|
Like many other cities, Belfast's population expanded dramatically during the nineteenth century as people flocked from the countryside to work in the booming new flax and linen industries. Many of these migrants were crammed into jerry-built housing in the grids of streets which still today define West Belfast . Conditions were deplorable and did nothing to ease tensions between Catholic and Protestant residents. There were numerous sectarian riots - the worst was in 1886, during the reading of the Home Rule Bill, when 32 people died and over 370 were injured - leading to the almost inevitable creation of two separate neighbourhoods. In 1968 and 1969, this division was pushed to its limit when sectarian mobs and gunmen evicted over eight thousand families from their homes, mainly in Catholic West Belfast. The Royal Ulster Constabulary, or RUC, called for government assistance and British troops arrived on the streets on August 15, 1969. A month later the makeshift barrier dividing the Catholic Falls from the Protestant Shankill had become a full-scale reinforced "peace line". British intervention may have averted a civil war, but it failed to prevent an escalation in sectarian conflict. Indeed, the army soon came to be viewed as an occupying force and a legitimate target for a reviving IRA. In return, Loyalist paramilitaries sought to avenge Republican violence, often through indiscriminate acts of aggression. Over the next 25 years, West Belfast remained the major battleground of the Troubles. The busy Westlink motorway separates West Belfast from the rest of the city, and at the height of the conflict, the various overhead bridges and roundabouts were used by the police and army as virtual border crossings to control access to and from the area. Today, however, West Belfast is completely safe for strangers to the city to stroll around in. There's little of architectural note among the mainly residential streets and most of the "sights" are associated with the area's troubled past. Much of the old terraced housing has been replaced in recent years by rows of modern Housing Executive homes, but it's impossible to miss examples of the partisan mural paintings which decorate walls and gable ends in both Catholic and Protestant areas .
Your Tip for West Belfast
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to West Belfast - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to West Belfast - visit the main West Belfast forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the West Belfast webguide section below! Thanks.
|
