Ireland 1968-1998 The Troubles

Sinn Fein

While touring around Belfast, we took what was called a Black Taxi Tour, with four men who would explain the history of Belfast to us. Belfast has a very interesting history because of the troubled times that they had gone through, in their fight for independence, not too many years ago. Being part of Northern Ireland, Belfast is a part of the Protestant United Kingdom; however, the city is split amongst its Catholic and Protestant residents. The city is literally split down the middle with a wall separating the Protestant and Catholic sides. The city of Belfast is a very decorated city in the sense that there are various murals painted on to the sides of houses. The scenes that are painted onto the houses depict images of lost loved ones during the troubled times, the 1916 rebellion, or other times in Irish history. I found this part of the trip to be very inspiring due to the fact that my family is Irish Catholic. When we arrived at the Peace Wall, that separates the two parts of the city, we were given the chance to sign the wall. At the end of the tour, we arrived at the Sinn Fein building. Sinn Fein is an Irish Republican Party, which was the leading party during this time period for fighting for home rule for Ireland. We were able to learn a great deal about The Troubles from these men in large part to their involvement in The Troubles, which proved very beneficial as they gave us firsthand stories and experience of the time period.