April 27th

Continuing,
Nobody would ever attempt or be allowed to enter one of these "social clubs" without being connected or known to members. I have been there several times over the years and the members though, a little wary at first, welcomes the twenty Americans who arrived in on them. Some odd looks were sent our way, but don't forget these people are very wary of anyone they don't know for all the right reasons. Tha same can be said for the other Unionist Protestant side. The group totally enjoyed the mysterious and warm welcome they received and of course there is a bar n the premises and drinks were had by all. BTW Roddy McCorley was hanged on Toomb Bridge, not far from Belfast in 1798 and is remembered as a great hero in folklore and song.
We left after about an hour and this time drove down the Shankhill Road, through the Protestant stronghold and looked at all their murals, many of which memorialized their contribution to both World Wars and the men they sent off to fight in the British Army. There are also murals of their more modern Ulster Volunteer Force members who died in the "Troubles", the UVF, UFF, UDA being Protestant paramilitary forces. Thousands of people, many of whom were innocent, died in he late 60's and 70's and 80's in the conflict.
We arrived back at the hotel in time for dinner tonight which was roast pork loin and a beef stew over rice. Also the usual, new potatoes, green beans, carrots and turnips. We had shrimp cocktail to start.
It was a very long but extremely full and informative day and several still had the stamina left to go out to the Crown Bar built around 1690, the oldest pub in Belfast. Not me, I'm done for the week now, and tomorrow will be a much more relaxing day. Off to the four hundred year old Saint George's Markets for some Venice Beach street performers, swap meet and food court experience...after lunch we are going to see a matinee of an old Irish play "Noreen Ban" written in 1860. A friend of mine has one of the lead roles. 16 of us are going, it's at the Belfast Lyric Theater....catch up with the final blog tomorrow night...