Faces of Belfast, Northern Ireland

I was in Belfast a couple of years ago for a job and was able to enjoy a weekend off, riding rented bicycles through the countryside along the tow path with my client, stopping along the way at various ruins, graveyards, churches and yes, of course, pubs.

I love this face, enjoying a pint (or two) in the late morning (so were we, so who’s to judge!). The lighting was dim but great (maybe not perfect, the shadow on his left eye is stronger than I’d like and this was shot at ISO 1600), but he was more than happy to throw a toothy half-grin my way.

Clientele at a pub in Drumbeg, outside of Belfast, Northern Ireland @ April 2009 | Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III & 50mm ƒ/1.2L @ ISO 1600, ƒ/2, 1/125

The Black Cab Tour of Belfast

For £25, you can hire a car for a guided tour of Belfast and be escorted into some of the neighborhoods you wouldn’t likely stroll into on your own. It’s an incredibly interesting and educational experience, and I’ll endeavor to recount the tales accurately here, but honestly our driver, Tom, crammed over 100 years of history and knowledge into our heads in just over an hour’s time, and so some of the details may be missing here.

UPDATE: I wrote the above paragraph on the train the day of our tour, and a month later have come back to it. If I recount stories now, I’ll butcher them to death, so instead I’ll just share the photos, and advise you to visit Belfast, take a Black Cab tour, and as for a man named Tom. ‘Cause you know, there’s only one cabbie named Tom in all of Belfast. I’m sure of it.

This is one of the many famous murals found in Belfast. Click the photo to open the gallery and see many more.

The Red Hand Of Ulster

This is the Peace Wall, built to separate the Republican and Loyalists. It was nearly torn down, as The Troubles appear to be mostly over, however the local residents voted against it, essentially saying, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. It’s safe to say the peace is tenuous, and there’s no point making it any more fragile.

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The Belfast Towpath

With a rare full-day off on the trip to Belfast, my client and I hired (rented) bikes for a day and took the Belfast Towpath (bike-path… don’t ask why it’s called a towpath… that’s what people seem to call it yet we only saw one sign with that name and no one being towed) from Belfast towards Lisburn, called The Lagan and Lough Cycle Way http://www.nationalcyclenetwork.co.uk.

The Lagan and Lough Cycle Way in BelfastThe path was an easy ride, mostly flat with only baby hills, and followed the river. The scenery was green, green, and green, with the occasional splash of yellow or red to break up the green. The trees were green, the shrubs were green, the grass the hills the fields were all green. It was, as I may have mentioned, quite green. Unfortunately the sky was a blinding shade of matte-grey, rendering nearly all photos as drab and flat as English toast. We spotted a cemetary along the way and had a respectful look around.

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