Adventures With Harvey

The Troubles

300 tonnes per week. Yes, that’s how much barley is needed to produce 11 million bottles of whiskey per year at the Bushmills Distillery. Of course, the Irish and Scottish will never agree on who invented what or who is the best at it, however they’ve been distilling whiskey (or whisky if you’re Scottish) at Bushmills since 1608 - it was certainly a treat to visit and taste the produce thereof, and one of many highlights over the last couple of weeks.

So far on this trip we intrepid Woodies have car-ferried into or out of 9 different ports; Dover, Calais, Dunkirk, Caen, Portsmouth, Trelleborg, Klaipeda, and now we can add Cairnryan and Larne to the list! The old saying is ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’ and we often stumble across useful things quite by accident. Our original plan was to sail in and out of Liverpool and Dublin however that added up to over 300 miles of driving – Cairnryan was only 70 miles away and only a 2-hour crossing instead of 8, so altogether it gave us an extra day in Ireland and a whole lot less driving. A couple of weeks earlier the clever Anita had noticed a dotted line on a google map which led to this happy revision of our travel schedule.

Northern Ireland is a fascinating place – like much of Europe it is steeped in history dating back millennia, however those of our vintage or older may well remember the horrific TV images relating to the armed conflict in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s known as ‘The Troubles’. We arrived here with quite a limited understanding of the causes of these problems, whether they were religious or political, and what remnants of those feelings existed today. Allow me to share a little of what we have learned.

A conversation with locals in a pub in Londonderry the other night gives a great insight:

“We’ve enjoyed our time here in Northern Ireland” we said

“You mean Ireland” said our friend.

And a little later…

“Londonderry is a lovely town” we proffered

“You mean Daire (the Irish word for Derry, pronounced something like Dahra)” said our friend.

This short interchange and the conversation which followed it explains a lot. Without asking we now know that our friend is Catholic and would be in favour of Ireland returning to a single country. Until 1613 the town was known as Derry however when King James I granted a royal charter, and shortly thereafter the Guilds of London built the Cathedral, the town was renamed Londonderry. Even after all these centuries, our friend was clearly no fan of the English nor them changing the name of his town, nor the Protestant religion they brought with them.

Whatever you call it, Derry was a delightful place – the walls which were built near the start of the 17^th century remain intact and this enabled us to circumnavigate the city from an elevated vantage point. Most would agree that the most famous event in the history of this city was the 105-day siege of 1689 when the town successfully held out against the forces of James II, the Catholic former English King. In December of 1688 the city gates were defiantly closed by 13 apprentice boys, an event which is now entrenched in folklore, the siege beginning a few months later in April 1689. Each year there is a massive parade in August to celebrate the lifting of the siege – more than 100 bands parade their way through the town which is a huge annual event.

But that’s not all Derry is known for. In the late 1960’s there was a groundswell of opposition to perceived civil rights violations by the Protestant dominated government of Northern Ireland. Although in many areas Catholics were the majority, they were discriminated against in housing, employment etc and took much inspiration from the civil rights movement in the USA. In the early 70’s the Northern Irish government had lost control of law and order and they called on England for help which resulted in the dissolution of the Irish parliament and a huge number of British soldiers and other security forces being sent over to quell the violence and keep the peace. Sadly, this had the opposite effect and groups such as the IRA (or some of its offshoots to be correct) and other groups began an armed struggle and terrorist campaign. One of the most infamous incidents occurred in the suburb of Bogside where, on 30 January 1972, British soldiers opened fire on a group of unarmed protestors, shooting 26 people of whom 13 perished. This became known as Bloody Sunday and was the catalyst for escalation of the conflict. These days Bogside is known for its many murals which commemorate the struggles of that time and what happened on that fateful day – your author and his wife wandered through the area at dusk on a chilly but clear evening, stopping by the moving Bloody Sunday memorial. A later visit to the Guildhall provided insight into the initial cover-up and, following a royal commission many years later, eventual exoneration of the protesters.

Our couple of days in Belfast was most enjoyable, the standout attraction being Titanic Belfast, a new museum dedicated not just to the famous ocean liner but to many other aspects surrounding it. At that time, Belfast was at the forefront of several industries, the most prominent being linen manufacture and shipbuilding. The museum took you through the story of the town and how it evolved into an industrial powerhouse through the 19^th and early 20^th century. Of course, the story culminates with the building of Titanic and her sister ships, in fact you can look out the window and see outlines on the ground showing the exact spot where Titanic and Olympic were built and launched over 100 years ago. You can also wander through the Nomadic which is the last remaining ship of the White Star Line and was used as a tender back in the heyday of these huge ocean liners. If you are ever in Belfast, be sure not to miss it!! We also enjoyed a visit to the Ulster Museum and Belfast Christmas markets as well as several famous watering holes in town including the Duke of York, The Crown and The Dirty Onion. Next day one of us needed a haircut so the other filled in his time with a visit to the Crumlin Road Gaol, the main Belfast prison from the mid-19^th century through until the 1990’s. Another highlight was an overnight stay on a dairy farm at Saintfield, just out of Belfast. Yes, you heard correct, Harvey has spent his first night in a farm implement shed! After the rugby in Edinburgh, we had ended up chatting with a lovely group from over the water who were in town the test – they insisted that we look them up, with which we duly complied and had a most enjoyable evening sharing a pint or two! Always on the scrounge for somewhere to stay, Harvey and his occupants were delighted to have the use of a nice warm shed for the night and a place to refresh the tanks!

Following this we had the most wonderful weekend with our friends Nicola, Jill and Theo up in the very north of the country. As well as a visit to the aforementioned distillery, we also enjoyed plenty of walking and cycling to such places as the Giants’ Causeway, Dunluce Castle (unoccupied since 1680 and these days a ruin slowly falling into the sea), the beautiful Ballintoy Harbour (famous for Game of Thrones filming) as well as plenty of time relaxing and catching up with our friends.

Finally, and with apologies for the poor chronology of this blog, a short report on the England vs All Blacks test from Twickenham. As mentioned in earlier reports, to say the day was a dream come true for your author is an understatement! Rugby aside, it is undoubtedly one of the great sporting stadiums of the world, the atmosphere has to be experienced to be believed, and everything about the day was perfect. Except the last 10 minutes when the men in black blew a 19-point lead and, in the end, felt a little lucky to escape with a draw. A loss would most certainly have detracted from our enjoyment of the day however one can (through slightly gritted teeth) live with a draw and be happy that things weren’t worse. The All Blacks have generally played well in these 3 tests and have probably been the most consistent of the teams playing up here in November. We rugby fans had some serious misgivings going into these 3 tests however there is now cause for cautious optimism going into a World Cup year.

There is more your faithful correspondent could report on however it’s been a few days too long between blogs so we don’t want you all falling asleep in your cuppas. I’ll tell a few more tales in the photo captions below and hopefully not leave it quite so long between updates next time.

With much love as always

The Travelling Woodies

cheers from Ireland

Twickenham #1

Twickenham #2

a visit to the Burns House, birthplace of the legendary bard, Robbie Burns

our first night in Ireland was spent at Carrickfergus - such a beautiful harbour overlooking the castle with Harvey in the background

T-rex skull at the Ulster Museum

also at the museum, a mobile bomb defusing device - a few hundred of these were destroyed during bomb defusing attempts however better to lose a machine than a human!

hello what have we here? another Christmas market! this one is Belfast

the Duke of York pub in Belfast

the exact spot from where Titanic (left side) and Olympic (on the right) were built and launched. you can see the outline of Olympics bowline on the ground in the foreground