Tour 8: West Belfast
This 2½-mile (4km) half-day walk covers one of the most absorbing and controversial Belfast districts, now becoming the focus of a tourist boom.
Highlights
West Belfast has witnessed some unthinkable things in its turbulent past and this tour gives the opportunity to learn and understand a bit of what life was like before, after and during the Troubles. Many famous landmarks from over three decades of the area’s history are here. One of the most striking discoveries is just how closely situated the Shankill and Falls roads are, where two very different communities still live. The tour follows the length of both roads and enables you to cross the Peace Line.
TAKING A TAXI
As an alternative to this walk, you might consider taking one of the famous Black Taxi Tours (eg: Big E’s Belfast Taxi Tours; tel: 07968 477924; www.big-e-taxitours.com; The Black Cab Tour; tel: 07798 602401). They give a detailed introduction to the area and its people and into what makes the district what it is today.
FALLS ROAD
For republican west Belfast start at the city centre end (take Metro bus 10) of the Falls Road, at the junction with Northumberland Street. Though many high-rise tower blocks have been demolished, the area still displays many icons illustrating passions that tore the area apart. Divis Tower, to the east, is still called Planet of the IRSPs (Irish Republican Socialist Party). Just off the Falls Road is St Peter’s Cathedral 1 [map] (St Peter’s Square; tel: 028-9032 7573; www.stpeterscathedralbelfast.com; Mon–Sat 9am–4pm), whose two great towers with rising spires were used as sightlines by German bombers in World War II.
Conway Mill 2 [map] (5–7 Conway Street; tel: 028-9032 9646; www.conwaymill.org; Mon–Sun 9am–9pm), the second turning to the right up the Falls Road, was built in 1842 by the Kennedy family, and it was the first flax-spinning mill in west Belfast. A listed building, it ceased production in 1972 and is now a centre for more than 20 local craftspeople including artists and jewellery makers.
Bobby Sands Memorial
Back on the Falls Road, just two streets up on the right is Sevastapol Street, on the corner of which is the iconic memorial mural for Bobby Sands, elected MP as he lay dying, who was the first of the 10 republican hunger strikers to die, after a 66-day fast in 1981. This mural is one of the most photographed pieces of public art in Europe.
Clonard Monastery
A little further on, at the end of Clonard Street, is Clonard Monastery 3 [map] (tel: 028-9044 5950; www.clonard.com; Mon–Sat 9am–7pm, Sun 9am–2pm). Built in French Gothic style with a striking 20ft (6m)-wide stained-glass rose window, the impressive church and monastery were completed in 1911. You can trace the history of its owners, the Redemptorist order, a Catholic movement founded in Italy in 1732, on floor and ceiling mosaics. In early summer, the church hosts a nine-day Novena when the grounds are crowded with the faithful. It is here that vital talks were held that ultimately led to the peace process. The church is also used as part of the West Belfast Festival (for more information, click here).
Environmental Trail
Fáilte Feirste Thiar, the organisation behind the promotion of West Belfast Tourism, has joined with the West Belfast Partnership Board to work with the local community in improving the neighbourhood’s environment and the health of its inhabitants. There are ten ‘green’ projects to visit and everyone is encouraged to use a bicycle, a black taxi or local bus for transport. More details can be found on www.visitwestbelfast.com.
On the other side of the Falls Road, Dunville Park is named after its whiskey-distilling benefactor, who donated the park to the people of the city in 1887. Located within the park is the famous Dunville Fountain. Further up the road, the sprawling grounds of Royal Victoria Hospital still house the world’s first air-conditioning ducts. Another regular venue for the West Belfast Festival is St Mary’s University College to the right, designed in High Victorian style and dating from 1900.
Gaeltacht Quarter
This district is focused on the Falls Road. Continuing along the road and central to this area is An Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich 4 [map] (tel: 028-9096 4180; www.culturlann.ie), a three-storey Irish language, arts and cultural centre centre at No. 216. It has a café, Irish-language book and gift shop (with an excellent selection of traditional music CDs), theatre and tourist information point. On the ground floor, the Dillon Gallery, named after the Falls Road artist Gerard Dillon, who spent time painting in the west of Ireland, mounts shows by local and international artists. The gallery was opened in 2011 as part of a £2m renovation and extension to mark the centre’s 20th anniversary. The building also houses the radio station Raidió Fáilte, which broadcasts 24 hours a day. Live traditional and contemporary music sessions, concerts and a children’s art programme also feature. Stop here for a coffee and soak up the atmosphere while discovering the essence of Irish culture.
Clonard Monastery.
APA Kevin Cummins
From here you can book the most authentic and detailed political walking tours of this area, organised by republican ex-prisoners. Coiste (Beechmount Avenue, off the Falls Road; tel: 028-9020 0770; www.coiste.ie) run daily tours, which gather at Divis Tower in the Lower Falls (Mon–Sat 11am, Sun 2pm), visiting sites of significance on the Falls Road. It can be arranged to hand you over to ex-loyalist prisoners at the Peace Line for a tour of the Shankill Road. Tickets can also be purchased at the Belfast Welcome Centre (tel: 028-9024 6609); booking is essential.
West Belfast Festival
The West Belfast (Féile An Phobail) Festival office, which is open most of the year as it has a children’s festival in March to organise, is just up the road at Teach na Féile (No. 473; tel: 028-9031 3440; www.feilebelfast.com). Usually held early August, the festival is a mixture of music, drama, literary events and comedy, with major names such as Roddy Doyle, Christy Moore and Stephen Rea participating. Highlights include heated political debates and a colourful parade up the Falls.
Celtic cross headstones at Milltown Cemetery.
APA Kevin Cummins
The Cemeteries
Continuing up to the top end of the Falls Road you come to the cemeteries. Though it might seem perverse, one of the most fascinating tours in Belfast is during the festival when a local Sinn Féin councillor, Tom Hartley takes visitors on a 90-minute journey around the City Cemetery 5 [map] and Milltown Cemetery, the former owned by Belfast City Council, the latter by the Catholic Church. Milltown, where, on live TV, loyalist paramilitary Michael Stone shot and threw grenades at mourners at a republican funeral, includes the plot where hunger striker Bobby Sands is buried.
Founding the Festival
The West Belfast Festival was founded in 1988 when the Falls Road district was described by the international media as a broken, crime-ridden community. The founders were determined to promote the positive side of the neighbourhood and it has gone from strength to strength, creating one of the best-attended festivals in the city, bringing in some 50,000 people. It’s a great time to be in town.
Despite the sunken wall that prevents Catholic and Protestant bodies from mingling underground, the real story of the City Cemetery is more complex. Here lie the great and good of Belfast, men who shaped the city. Yet, the most striking features of their tombs are the Celtic crosses and the seeming acceptance of a cultural Irishness that would have contrasted sharply with their political loyalties. By 1921 the effects of partition become apparent in an absence of Irish symbols and the frequency of Union flags. There are many fine monuments within the City Cemetery, some in excellent condition while others have been vandalised over the years. Both cemeteries can be visited during normal opening hours.
The tour goes back down the Falls Road; you may choose to walk, but we suggest taking either Metro bus 10 or buses 82/82A and disembarking at the corner with Northumberland Street.
Painted walls on the Shankill Road.
APA Kevin Cummins
PEACE LINE
Walk along Northumberland Street to the north and through the Peace Line 6 [map] towards the Shankill Road. On 9 September 1969, James Chichester-Clarke, prime minister of Northern Ireland’s parliament, announced that the British army would build a temporary ‘peace line’ between Protestant and Catholic areas of Belfast to stop rioting. By the end of the century there were 15 walls separating the two communities, some of them corrugated-iron barriers crowned with razor wire, others 20ft (6m) concrete barricades reminiscent of the Berlin Wall. The most obtrusive stretched for 2 miles (3km), separating the Falls and Shankill roads. The walls have now become a tourist attraction, but some local people believe they are still needed.
The Falls and Shankill
Though poverty and lack of resources still affect both communities, they seem far more pronounced in the Shankill, a heartland of loyalism. Redevelopment has not been sympathetic or universal; there are many empty sites and decaying buildings, and it is estimated that nearly half the population of the area has departed over the past three decades. Compared to the more cohesive and vibrant republican community on the Falls, there is a noticeable listlessness and lack of bustle.
SHANKILL ROAD
At the junction with the Shankill Road, turn west past the Rex Bar and the famous mural of Edward Carson signing the 1912 Covenant, and you will come to the Shankill Memorial Gardens, on the other side of the road. The gardens recall those who died in the two world wars, with an old Belfast street lamp with an ‘eternal flame’ commemorating the victims of the 1993 Shankill Road bombing.
Spectrum Centre
Although the presence of loyalist paramilitaries is still keenly felt, the £4.5 million Spectrum Centre 7 [map] (331–3 Shankill Road, tel: 028-9050 4555; www.spectrumcentre.com) opened in 2001, a rough equivalent of An Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich on the Falls, has become a base for community groups as well as dance, drama and music studios, sports venues and a film society. This is Shankill’s answer to the Troubles, a community-based centre reaching out to a wider audience, giving confidence, creative expression and a positive approach for the future.
Churches and Cemeteries
Towards the top of the road, on the right, is the Shankill Graveyard, the main city cemetery until 1866. It is said burials have taken place on this site for over 1,000 years. It contains the graves of several notable citizens as well as many who died in various plagues. A statue of Queen Victoria stands by the main entrance. The name Shankill comes from the Gaelic for ‘Old Church’, the site of which, believed to date from the 6th century, can be found within the graveyard.
Just up the road is the distinctive 1872 Church of Ireland St Matthew’s 8 [map] , known as the ‘Shamrock Church’, for its tri-cornered shape. Its holy water font is believed to be the only remnant in Belfast of the original Old Church (and whose water is also believed to be a cure for warts).
Nearby is another famous mural, depicting James Buchanan, one of several US presidents with Ulster antecedents. From here you can catch the Metro bus 11 back to the city centre.
Eating Out
Caifé Feirste
An Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich, 216 Falls Road; tel: 028-9096 4184; Mon–Sat 9am–9pm, Sun 10am–6pm.
Located in the Falls Road cultural centre, the atmosphere is welcoming and relaxed. Learn more about west Belfast while sampling the good home-made food served here. Menus range from coffee and cakes and light lunches to full meals served in the evening. £
Goodfella’s
11 Kennedy Way; tel 028-9043 1143; Mon–Thu and Sun 5–11pm, Fri–Sat 5pm–midnight.
Just south of the Milltown Cemetery and one to come back to in the evening, this Italian restaurant has a great selection of pizzas with names such as knuckle buster (ham) and Freddie-no-nose (peppers, mushroom and ham). Bring your own bottle (no corkage charge). Best to book at the weekend. ££
May B’s Bakery and Sandwich Bar
272 Shankill Road; tel: 028-9031 4510; Mon–Sat 8.30am–4pm, Sun 10am–2pm.
If you are looking for a snack such as soup, sandwich, panini, light salad or a selection of pastries and scones, then this is as good a central resting place as any along the length of the Shankill Road. For something more substantial try an Ulster fry or any number of optional hot dishes all served with chips. £
