Arcadia Ireland

I will always remember my first trip to Belfast in June 2000. I woke in the back of my parents' car after a very long journey, my first thought was ‘Is it St. Patrick’s day?!’ We’d driven down the famous Falls road, known for its strong Catholic Nationalist community, I’d never in my life seen so much green! The shops all painted green, the Irish flags and bunting, the massive republican murals, even the curb stones were painted in the Irish colors!

I’ll admit now I was a bit intimidated, but as the weekend progressed I saw that Belfast was a city like any other, but with the added bonus of being a hybrid of British and Irish culture, shopping and humor.

On my recent trip to Belfast with students from the University of Kentucky I was excited to see how things have changed over the past 15 years, but also extremely excited to visit the newly opened Titanic Center. The Titanic Center is a really fun, fully interactive experience, bringing you on a linear passage though the birth and death of the worlds' most famous ship. 

We began in pre-industrialized Belfast and saw how essential the shipyard was to the prosperity of the city. We learnt about the people who worked there; over 15,000 people were employed there when the Titanic was built!

Through the Shipyard ride we saw how they built the Titanic; The Harland and Wolff shipyard was at the cutting edge of engineering at the time, they didn’t just built the Titanic, they had to invent new ways of ship building to make it possible.

Finally we got to the ship, which was brought to life with 3D holograms of the passengers, and an ''experience the Titanic'' 3D feature where you get to travel though each level to see firsthand what it was like. (This is the part where I got the urge to act out scenes from the movie!)

In the end, we saw how it was destroyed, listened to accounts of survivors and watched how 70 years later it was once again found 2.5 miles under water.

After the visit to the Titanic Center, our afternoon was devoted to a tour of Belfast City. Before we began, our guide Therese gave us a great overview of the Northern Ireland Troubles, allowing us to understand the significance of what we would be looking at in the Nationalist and Unionist areas.

We began our bus tour by travelling though the Unionist areas, where we saw the preparations for the commemorations of the Battle of the Somme in WW1 and the Battle of the Boyne. There were stock piles of wooden pallets for bonfires, Union Jack flags flying proud from the windows and huge WW1 murals (wall artwork).

Later as we drove though the Nationalist area of Belfast we noticed how there was no signs of commemoration preparations; instead the shops were painted green, the signs in Irish and we stopped to take in the massive Irish Republican murals.

The highlight was visiting the Peace Wall (the wall that acts a buffer between the two communities), where we read messages of peace from the Dali Lama and Bill Clinton, and saw murals praising Nelson Mandela and Amnesty International. We stopped to write our own messages of peace and add our signatures to the thousands of others along the Wall.

Finally our tour brought us though the bustling city centre; filled with majestic Victorian buildings, a modern vibrant shopping district and Queens University (which basically looks like Hogwarts!)

15 years on and the divide between the communities is definitely less stark and dramatic. The remaining flags and murals are no longer intimidating, instead they act as a reminder of the times past and hope for what is to come. Belfast is like a city reborn. It’s vibrant, young, fun and filled with great things to do and see.

I can’t wait to go back!