Today was a very nice sunny day, so I figured it would be a good day to walk around and find all of Derry's famous murals. I knew the murals all had to do with the Northern Ireland "troubles," so I assumed they would all be about peace and love and stuff...especially considering the "Hands Across the Divide" statue that greets you when you arrive in the city (above picture). I looked on the map and there were two streets highlighted that all of the murals were supposed to be on--one was the far west side of the city and the other was the far east side of the city. I was thinking "hmmm, that's annoying, I'm going to have to walk all the way across the city to see them all!" But then I kind of realized why the murals are not all in one place.
On the west side of the city all of the murals featured martyrs of Bloody Sunday, people wearing gas masks and that sort of thing.
Also, everywhere you looked in this section of town the Irish flag was flying and there was a lot of IRA (Irish Republican Army) graffiti everywhere.
This one had a plaque underneath that had the girl's name and then it said, "shot dead by the British Army at age 14, 1971."So then I went to the far east side of town and found murals of a very different variety. A lot more "God Save the Queen" in flavor.
If you look closely, you can see that even the curbs on the sidewalk and the telephone poles are painted red, white and blue. On the west side it was green, white and orange.
This section of town had British flags flying everywhere and all of the graffiti said UDA (Ulster Defense Association).So, today's adventure proved to be much more depressing than I had initially anticipated...Evidently Northern Ireland still has a bit of healing to do.
On a lighter note...
In answer to Brian's question from a few days ago, yes they say "craic" all the time here. "What's the craic?" "How's the craic?" "Where's the craic?" "Having some good craic" etc.
In answer to Nicole's question, I'm pretty much done with music festivals now. My next three stops are Tory Island, Galway, and the Aran Islands. These are all just places that are known for music and dance. After that I'm going to Tralee to see the show 'Siamsa Tire' and to attend the Dance Research Forum of Ireland, the Limerick again for a few days, then I'm on to Dublin to see Riverdance :)
3 comments:
That's neat you got to see the murals. I remember being on our bus tour (I don't know if we were in Derry or another town) and the guide kinda pointed at them out the window as we drove past, a few streets away.
How do you pronounce craic?
Hope you have a place to stay on Tory Island. Wikipedia says it has a population of 170, and that English may be understood. It should provide some relaxation from the stress of the urban centers (or should that be centres) that you've been visiting.
You should visit Doolin, the Irish Music capital of the World. There is lots to do there, and you can also get a ferry to the Aran Islands from there. I visited Inisheer last year and I traveled with Cliffs and Aran Cruises. They did a Combo ferry trip to visit the Aran Islands and a cruise to view the Cliffs of Moher all in the same day. It was Great!, of course, the weather was good also, this always helps.
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