Hometown visit - Whiteabbey, County Antrim

On our last morning in Belfast we fitted in a visit to the Ulster Museum, located in the grounds of Belfast's beautiful Botanic Gardens - only a short walk from our Tara Lodge.

In our hour and a half visit we barely scratched the surface of all that was on offer. Highlights for us were the photographic exhibition documenting the history of (political) mural painting in Northern Ireland and the Troubles and Beyond exhibition - presenting the story of events in Northern Ireland from August 1969 - the present day.

One source of some amusement was this collection of responses about the differences between Catholics and Protestants ... some of these responses (prejudices) would have applied to Australia back in the pre-1960s for sure. Do you know what the saying "Peelers are all Prods" means?

The beautiful cast iron and glass Palm House in the grounds of the Belfast Botanic Gardens.........

We met up again with Maeve in the early afternoon, but this time in her (and Tania's) hometown of Whiteabbey, a "townland" a few miles north of Belfast on the shore of Belfast Lough. Maeve was to give us a guided tour of the village, the Lough shore and the Glen, all places of great meaning to both Maeve and Tania as they were growing up.

We walked the village first, stopping for a cup of tea and an Irish scone at a local cafe while listening to Maeve's stories about the town's colourful past. We were shocked to hear of the bombings and attacks taking place here during the Troubles - in such a quiet village outside the city centre! Maeve told us there were 5 pubs in town before the Troubles but 3 of them were destroyed by bombs. 

This pub was bombed three times but has survived! People had bombs thrown in their front doors - no one knew what was happening next.

We took a long walk along the Lough shore - looking out to the opposite shore where we'd travelled yesterday to Bangor. 

This protected wall was a favourite hangout of Tania's when she was a kid - you could imagine feeling safe here with the stone wall behind you, facing out to sea.

Maeve guided us then to the beautiful forest walk "The Glen" which follows the river up to the Bleach Green railway viaducts. This was a favourite haunt of Whiteabbey kids back in the day, who played in its trees, in the river and made up games  around its fairy dells.

The old railway viaducts at the end of the walk have a massive beauty too.

Maeve is so knowledgeable and easy to talk to. Even though a village like this would never be found in the tourist guide books, by looking at it through a local person's eyes you can really feel history come alive and how the Troubles touched everyone's lives, no matter what their religion was - and continues to to this very day...... 

We were shocked to hear that its still quite the thing on the 11 July each year for Orangeman to light huge bonfires all over Northern Ireland and burn effigies of the Pope (and Sinn Féin leaders) to celebrate the eve of the Battle of the Boyne.

In amongst our talk Maeve and I established an amazing connection today when we both realised our great grandmothers are from villages in Ireland that are only a few kilometres apart. My family members lived near Ardess, 3 klm east of Kesh (near Enniskillen) and Maeve's family were from Ederney, the neighbouring village to Ardess. They could have even lived in fields next to each other?? - we found that such a lovely thing to share on our last afternoon in Belfast together!