Last few days in Belfast

Well, here are quite a few pictures (maybe too many) from my last few days spent in Belfast -the main city in Northern Ireland... Hope you like them!

This is Stormont - NI's parliament building. We got to meet with elected members from each of the 6 main parties (Sinn Fein, SDLP, UUP, DUP, Alliance & Green Party). NI has a unique system of government called powersharing, that is used in societies coming out of conflict, because essentially no one has that much more power than anyone else and no group is left out.

Stormont is built away from the rest of the city, and once you enter the gates there is a mile long drive-way until you reach the actual building.

The group & our director - Aeveen.

This is a dome where you can view the city.

But the dome wasn't nearly as exciting as..... the FERRIS WHEEL. (positioned awkwardly next to the capital building)

Laura & I on our ferris wheel ride - where as tourists we were the only two people taking advantage of this attraction.

Maybe we were alone, because it was SO windy on that thing!! And I was obviously concerned...

'The Crown Saloon'

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The rest of these pictures are from a tour of West Belfast where the majority of the violence took place during the time of the Troubles and some still today.

This is a 'peace wall' dividing a 100% Protestant community and 100% Catholic community. There are gates along the wall that allow people and cars through during the day, but they are closed & locked at 10 pm every night to keep the communities apart.

Murals are a very prominent aspect of Protestant & Catholic culture in Belfast. In this particular one, the UVF was a Protestant paramilitary group.

This was a UVF ex-prisoner who showed us around the area.

Shankill road is the main road in this Protestant area.

The rest of these pictures are on the other side of the peace wall... the Catholic side.

Some of these murals support international causes that the Catholics sympathize towards as other oppressed groups.

This is the IRA ex-prisoner who showed us around this area & a memorial for people lost during the conflict in the area.

This is a mural of Bobby Sands - a famous IRA hunger striker - they were striking to have status as political prisoners