Belfast (continued)

This post is a continuation of the one before it:

After the memorial, we crossed through a gate onto the Protestant side of the wall, which was built to separate the two communities and stands to this day. Many people stop to write messages of peace on the wall.

A mural of King William of Orange, revered as a Protestant hero.

The red hand of Ulster is found in the center of the Ulster flag, and is an important symbol in the Loyalist Protestant community. This mural depicts one of the many legends for the red hand. The story goes that the king of Ulster had no rightful heir, so he decided to have a boat race, and the winner of the race would be declared king. The king said that whoever put their hand on the shore first would win. One man, in seeing that he was losing the race, remembered the king's words- he cut off his hand and threw it on to the shore, thus winning the kingship.

Cuchulainn, a mythical Ulster warrior hero, is another important symbol.

We ended the tour at The Crown, a very historic pub in centre of Belfast. Amazingly, the pub still has gas lighting.

When I arrived in Belfast the day before, the first thing I had to do was change my Euros for British pounds, which was very strange. I felt like I was still in Ireland but I also was definitely in a different country. Belfast has that unique sense of being in-between- some people hang British flags outside their doors and consider themselves British, and some are die-hard Republican Nationalists who think Ireland should be united under one republic. Whatever the case, it seems that despite the current peace, the situation is still, after so many years, unresolved.