Away Day

I was on the 10:35 flight from Edinburgh to Belfast, so a fairly busy start to the day.

FlyBe uses George Best Airport. That meant I was in the city centre before noon and had a pizza in front of me by 12:15. Perked me up. So did the glass of Bardolino. I can recommend Little Wing Pizzeria if you’re in town and hungry.

The Ulster Museum after lunch. I hadn’t been there on my four previous visits, so it was overdue. It has a special section on “The Troubles”, as they’re referred to here. We forget that the violence was on the news almost every night for more than 30 years until the Good Friday Agreement in 1999.

My first visit - mid 90s - was during a cease fire, which collapsed not long after.

Good Friday 1999 is one of those “where were you when Kennedy was shot?” things for me. I was in Vilnius, working overtime on a client project. I had a pub lunch at Prie Parlamento and some of the UK Embassy staff kept me updated on how the talks were going.

Anyway, ice hockey in the evening. Great Britain v Lithuania in the IIHF world championship tournament (division 1B). Bringing the tournament to Belfast was a bit of a gamble for Ice Hockey UK and the IIHF - worries about all those Team GB fans draped in British flags and whether the Belfast public (half of whom see themselves as Irish) would turn up to support a British team.        

Well Team GB (they don’t even put Northern Ireland in the name) won 5-2 but the crowd was so sparse I’m not sure “crowd” is the right word.

The Blip is one of the exhibits at the museum - about the civil rights marches in the 1960s which pre-dated the violence. The civil rights they were seeking were an end to discrimination in employment and housing, plus an end to fixing of constituency boundaries so as to ensure nationalists or republicans could never be elected.

Aye, 1960s "United" Kingdom..