Northern Ireland

I have always been interested in Northern Ireland. Growing up I over heard on the news in the evenings about the violence between the Catholics and the Protestants in places like Belfast and I have always been curious about the potato famine. In addition, my ancestors came from this area, after immigrating from Scotland to Ireland. So when I map quested the area and realized that going from Scotland to Northern Ireland and then looping down into Ireland and back over to England was doable, I started to make plans. Our first stop was in Belfast to see the Titanic Museum. It had opened just a few weeks prior to our visit, so we were some of the first so visit this impressive site. It is located in the shipyards where the Titanic was built and then ceremoniously sent off for its fatal voyage. The kids especially loved the ride that took us through a replica of the ship yards, the models of the rooms for the different classes and the multi media presentation about the discovery of the Titanic. 

 Our next stop was Omagh to visit the Irish American Folk Museum. It was a living museum of replicas of homes from which Irish families emigrated to America. We learned about the potato famine, the Irish lifestyle of the 1800's and how and why these people came to America. In the museum, we toured Irish homes and then entered a town similar to one in which the Irish would buy their tickets and other supplies to come to America, we walked through a ship and then out into a replica of a New England village. The Museum was very well presented.

 The Irish relied on bogs, like the one above, to use as fuel for fires.

This was a great introduction to our time in Northern Ireland and Ireland.