast which can be seen straight ahead. Anyone coming to Belfast in the 19th century hoping to find work who was Roman Catholic or a nonconforming Protestant could only be offered manual low paid work. These two well-known roads run parallel to each other for nearly a mile in West Belfast. Religious tension had been erupting into violence there since the 1840s. So when the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 was introduced, it made massive changes to Belfast. The names of the city and county of Derry or London Derry are the subject of a naming dispute between Irish nationalists and unionists. Generally, although not always, nationalists favor using the name Derry and Unionist using London Derry. The naming debate became particularly politicized at the outset of the troubles, with the mention of either name identifying the speaker with one of Northern Ireland’s two main communities. Legally, the city and county are called London Derry, but you may well spot the odd street sign that has the word London dobbed over with black paint. We now entered the Falls area of Belfast which is a predominantly Irish community. We’re now entering another of the seven quarters of Belfast, the Guilta Quarter. It’s here the Irish language is spoken as a first or second language. This area was named the Guilta in 2002 and was the last of the Belfast quarters named right up until the 19th century. The Irish language was the most widely spoken language in Ireland. And it wasn’t just spoken by one religion either. However, the Irish famine and its aftermath saw the population of Ireland plunged from just over 8 million down to just over 4 million in less than 60 years. And many of those leaving were Irish speakers. By the start of the 20th century, the use of the Irish language was in freef fall decline. We’re now approaching our falls road stop which is close to and cultterland based in an old Presbyterian church and Culterland promotes the Irish language and culture. It contains a cafe and an art gallery as well as an Irish language bookshop and a radio station. If you’re leaving us here, please remember to take your headphones and all of your belongings with you. Ahead and to the right, the Royal Victoria Hospital, or simply the Royal as it’s known in Belfast, is one of three major hospitals in the city. Completed in 1906, it claims to be the first air conditioned public building in the world. The Royal played a vital role in the front line of the Troubles and developed many surgical techniques on wounds sustained through violence. These techniques have been replicated throughout the world. Frank Pantridge, the father of emergency medicine, was a cardiac consultant at the hospital for over 30 years. During his time at the Royal, Pantridge introduced the modern system of CPR and developed the portable defibrillator. Further ahead at our next stop, the large mural coming into view on the left is known as the Bobby Sans mural. You’ll need to look over your left shoulder to see it as it is painted on the gable wall of the Shinfane headquarters. Bobby Sans was a member of the provisional IRA who died on hunger strike while imprisoned at Maze Prison. He was the leader of the 1981 hunger strike in which Irish Republican prisoners believed they were political prisoners and were attempting to have their political status reintroduced. The Bobby Sans mural is one of the most photographed murals in the world and it makes Bobby Sans the most wellknown of the hunger strikers who died. Coming up to the right is the memorial garden for the IRA’s D company and on it is a very famous piece of Irish literature. Ireland unfree shall never be at peace. These are the words poet Patrick Pierce spoke at the funeral of Fenian leader Jeremiah Udonovan Rosa. Today, Pierce’s funeral oration is considered one of the most important speeches in 20th century Irish history. The international wall up ahead is a series of murals that the nationalist people of the area sympathize with for support. They all have basic themes. Anti-racism, the hunger strike issue, and the Palestinian question to name but a few. And although they get painted over regularly, they’re always replaced something with a similar theme. Soon we will pass through the peace wall or peace line. We don’t need to be a specific religion to pass through this area. Sadly, this was not the case during the times of the troubles. You could get off this bus anywhere in this area and you would be made equally welcome by everyone. They really are some of the friendliest people. Since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, a new form of government was introduced which would give equal representation to everyone in this part of Ireland. 108 members of the legislative assembly now govern this part of Ireland and are led by two first ministers. Both have the same power, but one can’t do anything without the say so of the other. Coming up is our stop for the Spectrum Tourist Information Center and the Shankle Road Wall Murals. If you’re leaving us here, please remember to take your headphones and all of your belongings with you. We are approaching our stop for the Shankle Memorial Garden for the World War II and Queen Elizabeth II wall murals. Ahead on the right is a very graphic mural indeed. It’s a photographic mural depicting the aftermath of some of the bomb attacks that happened in this area. There are some very disturbing images within this mural. 90% of all the bomb attacks that took place during the troubles took place in Belfast. Because of this, a third of Belfast population left during these times. But they didn’t need to go too far as things were very different just a few miles outside of Belfast. In the towns and villages throughout Northern Ireland, there wasn’t the same sectarianism or the same paramilitary activity. The two religions, Catholic and Protestant, intermingled. They intermixed and they even intermarried. Mixed religion marriages weren’t unusual outside of Belfast, but within the heartlands of Belfast itself, it could lead to being ostracized by your own family for life. But now, because of the Good Friday Agreement, people are returning to Belfast. Many of the more affluent areas are where the two religions live together. harmoniously if admittedly sometimes in anonymity. Now I thankfully religion is no longer a barrier to friendship as far as most people are concerned especially with most of the young people. that can only bode well for the future. The 12th of July brings thousands of spectators to the Shankl Road to see the massive marches, parades, banners, and bands as these are the high point of the unionist community’s cultural calendar. The parades celebrate the victory at the battle of the boy of King William of Orange over the Catholic King James II of England in 1690. The battle changed the British monarchy from a Catholic king to a Protestant king and was very much an international battle. The British Constitution would also later be changed to exclude Catholics from the monarchy forever, which is something that divides the community to this day. We are approaching our stop for the Crumbland Road Jail visitor attraction and the old courthouse. If you’re leaving us here, please remember to take your headphones and all of your belongings with you. Welcome aboard if you’re rejoining us here. The jail coming up on the left was built by Charles Lanyion in 1845. Lanyion also built the courthouse on the right in 1850. The two buildings are connected by a tunnel underneath this road and prisoners were transferred from the court to the jail without ever again being free. Hence the saying being sent down. A head on the left is the matter hospital. Some call it the mater and some call it the matter. Some say it doesn’t matter what you call the mater. Thankfully it doesn’t matter nowadays. Although it certainly did in the past because the way you talked was a giveaway to your religion. Built in 1877, the church contains three paintings by John Labry, a famous Belfast artist. They make up a tripitch called the Madonna of the Lakes, worth approximately £3 million. Straight ahead in the distance, the glass dome of Victoria Square dominates the skyline. And from there, you can get a panoramic view of Belfast. Belfast really is a beautifully situated city and few cities can claim a backdrop as beautiful as the Belfast. Ahead on the left on the north transcept of the Sedance Cathedral is the largest Celtic cross in Ireland. Sedans gives the area its name, the Cathedral Quer. It’s fast becoming Belfast’s new nightlife center for those people with a little more money than most and contains some of the most interesting non-political murals of some of Ireland’s most famous characters. We are now entering Belfast main shopping forer Royal Avenue. Royal Avenue was very badly damaged during the Belfast Blitz and also a major target during the troubles. It still however retains some of its Victorian past. All you need to do is look above the shop fronts to discover that Victorian and Edwwardian buildings still exist. There’s a problem with me. It seemed quite city hall. Well, the tour bus just sort of stopped and said that’s the end of the tour. We were sort of expecting it to take us back to our stop number five, but uh we’ve ended up walking halfway across Belfast. So, it’s good good way to get to know a place and it’s this bit’s a bit unexpected. Tidal barrage and everything. chips. And we’re at somewhere over there where those big cranes are. It’s the biggest box of chips I think I’ve ever had. What an amazing place. We’re the other side of the harbor here. That windshine. Yeah. Titanic Trail. We’re on back where we started earlier today. And there’s the SS Nomadic over there. So, we’re just over there. Beautiful boats here. Has a very European continental feel about it, doesn’t it? With the trees here. At least they’re not over us, are they? No. [Music]

We visit Belfast, first to the Titantic Exhibition and then a bus tour of the city with the sights and history of Belfast.

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Contents
00:00 Introduction
01:00 Titanic Exhibition
02:28 Thoughts about the Titanic
04:08 SS Nomadic
06:25 Titanic slipway
08:36 Bus Tour
09:09 Sinn Fein centre
10:28 George Best
11:42 Falls road
12:44 An Culturlann
13:07 Royal Victoria Hospital
13:57 Bobby Sands mural
14:46 IRA D Company memorial
15:15 International wall
16:08 Good Friday Agreement
16:38 Spectrum Tourist Information centre
16:52 History of The Troubles
18:38 12th July Parades
19:25 Crumlin Road jail
20:12 Mater Hospital
20:36 St Patrick’s Belfast
21:34 Belfast shopping centre
22:15 Finding our way across Belfast

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