Ireland Information

In our last three posts we talked about airport security in Dublin, work conditions and also road side check points in the Belfast area, with guns leveled at you while the guards at the checkpoint interrogated you before they would let you go through. Listening to my friend tell his story about how the guards that treated  him, his wife and his child while guns are being fired somewhere around this check point sounded pretty scary. Fortunately he and his family were ok and they made it safely away from that check point.

Belfast too Dangerous for the Family

But this post is about how e decided it was time to get out of Belfast and emigrate to North America. Raising a family in the conditions that were prevalent in Belfast at the time was very difficult. Every time you left your home, you wondered if you would make it back. Would you be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or would someone mistake you for the opposite clan and you ended up dead. My friend worked at the telephone company in Belfast and it was interesting about some of the stories that he told about his work there. Our previous post , Belfast Work conditions, talked about how he needed to have an armed escort every time he went outside the office to get supplies!

When you add up all of the issues that he and his family experienced, it is a wonder that he did not move his family sooner. They had an opportunity to emigrate to Alberta, Canada in the late 60′s  and work for the local telephone company. they grabbed that and then ended up in Ontario later on in his career. Making the decision was still a difficult one, since you are leaving family back in Northern Ireland and you are going to a new country were the customs and people are very different than what you are used to.
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This entire series of posts about bombing in Belfast started because of a chance conversation with a friend of mind who I have coffee with once a week. He had mentioned what it was like to try and raise a family in Belfast back in the 60′s and 70′s and why he left the country. There are several posts about his experiences during that time frame both about work as well as private life. We then starting looking at the news from Belfast and were surprised to see that there is still a lot of incidents going on were there are riots, there are bombs placed etc. Some of these bombs explode causing a great deal of damage, while others are detected and dismantled before they have an opportunity to do any damage.

This came as a total surprise to the writer who was under the impression that the violence had all but disappeared after the good Friday accord in 1998!  Certainly all of the politicians at the time took credit for this accord ushering a new life into the region free of violence and bloodshed. Obviously this did not happen and there is still a number of individuals who are bent on causing violence, and destruction of property and life as well in Belfast. Another friend of ours emigrated from Belfast and decided to not have any children because she did not want to bring them into such a violent world. More on what is going on today.

Bombing of the Palace Barracks in Holywood
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Will Rory McIlroy, Irelands new golf sensation ve influenced by all of the pressure that is going to be brought to bear on him now that he has achieved one of golf’s most prestigious awards. Winning against Tiger Woods in Florida last month has put him in golf’s royalty class and now everyone is going to try and take advantage of him, his name and his image. Let’s face it this post is no different, that’s exactly what we are doing without putting pressure on him directly. We are writing about what we think will happened to him and not trying to take advantage of his time and money.

Everyone from people who make t-shirts to the Irish Belfast tourism bureau will get in on the act and will want his time and money.  People making money off t-shirts is one thing. They will use his image and the rights to his image to print thousands if not millions of t-shirts, coffee mugs, pens and on and on. Rory McIlroy can try to police this somewhat and try to claim royalty awards from people who use his image. But the real question is the impact on his time.

For Rory McIlroy to remain at the top of the golf game, he needs to practice and focus on the game of golf just the way he did before he became famous. Now there will be all sorts of demands on his time from people who want to advance their cause, to use him for advertising from sponsors and so on. Can he maintain the focus he needs  to get the job done?

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Northern Ireland golf superstar, Rory McIlroy has become a house hold name. He is recognized virtually around the world now that he has beaten Tiger Woods in Florida. We decided to include this story about on this blog because it shows just how far Ireland has come, particularly Northern Ireland.  Thirty years ago, with Ireland tied up in the troubles, it is unlikely that a guy like Rory McIlroy would ever have had the opportunity let alone the chance to play golf.

He was able to maintain his concentration and his consistency throughout the event beat Tiger by two strokes over all. This was the best final round of golf Tiger has shot since his marriage troubles. He shot a 62 on the final round, but that was not enough to beat Rory McIlroy who shot a 69 on the final round. That is what we mean by being consistent throughout the match which is tantamount to the level of concentration that he was able to show.

He now gets to bask in the notoriety of being famous in the United States as well as in Ireland. With the prize money he has received from this match and the endorsements that will be coming his way, Rory McIlroy will become a very rich man if he is not already. In fact one of his friends indicated that he already has a million dollars in his account and adding more all of the time. He is 22 years old. Will he have the strength to retain his control or will he fall by the way side like so many other famous people with a lot of money?

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We have been writing about Belfast and how dangerous it was during what they call the ‘troubles”, so we thought it would be a good idea to also talk about what it was like for people working in Belfast at the time. This is based on a true story from a friend of mine who lived and worked in Belfast for the telephone company prior to emigrating to North America to a safer location for his wife and children.

Armed Guards

From the companies perspective, they had a lot to protect. There was the equipment, there was the service to the community and of course there were the employees and the customers that would visit the premises every day. There were constant threats and several other businesses that were bombed in the neighborhood. So no one was taking any chances at all with any of the assets both human assets and well as non human assets.

Before going out into an alley which was gated and protected to get cable supplies, the guards would first go out and confirm that everything was safe. Then under the watchful eye the employees who needed to pick up the cable, would go out to the alley and get what they needed. They minimized the amount of time being outside and brought the things they needed inside immediately.
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Our last post, Airport security in Dublin talked about armed guards checking documents as you entered the airport building and how amazed we were when this happened to us. I was telling this same story to a friend of mine who grew up in Northern Ireland in Belfast and he look at me quite seriously and asked, ” Have you ever had a gun pointed at your head?”

I must admit I looked at him with an incredulous look! I really could not believe what he was saying and wondered if I had heard properly. This is a guy who I have known for 20 years and also he seemed to be a mild mannered type of person who would never be involved in anything that would require a gun pointed at his head.  I asked him to repeat his question which was the same as he had previously asked. Of course I answered in the negative and wanted to know what he was talking about.

Road Side Check Points in Belfast

Turns out that back in the late 60′s, he was in a car with his wife and small child in the back seat driving somewhere in Belfast. There were all kinds of checkpoints set up by the army to try and control the movement of guns and also to arrest specific people they were after. When you got to a check point, you rolled a window down in your car and a guard came over to your car and rested the muzzle of his gun on the window of your car pointed directly at your chest. The guard kept the gun pointed at you at all times while peppering you with questions! I guess this was their way of putting pressure on you to see how you would react and whether you would say something you shouldn’t.
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Back in the early 90′s, I experienced for the first time what it was like to come under the muzzle of  a snub nosed semiautomatic machine gun. Fortunately I was not fully awake to really appreciate the significance of this even until a few hours afterwords. the reason we decided to tell this story here on this blog is that it occurred in Dublin Ireland and it was triggered by a new threat by Irish terrorists at that time.

Here is the story and how it affected us, as well as prepared us for the next time it happened which was after 911 in America!

Heading to the Airport

We were in Dublin Ireland for a week attending an international Karate tournament. There were about 35 countries attending so it was really a big affair. When we finished with the tournament we had decided to go to the UK to visit some friends for a few days before returning home. This meant that we left a day early and took a taxi to the airport from our hotel. By the way we thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Dublin. the people were friendly and of course there is lots to see and do while you are in that beautiful city. We got up around 4am in the morning, packed our bags and checked out of the hotel and of course there was little traffic on the way to the airport. The taxi dropped us off at one of the doors to the main terminal building and we proceeded to enter through the doors on the way to our check in counter.
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Ireland has this reputation for being always cloudy and always wet. Having been there several times, I can say that it lives up to its reputation. I have been there 3 times each time for a week, always in the fall and sun while I was in Ireland. Admittedly late fall and early winter are the lowest average months when it comes to sunshine. Dec only receives on average only 1 hour of sunshine a day. Jan and Feb are not much better with an average of 2 hours.

Every month Belfast receives from 2 to 3 inches of rain. Although it did not rain while I was there, it was very damp and cool making it seem much colder than it actually was. As long as you are dressed warmly enough, it is very comfortable.  It does not sound very appealing, however Ireland is famous for being green and it certainly lives up to that reputation. With the rain they get and the limited sunshine, everything responds and grows well. There certainly is no desert areas in or around Belfast , Northern Ireland.
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Belfast Ireland has a nice temperate climate with average highs in July and August ranging around 68F and average lows ranging around 50F. The coldest month is January with average temperatures around 43F for the high and 33F as the average low.

Sunshine

During May and June, Belfast will average 6 hours of sunshine every day. While July is the warmest month, the average declines to 5 hours. Dec is the darkest month with only 1 hour on average of sunshine. Jan and Feb are not much better with only 2 hours of sunshine on average in Belfast Ireland
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Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland and it is also the largest city in Northern Ireland.  Compared to the United Kingdom, it is ranked 15th in size and it is smaller than Dublin in Southern Ireland.  Although the city has a population of  267,000, it lies in a metropolitan area of 641,000 people.  In the past industries such as tobacco, linen, rope making and ship building were the main industries.  Today it is an industrial and economic power house having recovered from the set backs caused by what is know as the “troubles” .

There was a great deal of violence, shootings and bombings during this period from 1969 until 1990, causing industry as well as people to move away from Belfast. Over 1500 people were killed in the period from 1969 until 2001. However today it is returned to more economic strength especially with  the development of the waterfront area, Victoria Square and the Belfast City center.
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