This morning we were collected from our hotel by a taxi. We had booked a ‘Black Cab Tour’ of the areas of west Belfast that were most badly affected during The Troubles. In fact our taxi wasn’t a black cab at all, but a rather nice Mercedes minivan. We start at the Protestant area along the Shankill Road.

The Protestants celebrate King William who defeated Catholic King James.

At the start of The Troubles the Loyalist and Nationalist residents divided their areas with barricades, usually made of burnt out vehicles and scaffolding. The British army replaced these with Peace Walls – 30 feet high with gates to allow passage through during daylight hours. A few photos.

The Peace Walls were very effective, and many more were built. Some 32 kilometres of the walls still remain, and the residents would not want to be without them. The walls have actually increased in height and number since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The gates between the different sides are still locked at night.

Our tour guide Danny was a mine of information having grown up in West Belfast. He showed us some of his trophies – rubber bullets.

Tourists are encouraged to add messages to the graffiti on the Peace Walls.

Next we were off to the Catholic area along the Falls Road. The street names are in Irish as well as English.

The Bombay Street area saw some of the worst atrocities. Hundreds of homes were burned down and many people lost their lives.

We move on, and find one of the most photographed murals in the world.

Nearer to the city is the Europa Hotel, once known as the ‘most bombed hotel in the world’. In all it was attacked 28 times.

Danny dropped us off at the Botanic Gardens which was on our list of things to see. We grabbed a Belfast Bap from a cafe and had a wander around. The Palm House.

We enjoyed our tour immensely, and I’d recommend it to anyone visiting Belfast if you can spare a couple of hours. The sheer amount of information is intense, and nothing is diluted or sugar-coated. At the end of the tour Danny gave us homework to do – a big list of books to read and documentaries to see.

Tomorrow morning we’ll be back off to Shropshire. We’ve enjoyed Belfast immensely. The people are friendly, the pubs and restaurants top-notch, and there’s lots to see and do. I’m sure we’ll be back.