Day 623: Never letting go

09/04/2023

This morning just after 06:00 Eloise was up and remembered straight away “MUMMMM, UP, MUMMMM, it’s Easter, has bunny come?” Luckily the Northern Irish Easter Bunny had managed to find them overnight. Once Eloise had got Lachlan up and to her level of excitment they burst through the door, “LOOOOOK LACHLAN! Chocolate eggs, everywhere, quick Lachlan, from the Bunny”. This was Lachlan’s second Easter and he was well-drilled in the art of hunting. Last week Super Mum had whipped up some Easter egg-hunting bags for the kids, which went down a treat.

Eloise’s bag was full in a blink of an eye, she then turned her attention to helping Lachlan, giving him clues. She made sure that Lachlan knew these were just the hunting eggs and that he had special Lachlan chocolate for afterwards.

The effect of the chocolate breakfast hit home fast. After gobbling down a bunny and more than enough eggs each they were doing relay races around the Hayloft.

Once we had cleaned all the chocolate off Eloise and Lachlan’s faces and put them in clean clothes we headed into the city. Will Fox recommended we check out Belfast Peace Walls on the way in. “Will Belfast ever have a Berlin Wall moment and tear down its ‘peace walls’?”

The peace lines or peace walls are a series of separation barriers in Northern Ireland that separate predominantly Irish republican and nationalist Catholic neighbourhoods from predominantly British loyalist and unionist Protestant neighbourhoods. They have been built at urban interface areas in Belfast and elsewhere. The majority of peace walls are located in Belfast, but they also exist in other regions with more than 20 miles of walls in Northern Ireland. Although temporary peace walls were built in Belfast in the 1920s (in Ballymacarett) and 1930s (in Sailortown), the first peace lines of “the Troubles” era were built in 1969, following the outbreak of civil unrest and the 1969 Northern Ireland riots… Originally few in number, they have multiplied over the years, from 18 in the early 1990s to at least 59 as of late 2017; in total they stretch over 34 kilometres (21 miles), with most located in Belfast. They have been increased in both height and number since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Three-quarters of Belfast’s estimated 97 peace lines and related structures (such as gates and closed roads) are in the north and west of the city. These are also the poorer and more disadvantaged areas of Belfast. 67% of deaths during the sectarian violence occurred within 500 metres (550 yd) of one of these “interface structures”.

The next stop was Titanic Belfast Museum, which looked impressive before we had even entered.

The museum’s interior was equally impressive, however, Eloise met her worst nightmare, the visitor maps had gone digital, there were no maps for our tour guide.

Luckily there were lots of buttons to press and figurines to search for which kept Eloise and Lachlan entertained.

The Titanic Museum walked us through the history of Belfast before showing the Titanic shipbuilding stages, the disaster, and the aftermath. Eloise always likes a challenge and stepped up to learn about all things shipbuilding.

There was a neat ride that both the kids were ecstatic for. The rail mechanism which rotated and lowered the carts was impressive.

The Titanic Museum is located on the shipyard overlooking where the Titanic was built.

There were large displays of the Titanic with cabins staged and an immersive display that walked you through the ship which felt awfully like work to me.

RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making it the deadliest sinking of a single ship up to that time. It remains the deadliest peacetime sinking of an ocean liner or cruise ship. The disaster drew public attention, provided foundational material for the disaster film genre, and has inspired many artistic works. RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time she entered service and the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line. She was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Thomas Andrews, the chief naval architect of the shipyard, died in the disaster. Titanic was under the command of Captain Edward Smith, who went down with the ship.

We inevitably made it to the disaster stage, Eloise was truly upset, “oh no, MUMMM, look on no, going down, now it’s all the way at the bottom, uh oh”. The kids had grown a liking to the ship.

It was interesting to hear about the international cooperation and events that followed. We did not know much about that. Meanwhile, Lachlan was busy learning all about ship active sonar.

Lachlan was actually darting about in the dark checking out the displays in search of dinosaurs, sadly not in here Lachlan.

At the end of our second tour based on a sunken ship, we had a chance to recreate the famous scene from the Titanic movie.

Titanic Belfast is a visitor attraction opened in 2012, a monument to Belfast’s maritime heritage on the site of the former Harland & Wolff shipyard in the city’s Titanic Quarter where the RMS Titanic was built. It tells the stories of the Titanic, which hit an iceberg and sank during her maiden voyage in 1912, and her sister ships RMS Olympic and HMHS Britannic. The building contains more than 12,000 square metres (130,000 sq ft) of floor space, most of which is occupied by a series of galleries, private function rooms and community facilities. Titanic Belfast is owned by the Maritime Belfast Trust and commercially operated by Titanic Belfast Limited under a 25-year operator agreement which commenced in 2011.

By the time we had made it back to the lobby, it was packed, and the kids needed some fresh air. Across the road was SS Nomadic, built in the shipyard alongside the Titanic which operated as a tender. Eloise and Lachlan were thrilled for their second ship tour.

Just out of nowhere a “hop jump” appeared, and the kids knew just what to do.

We made it up to the bridge, that Northern Ireland wind that Pam had warned us about was blowing a gale, and Lachlan was doing his best to fight the gusts.

Exhausted from the wind running Lachlan took a breather on the mooring.

SS Nomadic is a former tender of the White Star Line, launched on 25 April 1911 in Belfast now on display in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter. She was built to transfer passengers and mail to and from RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic. She is the only surviving vessel designed by Thomas Andrews who also designed those two ocean liners, and the only White Star Line vessel in existence today.

We made our way back to the Titanic Museum to pick up the people carrier before swinging around the back for a closer look at where the Titanic was built.

By lunchtime, we had all had enough of ships which was lucky as we were blown along the River Lagan. We appreciated the green traffic cones in Northern Ireland.

We bumped into the first two of the six #glassofthrones stained glass windows.

Eloise was surprised when we got to the Belfast Harbour Marine, there was a pirate ship. Xavier would have loved it!

After a well-overdue lunch, we found W5 Science Centre, it looked like a lot of fun, the kids have always loved the interactive science sections which we try and encourage as much as we can. Sadly we did not have enough time so started to move on, when all of a sudden, something in the lobby caught Lachlan’s attention.

We had to quickly move on before Dad got any ideas.

We sadly had to leave W5 Science Centre and saw an interesting-looking display making one hell of a racket. On closer inspection, there was a motion-activated mechanism making a series of strange bangs and clangs. Turns out it was called SoundYard – Maritime Belfast which was designed to create the sounds of the Titanic shipyard, an interesting idea. We wouldn’t say music to our ears though.

At the next #glassofthrones, Eloise was quick to declare “my turn, this one Eloise’s”.

By the fourth, we did not dare wake Lachlan up from his deep sleep.

We passed the creatively named ‘The Big Fish’ before making our way into the city centre.

Due to Easter, the majority of the shopping centres were closed so we followed the line of lost tourists to Belfast City Hall.

The City Hall was grand and its free exhibition had great displays showcasing Belfast’s history.

Lachlan was still out for the count which was good, he needed to catch up on some sleep. Eloise didn’t want him to miss the action so thoughtfully took lots of pictures for him. “Dad, Daddy, Dad, Me take photos, photos for Lachlan, so when Lachlan awake he can see”.

Eloise put all the energy she had left into one final “special hop jump“ and it was then time to move on.

Belfast City Hall is the civic building of Belfast City Council located in Donegall Square, Belfast, Northern Ireland. It faces North and effectively divides the commercial and business areas of the city centre. It is a Grade A listed building. Belfast City Hall was commissioned to replace the Old Town Hall in Victoria Street. The catalyst for change came in 1888 when Belfast was awarded city status by Queen Victoria. This was in recognition of Belfast’s rapid expansion and thriving linen, rope-making, shipbuilding and engineering industries. During this period Belfast briefly overtook Dublin as the most populous city in Ireland

Belfast, meaning ‘mouth of the sand-bank ford’) is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 10th-largest primary urban area in the United Kingdom and the second-largest city in Ireland. It had a population of 345,418 in 2021. By the early 19th century, Belfast was a major port. It played an important role in the Industrial Revolution in Ireland, briefly becoming the biggest linen-producer in the world, earning it the nickname “Linenopolis”. By the time it was granted city status in 1888, it was a major centre of Irish linen production, tobacco-processing and rope-making. Shipbuilding was also a key industry; the Harland & Wolff shipyard, which built the RMS Titanic and SS Canberra, was the world’s largest shipyard. Industrialisation, and the resulting inward migration, made Belfast one of Ireland’s biggest cities. Following the partition of Ireland in 1921, Belfast became the seat of government for Northern Ireland.

After a quick coffee where we eavesdropped on as much of the Northern Irish accent as we could, we headed back home, that was enough for one day, we are all still recovering from a big day climbing yesterday.

We managed to get “home” just in time to watch the entertaining Liverpool and Arsenal match which bizarrely Manchester City ended up winning.