Picto Diary - 18 September 2019 - Northern Ireland Part Two
Above: Hoops and Bishop. Carnlough Harbor. Antrim Coast. Northern Ireland. 18 September 2019.
Out and about in Northern Ireland.
Hoops 'n Bishop vegetate where Arya was stabbed by The Waif. Braavos then. Carnlough now.
Here and now, Brexit pends.
Northern Ireland vote was overwhelmingly "Remain." Little impact on the overall UK vote to "Leave," though. Northern Ireland only has 1.6 million of UK's 70 million citizens.
Yet, Brexit turns, or not, on the treatment of Northern Ireland's border with The Republic of Ireland. Dicey days in this part of the world.
Per driver Tommy, locals are apprehensive about the possible after effects of a messy separation...a so called "hard Brexit." No one wants to see a return of "The Troubles" as age old sectarian tensions between Protestants and Catholics simmer beneath the surface.
Above" The Giant's Causeway. Antrim Coast. Northern Ireland. 18 September 2019.
Out and about in Northern Ireland.
TIMDT observes The Giant's Causeway, forty thousand square, pentagonal and hexagonal, basalt pillars, some up to forty feet tall, created in a volcanic eruption fifty million years ago.
I hadn't heard of this place before today, nor had I seen anyplace a comparable geological phenomenon. It was interesting! The one and one half mile, 200 vertical foot, round trip walk to get here was nice...and needed. Huff puff.
The Giant's Causeway is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so, there were a lot of visitors.
Google the Irish legends that give rise to the name.
Above: Bushmills Distillery. Bushmills, Northern Ireland. 18 September 2019.
Out and about in Northern Ireland.
Jameson last April, Bushmills today Tullamore Dew ???.
Bushmills is a chartered distillery this location, by King James I (same James who was son of Mary Queen of Scots; same James as in King James Bible) in 1608.
Same whiskey too...though today the process is permeated with robotics...the amazing bottling process has a couple of guys walking around, just watching. Aging process too...where one guy works the process of filling four barrels at a time with robotics moving the heavy barrels along the line.
Note: Scots spell it Whisky. Irish: WhiskEy.
Yeast, barley, water is all it takes.
Mix and cook mash to malt. Add water, cook the wort out of the malt. Distill wort three times...and voila, Irish WhiskEy. Unlike Scotch, no aromatic peat in the barley cooking process. Scotch is peatier...Irish whiskey notoriously smoother... sans peaty flavor. Second hand barrel aging...variations of Sherry, Bourbon, Port and Madeira barrels...from four to twenty one years. 21 year single malt at $200 a bottle.
Per Hoops, three banes of the Irish:
1. Whiskey.
2: No iron
3. Insufferable inter tribal squabbling.
Above: West Belfast murals. Belfast Northern Ireland. 18 September 2019.
Out and about in Northern Ireland 18 September 2019.
Most murals bear left wing themes.
Above: International Peace Wall, Falls Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland. 18 September 2019.
Out and about in Northern Ireland.
Driver Tommy shows thirty foot high wall, built by Brits during The Troubles, which still separates Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods in West Belfast.
Troubles, lasting from 1969 and ending in 1998, resulted in thirty five hundred deaths and forty five thousand casualties.
Per driver Tommy, a Belfast native, sectarian enmity still runs deep in Northern Ireland despite its seeming containment since 1998.
Brexit's imminence, or not, looms over the Northern Ireland tinder box with some predicting a resurrection of The Troubles should Brexit bring a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Per the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended The Troubles with all factions, Republicans and Royalists, disarming and the UK Army standing down, citizens of Northern Ireland have the right to vote to leave the UK and join with The Republic of Ireland.
Per Tommy, most residents of Northern Ireland would prefer to hang with the Brits come what may. With the resumption of a hard border, though, and the possibility of a resumption of The Troubles, there are no guarantees that Northern Ireland residents wouldn't change their minds and vote to go with The Republic....notwithstanding the threat (perceived only?) of sectarian recriminations.