Travels in Northern Ireland

On Saturday July 16th we drove from Kilkenny to Derry, (Londonderry) in North Ireland, (Ulster). This part of Ireland is actually part of The United Kingdom rather than The Republic of Ireland. The money is in Pounds Sterling rather than Euros. Prices in Northern Ireland are about 1/3 less than in The Republic. This area has a history of political troubles. The Unionists, (those that wish to remain part of UK) are descendants of people England had planted in Ireland many years ago hoping to make Ireland a New England. The Nationalists, (people that want to become part of the Republic of Ireland), are mostly of Irish decent. These two sides, although technically at peace, still have a long way to go at becoming one people. An interesting thing is out of Ireland Newspapers call the sides Catholic and Protestant, but religion is not the issue, this is not a religious dispute, it is a political one.

Derry, (Londonderry), is an old city. It is known as the Walled City. The English changed the name from Derry to Londonderry in the 1600's, in 1984 the name was officially changed back to Derry, but unionists still use Londonderry. The city has a city wall that is still complete. There are a lot of businesses inside the wall and we have walked the entire wall. There are many cannons still mounted on the walls.

We learned of the Siege of 1689 where the people of Derry held out against the Roman Catholic king of England, James) who was trying to regain his throne after a protestant king and queen, (William and Mary) had been put on the throne by parliament. Enough history, suffice it to say that two days before food ran out the siege was broken. The walls had held. We also learned of the famine of the 1840's that drove many to emigrate. The potato crop was destroyed by blight. The interesting thing is that all other crops were okay, but the powerful English Lords chose not to help the Irish peasants who were starving in spite of having plenty of food. The population of Ireland before the famine was 8 million, it still has not recovered in the current population is under 5 million. There is a suggestion that allowing the Irish to starve was an English ethnic cleansing.

Inside the walls we went to the Tower Museum. This gave us an interactive history of Derry right through "The Troubles" of the 1960's through the 1990's. Also the had things recovered from a ship of the Spanish Armada that had sank off the nearby coast in the Irish Sea. We also toured the Bogside Free Derry Murals that chronicled the Nationalists side of the troubles and monuments to those that died in the troubles.

On Monday, July 18 we decided to visit the seacoast. We drove to the Donegal coast which is back in The Republic of Ireland. There we drove some narrow roads and went by a pub called "The Drunken Duck". As Joel's Mazatlan handle is Jus Ducky this was of interest. We found a secluded beach where Janice found some more sea glass. This was on the far north coast of Ireland. It was a cool, rainy, windy day. While we were hunting sea glass we heard some laughter. There were two women swimming in the choppy, cold Irish Sea. The outside temperature was probably 50 degree F and we doubt the water was any warmer.

We enjoyed a good pub meal in the town of Moville in Donegal. Again as it was in The Republic, the cost of the meal was probably 35-40% higher than a comparable meal in Northern Ireland. We have asked people about the disparity, as Ireland is also much more expensive than Spain. Everyone seems to feel that the government of Ireland has extremely high taxes on everything and this affects the costs. It seems to be a self-defeating taxation as we can tell tourism is really down in Ireland and their economy is in the tank. We have not had to fight crowds anywhere. As Americans we have enough worries, so we will leave Ireland to sort out their own problems. The one thing both Irelands have in common is warm, friendly, and very helpful people.

The rest of this week will be spent in visiting the Northern Irish coast. We have a small apartment in Derry as our headquarters. So far the little car we rented has been faithful.

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