BELFAST DAY TRIP 11 MAY 2011
A note by Eamon Henry.
Date 13 May 2011

A day trip to Belfast was made on Wednesday 11th May 2011 by eight members of the Active IT Society (AITS). The objective was to make a sight-seeing tour of the main items of interest within the Greater Belfast area. We were organised and led by Mrs. Angela Hickey, and set off by train from the Dublin Connelly station at 9.35 a.m.
As older persons enjoying free travel within the Republic, we were enabled to travel free north of the Border on the trains to and from Belfast, by each of us filling in a form provided by Irish Rail. A cool and breezy sunny morning accompanied us on our way to Belfast, which we reached about 12.00 noon.

Our first port of call was the Belfast Welcome Centre, after using our train tickets to get free bus transport from the Central Railway Station to the city centre, which is around the City Hall.
At the Welcome Centre we purchased our bus-tour tickets for 8 pounds sterling each, to be used with Allen’s Tours during the afternoon. Before lunching, we had a good look at the City Hall. This huge building in Victorian style is at least as big as the Dublin Custom House, with ornate frontage, and a large lawn open to the public and holding several statues of local notables, in keeping with its importance. Then a leisurely lunch gave us much-needed strength for the afternoon activities.
We made our way to the nearby “Dome”, a glass-topped summit of a shopping centre, where a panoramic view of greater Belfast is available. To the north, a distant mountain cliff comprises the eastern part of Cave Hill. Various church spires can be identified, as can Belfast Castle also. A helpful feature of the Dome is that, as one moves around inside the circular window, at waist-height there are plaques stating what can be seen when looking out in that particular direction, with an etching as well by way of visual help. Two huge Harland & Wolff cranes dominate the north-eastern horizon above the docks.

Our sight-seeing trip on Allen’s bus began about 4.00 p.m. and we stayed on the bus throughout the trip. Only a few of many features get mention here. The river Lagan flows north towards its estuary and thus provides a direction guideline. Travelling north-eastwards, we passed the Titanic Quarter on the docks and soon reached the entry to Belfast City Airport on our left. Stormont Castle has a steep avenue leading up to it, and from our bus-top view of maybe 200 yards away looked smaller than I had expected, smaller in width than our Dublin Custom House.

On our continuing circuit we passed St. Anne’s Cathedral and the City Hall, with Queen’s University and the Ulster Museum being further items worth mention. The Falls Road has many memorials to the Nationalist efforts towards equality since about 1968, things worth seeing at leisure. By contrast, the Shankill Road bears many Loyalist shrines and emblems indicating “no surrender”. The Belfast Peace Line is a high wall extending some two miles , and used to prevent free incursions of trouble-makers from either Falls or Shankill into the other area. Our tour commentator gave us a rather cool and fair outlook on all of this, with flashes of humour. For example, a newly-built hospital carrying yellow stripes all over its outside he described as “the Belfast eye-sore”. The full bus-tour took about 90 minutes.

With the tour finished, it was time to get a bus back to the Central Railway Station, and our train set out at 6.10 p.m. and reached Dublin Connelly station shortly before 9.00 p.m. This outing can be remembered as a very enjoyable experience.