This tour is essential to understanding the conflict in any meaningful way. Are the tour guides biased? Yes of course, that’s their truth. They’re not here to convince you to take sides though, far from it. You’ll learn details and context from both sides but most importantly I came away with a much needed understanding of how each community feels about the other and why. Let’s hope for unity and integration as soon as it can happen. You won’t regret this one bit.
The tour guide for the first half of the tour was an ex-IRA prisoner who took us to various shrines and places of remembrance. He gave us his full version of Irish history and British colonial rule in Ireland over the centuries, explaining the religious wars, the Protestant ascendency and the Ulster plantation, also pointing out how the Catholic population of Ireland – the whole island then ruled by Westminster - were allowed to starve by the British government. He then explained to us about how he was tortured and imprisoned by the British security forces during the troubles. It was very interesting. He was polite and well-spoken. The second half of the tour was given by a British soldier who also suffered greatly in the conflict. He took us to various sites of remembrance on the Shankill Road, showing us several horrible acts of war carried out by the IRA, including a bomb that they planted in a fishmonger’s shop on Shankill Road, killing eight civilians, two of them children. He showed us the peace wall and explained about the two different communities. One thing was clear: he was totally against the segregation, against the violence and clearly wanted a future of integration. We had no idea how Deep the divisions were, and how raw the wounds of the conflicto on both sides. He answered many difficult questions asked by our group in a polite, educated and polite manner. He was also a qualified and government-approved tour guide, and very well dressed.I THINK EVERYONE should do this tour, to see both parts of the Troubles. Highly recommended. You cannot just heard one side because they are quite different
Excellent tour, both sides. Was left asking myself the question, at the end of the tour: "How could anyone support, let alone love the loyalist or republican paramilitary groups who maimed and killed so many innocent people? But, it seems, people do support them and love them. It defies logic. I hear from people of all walks of life here in the province that before the troubles, many areas of Belfast were mixed and that catholics and protestants lived in the same neighbourhoods, and got on well together. I often wonder, if the troubles hadn't happened, would the whole of Ireland now be a Republic?
I went on a 3 hour walking tour that has given me a lot to think about- a lot to digest.
It was raining and cold- but at. I time could o leave or turn away. It was amazing and engaging and challenging.
Political Tour-Conflicting Stories is a tour like no other. It is conducted in two halves. For the first you walk with an ex IRA active member and prisoner. In this case it was Robert.
Robert was clear and articulate and gave his story. He talked about his time in prison. He pulled no punches but he was not bitter.
I’ve walked these roads before but to do it with a local and one who lived through the things I’ve read about.. was an experience I’ll carry for ever.
They then hand you over for the second half with someone on the ‘other side’, - in this case an ex high ranking British Soldier.
Mike was very different to Robert, obviously a previously career military man. He had a different story to tell. It made me think - I’ve never heard it from the British side.
We walked the Falls and the Shankill streets of West Belfast. We talked specifics and not generally. I got an in depth look from the other side that I have never got. It could only come from them.
What was crystal clear from both these men was that they want peace and they they do not wish to ever return to the way it was before the Good Friday agreement.
They are committed to working with the young people.
How do you remove a wall though when there are so many tragedies and hurts within living memory on both sides. It will take time. It is still a divided city in many respects.
I heard horrific stories from both sides, I thanked them both, for their honesty and their commitment to telling a story that needs to be told. For their commitment to going forward not back.
Do not miss this - rain hail or shine.
Excellent tour but make sure you see both halves. Have read some reviews stating that one side or other of this tour was delivered badly and inconsiderately. This was not our experience at all, at least, not with the guides we had. One was an ex-IRA prisoner, the other an ex-soldier of the British Army. In our experience, both tour guides were elegant and educated in their delivery, and took a mature view of a bloody, terrible conflict that claimed the lives of so many innocent people. However, we were left with the feeling that it may take a lot longer for the wounds to heal and for the two communities to integrate better than the media would have us believe! Even by reading some of the very few, very negative reviews of this tour would seem to substantiate the fact that there are still many people not prepared to reconcile, and without reconciliation, there is no future and the divisions will, sadly, remain.
