Random Pictures from Belfast

Meant to get these up yesterday, but pretty much forgot. Here are more pictures from Belfast:

These are from the top of Queen Victoria's Shopping Centre. You could find references to Queens Victoria and Elizabeth II everywhere.

Giant Salmon along the river walk

This was outside St. Anne's

These were gifts to St. Anne's

I think these were the original communion dishes for St. Anne's

This is a St. Patrick's Thanksgiving parade. The man we talked to said it was to celebrate and give thanks for "the orange" - meaning Protestantism. 

Seahorses! 

This used to be the watchtower. It used to be that doctors who wanted to do research on human corpses would pay grave robbers, or, as Charles Dickens calls them, "Resurrection Men" to steal fresh corpses for their research. This tower was erected so the loved ones of the recently dead could keep watch over the cemetery at night and protect their loved ones' bodies from grave robbers.

This is the grave marker for one John Murdoch, aged 17. From what we could make out, he died from a bullet wound while saving "another creature" from the same fate. 17.

View of one of the hills at the end of the day. 

Belfast - Poppy Crosses

Every once in a while, while walking through Belfast, you see these little plastic crosses made out of poppies posted on random-seeming building walls:

And they're usually next to a sign similar to this:

IRA stands for Irish Republican Army, which began as an organization that meant to overthrow the Irish countries created by treaty and establish a united Ireland. 

Anyway - I'm done for tonight. I'll post more pictures of random sights throughout Belfast tomorrow. 

Belfast - What I Really Didn't Expect

Chalk this up to my being a clueless American, or just plain clueless, or whatever, but I didn't see this coming. Belfast, you will remember, is part of the United Kingdom - and they really, really look like it.

I'm not kidding. Belfast looks like an extension of England. I mean, you can tell you're still on the Emerald Isle, no doubt about it, but they also don't leave you in any doubt which part of the Emerald Isle you're on. There are Union Jacks, images of English Kings and Queens, and even this:

It is a clock tower built in honor of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort.

 This part of Belfast was a complete surprise to me, and somehow, I can't imagine any of this making an appearance in Dublin. 

Belfast - War Memorials

This one I might have expected if I'd really thought about it.

In Dublin, I can recall having seen one war memorial - possibly two. In Belfast, they were everywhere. Everywhere. In churches, on murals, in alleys between buildings, everywhere. The majority of them, that I saw, were for World War II - during which the Republic of Ireland was neutral, while Northern Ireland, still part of of the United Kingdom, fought on the side of the allies. In WWI, which killed off nearly a generation of Britain's men, the Republic of Ireland was in the process of hammering out the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which, in 1919, gave Ireland its independence from Great Britain.

I honestly never thought about Dublin and its part in the World Wars. But when you go to Belfast, you can't help thinking about the wars. There are heartfelt, thoughtful, tear-inducing memorials everywhere.

These are from the inside of St. Anne's:

This cask holds all the names of the men from Belfast who died in WWI

The verse references is the one that goes, "No greater love is there than this: than that a man dies to save his friends." It shows up on a later memorial.

This cross was made from the nails of Coventry Church, which was destroyed by bombs.

List of the Belfast men who died in WWII.

 This was my favorite one:

The first American troops to land in Europe in preparation for D-Day (June 6, 1944) landed in Belfast in April of 1942. An American flag was presented to the American commander to mark the event. That flag needed replacement, so the one above was donated. Like the original, it only has 48 stars for 48 states, because Alaska and Hawaii hadn't joined yet.

That stupid flash - I couldn't get it not to reflect. But that verse at the end - beautiful.

This was part of a "Garden of Reflection"

It's referring to a German bombing of Belfast.

There were many more, but I didn't snap pictures of all of them. There was one that I was pretty sure I had taken a picture of, but I can't find it anywhere. 

Churches

I didn't at all expect this - maybe I should have, but I didn't - but I saw more churches in Belfast in one day than I saw in Dublin in my first month. Why?

I'm not sure why I saw more. Truthfully, it could just be that Belfast is a smaller city than Dublin, so all the churches are closer together. I also haven't really looked for churches so much in Dublin. But in Belfast, everywhere you looked, you could see a tower or spiral from a Cathedral. Here are some:

These are from Sinclair Seamen's Church, which specialized in ministering to sailors who came into port in Belfast. We weren't allowed in, but I got some shots of the outside:

These are from St. Anne's Cathedral, which was large and beautiful, but not in the way the Medici and other Italian chapels were:

This is the inside. Notice that there are no frescoes, the stones are not as exquisite as the Italian cathedrals, and the ceiling is made of wood with a sunhole in the roof:

Notice the British flags? I'll get to those.

I think this is the lectern, where the scripture lessons are read.

We got to hear the choir practice, and I got one of their cd's for my Dad (sh - I know he doesn't read this, so he doesn't know yet!)

I think this was the only fresco in the cathedral. It depicts St. Patrick.

And this is none other than St. Vincent de Paul himself.

These next ones are from St. Patrick's Cathedral. There were people inside who were actually praying, and it seemed disrespectful to snap photos like a tourist, so I only got one of the inside. I will say, however, that I think St. Patrick's is the most artlessly beautiful cathedral I have ever seen. Really, it is magnificent and artless inside:

This is the inside. The picture doesn't do it justice, but I'm still quite pleased with this shot. Notice the purple cloth draped at the front, because it is Lent. 

In between churches, we saw the below mural of none other than Martin Luther. This is something I probably should have expected, since there is a higher number of Protestants in Northern Ireland than in Ireland, but it was still surprising to come across:

This is Luther's famous quote - "Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me."

I'm fairly sure it was actually Augsburg where he said that, but this is still really cool.
Edit: I reread this and thought to myself, "What on earth was I thinking? It was definitely Worms!"

More churches - I don't remember all their names:

This was kind of amazing.

It was freezing cold and I didn't have my gloves, so I only used my camera to snap photos of churches I thought were particularly beautiful. There were many, many more that we passed by.