August 2021: Belfast

Introduction

Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, one of two entities created in the 1921 partition of Ireland. Formed from six out of the nine traditional counties in the Irish province of Ulster, Northern Ireland remains a constituent part of the United Kingdom, alongside England, Scotland and Wales. In common with Scotland and Wales, it has a partially devolved administration, with certain powers still reserved to Westminster. Many UK residents who live outside Northern Ireland tend to forget that their country has a land border running between NI and the Republic of Ireland, a situation that was brought into sharp focus by the country’s recent, painful exit from the European Union.

Arrival

Following our time in Manchester and my short excursion to Berkshire, we flew to Belfast City Airport on the British Airways service from Heathrow. Accommodation for our four-night stay was at the conveniently located Holiday Inn Belfast City Centre.

City Centre

Belfast isn’t the prettiest city in the UK, but even the briefest glance at City Hall confirms that it certainly has its moments of glory. We visited the city in January 2016 and wanted the current trip to build on our previous visit, rather than simply repeat it. For that reason, we chose not to include the impressive new Titanic Quarter this time.

Ulster Transport Museum

Northern Ireland has an excellent transport museum situated at Cultra, near Holywood, Co Down. It is less than eight miles from central Belfast and is easily visited by using the Belfast-Bangor train service.

Crumlin Road Gaol

Crumlin Road Gaol is a name that I remembered from news reports during the long years of ‘The Troubles’, so I was a little surprised to see it cropping up on a list of present-day tourist attractions. I was even more intrigued to find out that it is a listed structure on account of both its architecture and historical significance. The self-guided tour was interesting, although the final section, dealing with executions, was on the grim side.

The derelict Crumlin Road Courthouse stands directly across the street, in a fairly dilapidated state. A tunnel connection between the two institutions meant that convicted prisoners could literally be “sent down” and transferred directly to jail.

Departure

Our departure from Northern Ireland was on the Aer Lingus route from Belfast City to London Heathrow.