“Did it involve the drinking of beer?” you might be asking yourself if you’re at all familiar with us.

It did involve the drinking of beer. Give yourself a gold star.

But first there were some roads to navigate and these included the odd statue or sculpture here and there – Belfast likes them – and some more street art – Belfast likes that too – and we’re quite keen on the two things as well so photos were taken.

Of particular interest was the statue of Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave-turned-abolitionist and orator, who had been invited to tour Ireland in the 1840s, partly to ensure he stayed out of reach of his former owner who might try to retrieve his “property”. His life story is absolutely fascinating and well worth a read. This is the first statue of him to be erected in Europe.

The drinking establishment to which we were headed, and where we had a couple of very nice pints in lovely surroundings, was Bell’s Brewery. We will always try to find local craft ale brewers whenever we travel. The place had a good range and was very spacious with the fermenters on show and some memorabilia on display too.

After resting our feet and treating our taste buds we made our way to where the shuttle bus would be, but with still a bit more time to spare and with no idea when we might be back in this part of the world we took in a circuit of the outside of Belfast City Hall. Did I mention that Belfast likes statues? I did!? Well, it really likes statues and you can find a lot in the grounds of the administrative building.

Construction of the city hall was started at the tail end of the nineteenth century, not being completed until 1906, and the decision to build an administrative headquarters of this size was due to Belfast being awarded city status in 1888 by Queen Victoria and it being felt by the new city’s councillors that something grander than that already in use was needed. The building therefore incorporates some elements that are early Edwardian but with a lot of Baroque touches too.

It was interesting to see a plaque marking a memorial garden for the Titanic’s victims in the grounds of City Hall as this was the second one we’d seen on this cruise, having walked to one in Cobh in the Republic of Ireland.

Below you can see some of the other statues and memorials erected around Belfast City Hall.

Pictured first is a memorial to the soldiers who fought and lost their lives in the Second Boer War and a bust of William Pirrie, who, amongst other non-cruise-related notable achievements, was on record during his chairmanship of Harland & Wolff shipbuilders of saying that the Olympic-class ships (Olympic, Britannic, and Titanic) were unsinkable and that the small number of lifeboats on them were there to help others. Ah.

James Horner Haslett was a politician, an MP representing the city in the House of Commons first for Belfast West then for Belfast North, and served as mayor of Belfast for two years in the late 1880s.

The USA Expeditionary Force Memorial commemorates the arrival of American troops in Belfast in 1942. The only Victoria Cross recipient from Northern Ireland in World War II, James Joseph Magennis, gets a monument too. His cross was awarded for a successful if arduous limpet mine-planting task on a Japanese cruiser.

Unveiled just a couple of months before our visit to Belfast there were two statues to two female political activists, Mary Ann McCracken (abolitionist) and Winifred Carney (suffragist).

Of course, Victoria got herself a prime piece of central real estate for her statue although she didn’t live long enough to see it.

And finally, the Cenotaph.

We admired a little of the other architecture surrounding Belfast City Hall but at this time we saw a shuttle bus arrive, boarded it, and were soon on our way back to the ship.

To conclude this post and our visit to Belfast – a visit that had been far more interesting than Dublin, it would be fair and easy to say – here are some photos of dinner aboard Regal Princess in the evening and a couple of cocktails we availed ourselves of as we enjoyed some of the entertainment on the ship during its overnight sailing away from Northern Ireland.

In the next post in this Regal Princess British Isles cruise series I’ll cover the start of our day docked in Greenock, Scotland where we spend absolutely no time there at all and head off to look at Stirling Castle instead.

An interface area was a place where neighbourhoods in Belfast with strict ethnic or religious affiliations came together in a spirit of friendship and understanding. Wait. Wait a second. No, that’s not quite true. It’s where anger and violence was commonplace. The areas were therefore often patrolled or segregated by barriers. Following more sensible heads prevailing these parts of Northern Ireland’s capital city have taken on more historical, educational roles, and some have become popular tourist destinations. The west Belfast interface area between the Shankill and Falls roads (loyalist, protestant and republican, catholic areas respectively) is one such area, now known for its street art either side of the barricades, still interestingly sectarian in nature as we were to discover.

The first piece of street art we came across, however, was above a corner of the Shankill Road known as Conor’s Corner, dedicated to a late nineteenth century local artist and featuring some of his work on the walls. The street art that caught our eyes, though, was more modern; a Blade Runner-style artwork called Hope and painted by Dan Kitchener.

At this point we were in the largely loyalist, protestant part of Belfast and the street art was very indicative of themes you associate with British self-identified patriots nowadays: military figures of the dim and distant past, glorifying war achievements, any ethno-cultural prejudices a bonus. John Henry Patterson got his own bit of glorifying on the walls just north of the interface area and he does have a fascinating history: born in Ireland, serving in Africa, killing lions, becoming part of the Ulster Volunteers against the idea of Ireland ruling itself (because it’s nice to be subjugated), then leading what was called the Jewish Legion during World War I which would be the precursor to what is now the Israeli Defence Force. It’s highly likely that defending antisemitism from his own superiors towards the men he commanded ended up pushing him over the edge into full-blown Zionism (because it’s nice to subjugate). A very influential individual.

Through one set of barriers we passed by a few odd sculptures and the Imagine mural which hoped to serve as some sort of bridge between the two cultures either side of the interface area. From this point on the artwork would take on a very different feel with the emphasis on peace, freedom, stopping wars, stopping oppression, releasing political prisoners, and just generally trying to get along with everyone.

We took our time walking slowly along this road, taking in all the themes of the pieces of street art, and we quite often saw taxis turn up and stop with tourists, the drivers acting as guides and giving details on the history of areas or of the meanings behind particular pieces of art. This is quite a popular way to see Belfast by all accounts and if you’re less happy with wandering about on your own or have more pressing need to make the best use of your time then it offers an alternative way of seeing sights such as this.

We eventually turned off the road we’d been walking along and started heading back towards the centre of Belfast where we had one final destination on our agenda for this day in port. At this point the political street art came more-or-less to an end and more general artworks started to pop up on walls and the sides of buildings.

In the next post in this Regal Princess British Isles cruise series we’ll try out some local craft ales then enjoy some of the architecture and sculptures around Belfast City Hall before heading back to the ship.

Not the port area, though, because that was the very definition of uninteresting.

The distance of the cruise port area to Belfast city centre was enough to require a shuttle bus and it wasn’t too long before we’d hopped off opposite the city hall, had a quick nose at the tourist information centre, then set off on a walk to where we wanted to hit first. Lovely little architectural touches and some gorgeous bits of derelict or unloved buildings pleased my eye. A monument of Henry Cooke seemed important and after reading up about him he seemed to symbolise Belfast’s history pretty well, being a divisive figure with a set of beliefs at odds with those of other people’s sets of beliefs, memorialised in bronze afterwards by his supporters likely mostly to just piss off the opposite side.

We encountered a few bits of street art on our walk to our first destination of the day, and we would encounter a whole lot more before the end of the day.

It didn’t take us too long to reach where we’d been aiming for, and since the likelihood of you hitting this write-up without having searched for the name of the place or at least seen the title of the post before you randomly clicked on it is as close to zero as makes no difference then it won’t surprise you to read right now that this was the Crumlin Road Gaol.

Just before we entered the gaol, though, we were quite taken with the building opposite. Neoclassical, lovely portico with Corinthian style columns? Yes please! This was the mid-nineteenth century Crumlin Road Courthouse, a convenient location close to the gaol at which to try the accused. Its fate in more recent years has been blighted by redevelopment plans needing to align with its Grade 2-protected status and mysterious fires. You’d be amazed how often there are mysterious fires when redevelopment is involved. Amazed.

The courthouse and gaol were connected by a tunnel to facilitate transferring prisoners and after we’d paid to enter – after also helping some French visitors understand the payment process and where to go following some confusion dealing with the person at the counter (thanks GCSE French!) – the first part we looked at was that tunnel.

We then absolutely enjoyed a couple of hours within the walls of the prison. I won’t go into the history of Crumlin Road Gaol because there are better sources for that and if you’re interested in visiting then you’ll likely have some idea anyway. You will learn so much more inside. This was one of those places that has a lot of videos you can watch and these can be hit and miss sometimes, but at Crumlin Road they were utterly fascinating. Genuine accounts from prisoners from both loyalist and republican sides in the troubles including successful escapes, fictionalised accounts of older stories of inmates including young women and the poor put in there for the most minor of offences, the punishments doled out. Well worth checking as much out as you can.

One of the aspects of the visit that we appreciated the most was the one-way system in areas of the gaol with timed entries and exits. Effectively, to get into one wing, for example, you’d need to wait in an anteroom until a gate opened up, timed to allow others out at some other point. This stopped everyone walking through en masse and it stopped people heading back to parts they’d already seen, but the best part about it was the removal of just that tiny bit of freedom of movement. It was fascinating to see people tutting and getting a little frustrated that they couldn’t move on without realising that they were getting to experience the merest hint of what the prisoners had to live through.

The last area we wandered through inside the gaol was the execution chamber, built in 1901. In total seventeen prisoners were hanged at Crumlin Road Gaol. This chamber housed chilling “entertainment” in the form of silhouettes of the condemned and guards with the rope hanging and sounds of the doors opening.

Out into the fresh air at the end of our visit we had a good chance to admire the architecture of the gaol and its distinctive star-shaped arrangement. In addition there were some classic vehicles from the times of the troubles: armoured cars, a truck, and even a Wessex Helicopter.

The very final part of the gaol experience was a quick look inside the Matron’s House. The matron was tasked with looking after the incarcerated women and children.

We’d had such a wonderful time in the gaol and had reached past lunchtime with the realisation that we had loads more walking planned during our time in Belfast so we did something unexpectedly sensible for us and grabbed a spot of lunch in the gaol’s café. We offset that sensibleness by ordering cocktails too.

Unfortunately, in addition to being very expensive the food was basic and dry and the drinks were frighteningly sweet. Luck of the draw, perhaps, or maybe just another nod to the likely average-at-best nourishment that prisoners would have received. Maybe. What are cocktails like in prison, anyway?

In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll head off for a walk to see the Protestant and Catholic areas take on street art either side of the Belfast interface area.