Giants Causeway Take Two

Day 20

Once again I was up at 6:45 am. This time I had to get all of my stuff together and there was no way that I was going to miss the bus, or paddywagon as it were.

The tour started by driving to the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. I had seen this on Rick Steves and it looked really daunting. In reality it only takes about 20 seconds to cross and isn't that bad. The reward was a fabulous view of the coastline. On the tour I met Pablo, a Polish guy living in Ennis. We took turns taking pictures of one another. The walk back across the bridge was a bit more frightening as there were several people on it and it shook like crazy.

Just about 15 minutes away is the Giant's Causeway. Legend has it that an Irish Giant (IG) built a causeway to Scotland. When he got there he realized that the Scottish Giant (SG) was a lot bigger than him and that he shouldn't mess with him. It was too late, the SG was mad and he headed over to Ireland to deal with the IG. The IG was prepared and dressed up as a baby. When the SG saw the massive baby he decided that if the baby was that big then the IG must be massive. SG headed back to Scotland and destroyed the causeway as he went.

Apparently there is a scientific explanation about lava and ice and time, but I think that it must be a bunch of crap.

The causeway is made up of thousands of octagon shaped stones of varying heights. We spent some time climbing around and taking pictures from different angels. Unfortunately there was not enough time to take the longer, more scenic path.

After a quick photo op at Dunluce castle we headed to London Derry. We had the choice of hanging out or taking a walking tour about the Troubles, and I choose the later. This time the guide was clearly an Unionist, there were several Loyalist tour guides from Belfast in the group and they had some rather loud complaints.

Even though a lot of the violence took place in Belfast, it began in London Derry. The name of the city used to be Derry, but when the British brought settlers over in the 1600's the name was changed to London Derry.

At some point the English were afraid that Spain might use Northern Ireland as a staging ground to invade England. To counter act this threat the British stationed soldiers here. This did not make the Native Irish happy. Eventually the British decided that a permanent settlement would be best and kicked the Irish out of the walled city and forced them to live in a ghetto like area. At this time only people who owned buildings or lands were able to vote, they had one vote per building or land area. The Catholics were too poor to own anything and had basically no votes, while many of the Protestants had several. This policy continued until the 1960's. It was in the 60's that the violence begun.

At one point the riots were happening almost daily. The violence came from both sides. it wasn't until the 1990's when the Clinton administration put pressure on the UK government to come to an agreement was a cease fire signed. Neither side is completely happy, but both feel that this is the best option for the time being.

I forgot to take notes and wrote that from memory. I hope that I didn't forget anything or remembered something incorrectly.

The murals here were very pro-Unionist. One showed a 10 year old boy wearing a gas mask and holding a Molotov cocktail. Another was of a woman who started a march from the local college. On the back of a house that had been burned out was a sign that stated that you are entering Free Derry.

Pablo and I had some trouble finding the tour bus, but did eventually manage to stumble upon it. I spent the bus ride back staring out at the wonderful countryside and admiring the hundreds of really cute sheep and lambs.

At the bus station I spent my last few £'s on candy and then got on the bus for Dublin. In under three hours I was in Dublin and at my hostel. It had been a long day, and I collapsed into my bed.