13. An Adventure of Titanic Proportions

06 August 2025

Whoo Hoo! The ship has docked and we can disembark in Belfast, our last Irish port.

Growing up during the times of The Troubles, visiting Belfast was never on any itinerary, and when The Troubles ended with the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998, new tourism places of interest had been quickly established. Although officially the last era of The Troubles started in the late 1960s and lasted about 30 years, conflicts between Catholics and Protestants have been ongoing for about 400 years. I wonder though, can a conflict that has been simmering for four centuries be snuffed out - just like that - without question or without underlying tension? From what I understand, the peace process is ongoing and there are still tensions across Northern Ireland. We will have a chance to see some of the areas in Belfast that featured on our television screens during those years when violence, bombings, and repression spilled into our lives on the other side of the world.

We find ourselves in a real port with a real transit building. Shuttle buses are waiting on the other side of the roller-door but before we leave the building, we purchase tickets to the Titanic museum. Tourism in Northern Ireland is a more recent thing, so the friendly faces and warm greetings we meet are genuine. The shuttle takes us past the busy port, through industrial wasteland, across a bridge and into Donegall Square in the city centre. As the bus pulls up outside the Tourist Information office, hordes of men, teeth missing, their faces filled with tattoos press HOHO bus brochures against the window of the shuttle. Their aggressive behaviour is quite confronting and whilst I understand that even tinkers and ex-criminals need to find meaningful employment, virtually dragging tourists off a bus is not really the right way to go about it. That is my personal opinion, and I do notice that many people from our ship are already seated on the top of the open-top buses and are ready to start their day. As we alight from the bus, we are surrounded by these men, and whilst we take their brochure to appease them, I am happy to see that the regular City Sightseeing buses are also available. Like cowards, we hide in the Tourist Information office until they swarm the next bus then disappear. When the coast is clear, we approach the City Sightseeing bus and purchase tickets and discuss with the operator the best time to catch the bus to coincide with our timed Titanic museum tickets. It all sounds complicated now, but I can assure you it was not!

After a quick look in the impressive City Hall, and obviously starved for retail therapy due to the two-day bad-weather unplanned imprisonment, we look for the shopping area.

The Titanic Museum, located on the site of the Harland and Wolff shipyard where the iconic ship was built just after the turn of the twentieth century, lives up to its reputation of being one of the world's best museums. Dedicated to those who contributed to the ship in every trade, the series of galleries leads the tourist through a timeline from it's blueprints to its sinking and every bit in between. The architecture of the building itself deserves a mention, but to describe it here would take far too long. All I can say is that it is a masterpiece in itself. I wander through the interactive galleries, up a replica gantry in a lift then take a ride through the ship's hull where heat, the noise, and toil of the workers is recreated. I take a tour of the Titanic from the lower decks that housed the crew and steerage passengers, to the first and second class cabins, the dining rooms, and salons without moving a centimetre. IMAX-style interactive videos make me feel like I am inside the ship, an observer onboard. From there, we experience the maiden voyage, which includes the photographs taken by Father Francis Browne, who travelled on the Titanic between Southampton and Cobh, disembarking before the tragedy. The sinking is accompanied by the sounds of morse code and the words by the survivors. The brilliant Titanic Beneath interactive display of the location of the Titanic 3,700 metres beneath the North Atlantic Ocean ends our time travel and before long we are back in 2025 and on the street waiting for the next bus to arrive.

We continue the HOHO route. Along Great Victoria Street, named in honour of Queen Victoria, we pass the Opera House and the most-bombed hotel in world, the Europa, which suffered 36 bomb attacks during the Troubles. It was also where most of the journalists stayed.

We reach Cutlurlann McAdam O'Fiaich on Falls Road, the Irish Cultural Centre in the Gaeltacht Quarter. Falls Road has been synonymous with the Catholic Community and the rows and rows of depressing terraced houses bring back images of barbed wire and concrete bollards placed to stop cars from driving down these streets, which were part of our news reports in the 1970s and 1980s. We pass a large mural of Bobby Sands, who died on a hunger strike in 1981. We pass the International Wall mural then turn into the area of the Peace Wall, which were peace lines used to deter violence between Catholic and Protestant residents. It is interesting to notice that the large steel gates are still in place and close at 6:30 PM each day. On these walls visitors are encouraged to add art work or messages, and we pass many people with Sharpie pens adding their two-bob's worth to a section of the very long wall.

We move to the other famous street in Belfast, Shankill Road. Here, the scenery is a lot less depressing and is a local hub filled with shops and pubs. However, it was the scene of many bombings and murders during The Troubles. Today, it hard to believe that this was the centre of so much conflict as flags gaily adorn lamp posts and bunting is strung between buildings. The murals of the late Queen and a more recent one of King Charles are on either side of the road.

A short tour like this could never provide an adequate overview of the history and the conflicts in Belfast. It is too complex to summarise in a few minutes.

By the time we reach the last stop at Donegall Square, we have had enough history for one day, so decide to stretch our legs before returning to the ship.

There is one last thing we could do and must do before we leave Belfast.

Find an Irish pub.

A kindly traffic warden points us in the right direction to The Rusty Saddle and before long we are ordering half-pints of Guinness, and although it is not my drink of choice, it happens to be the right beverage for the location. It is a poor substitute for Temple Bar in Dublin, but it does tick another 'must-do' off the list.

Tomorrow is a day at sea as we head once more for Southampton. Again, our voyage over the top of Scotland and along the east coast is replaced with the shortcut south along the east coast of Ireland, which means that there will be a great deal of lurking before docking in two days. At least the seas are calm.