It has gone me from the hands: Belfast: In Photos / En fotos

Here is a small selection of photos from Belfast, with descriptions. I can't really describe it here, nor do the photos do it justice, but the feeling of being amongst these homes and streets and pictures and buildings was something I have never experienced before. There was a dark, grayness here, left by the fiery years it has seen. But there was an electric hope as well, an eager sense of change that I felt on the streets, a vibrant youth. Hard to describe.

A series of murals on the Catholic side of the Peace Walls in Belfast. The Catholic murals tend to commemorate revolutionary and independence movements throughout the world, whereas the Protestant murals are more militant, defensive, and "British" in nature.

This hotel is the third most bombed hotel in the world, a dubious distinction indeed. Only Tel Aviv and Sarajevo have hotels which have suffered more attacks with explosives

A street version of Picasso's "Gernika"

Another Catholic mural, this one commemorating a women's march in Belfast

These five young people were killed when the bomb they were building exploded prematurely. The oldest person was 20. We later saw the plaque on the house where it happened. By the way, the residents, by choosing to live in these neighborhoods, must accept the artwork and memorials that cover them. Our guide told us that if they object to it, they are not permitted to live in the area.

Revolutionaries from across the globe. Note MLK, Fredrick Douglass, and Obama (far left)

This is one of the gates in the Peace Wall between the Falls Road neighborhood (Irish Catholic) and the Shankill Road neighborhood (Ulster Protestant). This gate is closed every night between 10 PM and dawn and no one is allowed to pass through. Note the height of the wall and the barbed wire. Still all of this in 2013. Crazy.

Another shot of the gate. Note Obama on the right. Also, note the "No Man's Land" between the two gates. This was to prevent projectiles from being thrown/launched between the two walls.

Sinn Fein headquarters with Bobby Sands mural. Bobby is somewhat of a martyr for the Irish Republicans. He was actually elected MP of the British Parliament by his Irish Catholic constituency, and he later died in a hunger strike in one of the infamous H-block prisons.

Memorial garden in Falls Road neighborhood.

Many of the houses have these cages to protect their property from bricks, bottles and other projectiles that were thrown over the walls

"The Last Supper" on the Shankill (Protestant) side of the Peace Wall

This is an example of an Ulster Protestant mural in the Shankill road area, apparently commemorating one of their commanders who died.

In front of the Protestant mural they call "the Belfast Mona Lisa", so called because the AK-47 follows you no matter where you stand looking at it. Notice all the British flags? The Ulster Protestants consider themselves British and only British. They do not say they are "Irish".

The Queen, Shankill Road.

William of Orange, or "Ol' King Billy". In 1690, William defeated Catholic Jacobite forces at the Battle of the Boyne, so the Ulster Protestants venerate him. He's in a lot of murals.