Entering through gates and walking the peace wall in Belfast

 A bit of a bazaar day today. We decided to walk down to the peace wall from central Belfast.  It’s about a 1.2 mile walk. It takes you up falls road, a notorious road in Catholic West Belfast. We were following google maps an did not realize we were on falls road until I saw a sign.  

So we came to an area that had all these political murals about oppression of Catholics and uniting Ireland. There were murals about political struggles across the world including Black Lives Matter. 

Went further where turned down a short street that looked industrial. Galway down we’re iron gates that were open but could be closed across the road. We just thought some company didn’t want people past this area after a certain time. Later we would learn this was one of the gates that closed off the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods from each other at night.

So at the end of the road we turned left and started down the road where there was a continuous wall with graffiti on it. I eventually looked up and realized this was the peace wall. It was one long wall with fencing on top that was 25 feet high. 

So on one side of the street was this tall wall. On the other side there was a maybe 10 foot regular fence with houses behind it. The area looked poor.  This was the Protestant side. 

So we walked to the end of road - about half a mile and came to a place where you could turn back into the Catholic side. A little ways down are steel doors that stretch across the road that were open. They could be closed and are every night.

So when the troubles started Falls road was where a lot of clashes took place. Houses were burned down. People were killed. It was out of control. That’s when British troops were called in to “protect the Catholics”. There were clashes bff were tween Catholics and police. The neighborhoods were also fighting each other. Barricades were put up between the neighborhoods by police. Eventually all of this led to the building of this peace wall which has stood for more than 50 years.

So the first gates we went through on the short road closed at 6:30 pm.  The second gate on a busier street going back into the Catholic area close at 10 pm.

And that’s life in Belfast…