4.05 /// Revisiting Roots and Rebirth: A Tapestry of Northern Ireland...

Stepping into my mum's kitchen in Ireland, the aroma of fresh soda bread takes me back to a Northern Ireland of my youth, where echoes of The Troubles lingered in the air. Now, through stories and laughter shared with you, we'll peel back the layers of this enchanting land, revealing a Northern Ireland vibrantly reborn as a beacon for travelers. From the charming bustle of Belfast streets to the sweeping allure of the rugged coastlines, join me in celebrating the transformation of my heart place, where war-torn past gives way to cultural richness and an unwavering community spirit.

This time, we're not just touring landmarks; we're immersing ourselves in the very fabric of Northern Irish life and the verdant green landscapes of a land both welcoming and wondrous. Whether it's the iconic Giant's Causeway stepping stones or the historic halls of the Titanic Museum, we uncover the hidden gems that have caught the eye of filmmakers and tourists alike. And for the sports enthusiasts, there is something for you from the electric buzz of a local football match,  to the chill of the ice hockey rink. So pour a cup of tea and settle in – we're on a quick journey to explore the heartbeat of Northern Ireland, where every corner has a story and every story feels like home.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Visiting Northern Ireland
• 14:59 Northern Ireland

Transcript

Stephen: 0:00

Hello, welcome to Infinite Prattle On this episode I'm recording, firstly. Firstly, let's get to this I'm recording in my mum's kitchen because I'm currently on holiday in Ireland, so I'm recording a couple of episodes in advance. So I'm recording this. On what date is it today? It's it's 20 past midnight on Saturday, the 17th of February, so it's nearly hours of the Saturday and I'm in my mum's kitchen Going on a holiday, my mum's from Ireland, and I'm over visiting, visiting her, as I'm sure. I've mentioned previously that she lives here and I've decided to try and be organised and record a few advanced episodes, or a couple at least anyway, to save me scrambling around like a madman, because I've got a few things going on at the moment. I've got a few guest episodes coming up. So I'm trying to be organised, trying to try to be, you know, kind to myself. So, anyway, today's episode is going to be about Ireland. I know I've done an episode previously about the Irish connection, my family here and I want to talk a bit about today. It's about tourism, really about why you should visit Northern Ireland. So let's get into that one.

Stephen: 1:14

You're listening to Infinite Brattle with your host, stephen. Thanks for joining me For unscripted, unedited, everything Beautiful. Yes, thank you very much for joining me on this episode. If you're new to the podcast, very welcome to you. The name lives up to its reputation. I do paddle infinitely about anything, so enjoy. And if you're a recurring listener, thank you for your continued patience.

Stephen: 1:54

And yes, so Ireland. I don't mean mainly focusing on Northern Ireland because that's where I visit the most, to be honest. That's where my family is from and that's where I kind of call my heart home, where I feel like, even though I'm from Cheshire and I'm English I was born in crew in Cheshire, that's why I live currently I feel like this is this is this is where my heart lies. Really, I've been visiting Northern Ireland for 40 years. I am 40 and come in here since I was born. And let's, let's face it, let's say there's an elephant in the room. There's really no elephant in the room. It's pretty obvious. You know Northern Ireland's had its issues. You know the troubles that have been going on here for Hundreds of years. Technically, I've tainted. I've tainted people's impressions of the place, rightly or wrongly, and I'm not going to go too much into the history and the wise and wherefores, but fundamentally it comes down to borders and religion and More complex matters I'm not going to go into here, but fundamentally that's what it's about.

Stephen: 3:15

And and visiting here as a child. You know, when you're really young you don't really, you don't really pay too much mind to stuff like that. It's kind of an adult thing to listen to and kids don't really listen to that, and my mum and dad didn't really want me to know some of the stuff until I was a bit older. But you know you pick up stuff. You know people are talking in rooms and you know you do pick up stuff. And have I seen stuff when I was visiting here years ago? Of course I have. You know I've heard things, seen things, witnessed things that you know probably you wouldn't get anywhere else.

Stephen: 3:56

And having a normal, you know especially normal holiday that we used to spend our summer holidays here. Christmas is sometimes Easter's. I think we should be over here every opportunity we could get. I try and do that now where I can. Bloody word gets in the way though. So yeah, so obviously the troubles and stuff have been very, very bad in the past, especially the 60s and the 70s, and that's how my dad met my mum. He was over here serving in the army, in the British army, and he was a paratrooper, and they met and you know he wished to go back to England and years later me and my brother were born.

Stephen: 4:38

Unfortunately, I got divorced 20 years ago it's 20 years ago this year, scarily enough and she decided to move back when they got divorced, which was hard, you know, because obviously the distance and stuff, but it's a great place to come and visit and I've got like a always got like a holiday home kind of thing and it's great to see my mum, but it always goes so fast when I'm here, kind of fits, so much in. What do I do when I'm here and how has it changed? Well, I'll tell you how it's changed. I don't know how I really liked it when I was coming here as a kid. Now, 40 years is a long time, but you know the peace process has been in, you know. But you know what? 25 years now maybe Longer, 20, nearly 30 years, probably Is it as long as that, I don't know. When was it signed? I can't remember late 90s, I think.

Stephen: 5:34

Anyway, I remember when I came, when I was first going across here, my grandmother, my mum, was living in Belfast, lives on the outskirts. Well, most of the outskirts lives near Carrick Fergus, which is another very famous place. But my granddaddy lived in Belfast. We're a Protestant family we could chock ourselves as and we used to come over regularly and I have seen bombs being disposed of you know the robot in Belfast city centre because there's been a suspicious package and they've had to call the army in and from a very young age, like I think, people forget that the army used to walk the streets here. Even in the 80s and early 90s the army used to do road checks like barricades used to walk the streets. They used to. You know the activity of a lot of suspicious packages on a daily basis.

Stephen: 6:35

The news reports here were quite bad. Every night it was someone else in a sectarian beating or shooting or petrol bomb attack or bomb going off in someone's car or the police being targeted etc. So even then it was pretty bad, you know, for even today's standards, but still a shadow of its form itself. But it could have quickly escalated into something worse.

Stephen: 7:06

But you know, I've seen things I always remember when being a kid as not being told to leave anything anyway. You know, don't forget your bag if you pick your bag up, if you're doing any shopping, don't leave it on the floor, don't leave it unattended. And there's something that I haven't noticed until my mum told me as well there was very few, if any, waste, litter bins, trash cans around Belfast, because you know, an easy thing to put a bomb in, basically and the streets were immensely clean. Because mum said when she was a kid, you know both sides used to put bombs in like cigarette packets and small parcel bombs and pipe bombs, and so the streets are always kept clear and you're told to take rubbish home with you and not leave anything anywhere. And even if you would leave a carry bag on the street, like it would, would probably cause an evacuation because of how heightened the fear was for for for a bombing. So you know, we, we kind of we're kind of group with that and even we didn't.

Stephen: 8:16

I don't think I had too much problems as a kid with, like anyone trying to find out whether I was English or or Protestant or Catholic and stuff like that. I've been asked a few times but never, never, like super seriously. But kids, kids, you know, didn't really pay too much mind. My cousins on the shankle used to get together and we used to, we used to play and sometimes the kids were like oh you English, are you All right, cool? And they kind of, they kind of in the know. I think they used to test me and my brother about oh, do you know you know? Do you know what this is? Do you know what that means? Do you know about the falls, road and stuff? And he's, the question is a little bit and we know we're in the know, but I was never that asked about anything like.

Stephen: 8:58

I've always been very much like. If you know, if you've not done anything to me, you know, then let's just get on kind of thing and the whole religious thing over here and then and the border situation and the whole thing about how you know how many people's affected deaths, and so this is me is just, it's just bonkers, and I know people have their causes and stuff and passions, but it comes to like innocent people being affected by it. It's, you know it's never good and it's and it's a fetid Belfast and the whole of Ireland's. Really it's growth and development. And I think when the peace process was signed and you know it was a good fire agreement, within a few years there was an immediate effect. You know it felt nicer over here. There was always a bit of a tension.

Stephen: 9:51

I never really noticed it too much when I was a kid, even into a young teenager. You see things where you pick things up on but I was never scared. I'll say that I was never scared to visit Northern Ireland Also the island Even with the police walking around with machine guns and such things. I just thought it was a bit cool. That sounds weird, but I thought it was quite cool to see like the robotic thing destroying a suspicious package and seeing the army and being stopped at a checkpoint. I never felt unsafe and I thought that was cool.

Stephen: 10:22

I think the only time I felt a bit unsafe was one time that there was some activity going on where the IRA were with kind of targets in ex-military personnel and in England as well. They weren't just keeping it into Ireland, they were visiting people in England and we got stopped at a checkpoint once and the squad is basically immediately my dad looks like he was in the army and they immediately said where did you serve? And he was like oh, over here he says this is my wife and we're over here visiting her relatives and they literally said to him like, keep your head down. He said don't tell anyone anything. And my dad had to say to us like, listen, if anyone asks about me, tell them nothing. And I think that's the only time I thought, whoa, it's quite serious over here, isn't it? And I was probably about 10 or 11 at the time, and that's probably the only time I felt like a bit hmm. But yeah, it can get real. I've had gunshots as well. I'm really telling the story. I've had gunshots when I've been sleeping at my grandmother's house, had people firing weapons in the street and when I was very young, come on, mom and dad used to say it was just people setting fireworks off, but naughty people setting fireworks off when it wasn't fireworks night.

Stephen: 11:33

But yeah, it's a place that I can't describe unless you really visit it, and I can't describe that kind of divide unless you see it. I mean, there's a wall that goes through part of Belfast to separate Catholic Protestants, and in 2024, that's still bizarre to me. That that's I think. But anyway, as it is today, things are so much nicer Like. Belfast is such a metropolis of shops and activity, and for me it's one of the best well, it's the best shopping experiences I think you can get. There's so many diverse shops, local shops, craft shops, you know high street chains there's like two or three shopping centers in the middle of Belfast, loads of high streets, restaurants. There's a market, you know great transport and I just love coming over and visiting and even though I've done loads and loads of activities here, I still redo them because it's brilliant. You know, ireland has had a massive upturn. Brexit hasn't helped things.

Stephen: 12:52

I'm kind of focusing on Northern Ireland, but Southern Ireland, republic of Ireland much love for that. We spent about a week last year, 17th, in Galway and travelled around a little bit. Beautiful, beautiful place. So you know, I might kind of talk about Northern Ireland, but if I do, it's kind of like a slip of the tongue, like a meaning island in general. I just say Northern because it's just where I've been visiting.

Stephen: 13:21

I have an Irish passport, like you know what I mean. I was able to apply for an Irish passport and I did, and I'm proud to have an Irish passport. I'm proud of my Irish descendancy, I don't shy away from it. I think it's what makes me a little bit mad, a bit me, and I love that. But anyway, I would say you know, regardless of all the things I've just said.

Stephen: 13:42

Don't get me wrong. There's no bed of roses over here. There is still things bubbling onto the surface, but it's such a fragment of even what I saw when I was a kid that you know really don't worry about it If you're not going to. You know, as long as you're not straight, it's like any city as long as you're not straight into the wrong places and ask stupid questions or give stupid answers, then you'll be completely safe. But you can say that for Liverpool. You can even say that for where I live and crew. You can say that for Liverpool, manchester, anywhere. You know if you're in the wrong place or you're just doing stupid things, you're going to. You know you'll possibly come to grief.

Stephen: 14:19

But Belfast has such an investment into it. You know the town centre is, is what it was when I was a kid is unrecognisable in places. Yeah, and it's just. It's easy to get to as well. Belfast City Airport is literally, is literally five minutes from the city centre and me and Sarah got married in Belfast, which I think I've touched on before, and when we invited people to come to the wedding. It's a lot to ask someone to travel to a different country. You know it's only Belfast, but you know it's still a plane ride, it's a hotel, etc. And everyone that came either has been back or are planning to come back. That's.

Stephen: 14:59

That's the sort of place is. You know, the people, despite the history, are just the nicest, nicest people and you'll normally get like, for example, you'll normally get a queue in a shop, not because the shop's busy, it's because everyone's chatting to each other, basically. So you'll, you'll go to the. You know it's the nicest place, like when you, where I am, like, shop assistants rarely talk to you properly. They don't they when you're in an hour, it's a job to them, whereas over here they'll natter away to you, they'll engage you properly and that's so refreshing and you almost don't mind that there's a queue because when it is your turn, like, you get to have that experience as well.

Stephen: 15:43

Yeah, I just love the place, it's just loving it. I am a bit pious because it's. It's like it's my heart place. As I've said, it's the place that I love, love to be in this, where I would love to return and live to. I'd love to live here, I'd love to at some point, you know, you know I would say I say return as if I've ever lived here. I've never lived here, I've only holidayed here and visited family. But there's so much to do here as well.

Stephen: 16:10

I'm not just in Belfast, I'm kind of focusing on Belfast, but you know, you've got the coast roads and the scenery here is beautiful and everyone says it rains a lot. I think it does rain a lot, but you know when it, when it's the weather's so changeable, it can literally, if you, especially if you're driving, it can literally be raining and then you go over the Brava Hill and it will be glorious sunshine and dry and the greens are the greenest greens you'll ever see in Ireland. It is true, it is true what they say. But you've got the coast roads up. You know the North Coast road. My mum's very lucky. It's kind of thing you probably take a grand when you live, live with it. But you know, five minutes, since she's onto the coast road and you know driving North Ireland's quite small as well, you can pretty much drive across in a few hours. So it's not. It's not too bad travel wise. The problem is it makes it slower because the roads they don't really have a really really good motorway network going through the middle of Ireland so you can get to certain places fast and like. It's a bit slow, so but three hours will take you quite far into into, into into Belfast. So you probably I'll probably say you go north to south in less than five hours, probably in less than four hours, just off the top of my head. I might be wrong, google it Do me, but you know it's, it's so.

Stephen: 17:32

There's so many things to see, so many landmarks to see, and then the advent of like islands been really, really, really getting on the bandwagon of the filming locations, and me and Sarah were watching a film actually called Lyft with Kevin Hart, and we noticed a couple of film locations, literally. One of them was down the road at the, the the Rail Museum that we go to for breakfast. I think we're going there tomorrow morning, or this morning, as it is, because it's like it's like half half 12 at night and we recognized it straight away. It's like, is that whitehead train station that you know the the Rail Museum train station? It's not used, it's a heritage trail, but we recognized it. And there was a bar in Belfast that was used, the Crown Bar, and they were passing off as a bar in Belgium, but we recognized it straight away as the Crown Bar in Belgium, in Belfast rather than Belgium. Like I just thought it's brilliant that all these filming locations, and obviously in the recent years, game of Thrones was filmed here.

Stephen: 18:32

So you know, we've, we've got all that and you know all the history of Belfast and Belfast itself. If you've never been, I'd say banging on about Belfast, but you know it's, it is, it's the capital, it's, it's been so affluent in its past that the buildings that the main, instead of the buildings in the middle of Belfast, is very much like you'd see in London or Liverpool or Manchester, these big, dominating, grand structures, banking buildings kind of which most of them were just absolutely stunning architecture. And you just wander around and just having a cracking time in the town hall as well. We got married. It's a beautiful, beautiful place.

Stephen: 19:20

But if you do visit, there's a few places you must do. You must do the coast road going north, but from the shore road, from Belfast, just head north. It's all signposted, brown signs, coastal route, and it'll take you all the way around the coast, all the way past Giant's Coresway. Go to the Giant's Coresway, absolutely marvelous natural rock formations, hexagonal rock formations, the big crystals of Bassolove, that cool. So quickly it formed these really, really unique massive crystals Used in many films as well. Again, game of Thrones tour as well is up there. You can go along the route and find all the film locations. Many of them were actually near where my mum lives and they used horses from her village. And during, I think, season one or season two, when my mum lived in her old house in the village, sean Bean actually sat on her wall and she was very annoyed because she was at work. And Sean Bean was apparently sat on her wall drinking her brew because some of the cast came to the village for a break because they were literally filming literally down the road from her, which is super cool.

Stephen: 20:31

You got the Titanic Museum, because Titanic was built in Belfast. That's an amazing place. You've got the sports of Belfast. You've got football, rugby, american football, ice hockey, the Belfast giants. You know there's so much. There's so much.

Stephen: 20:45

Going south from Belfast. There's a coastal route going south through Newtonards. Go to Donacatee. It's a beautiful place. It sounds nothing like it's spelt. You'll find that with a lot of places in Ireland. Yeah, just explore, just get out there. Me and my wife today, we'd spent a night in a hotel and we went to the Ulster Folk Museum today, which also has a transport museum with it, and brilliant day out, especially if you've got children. And they've literally taken old houses and basically rebuilt them on site and they've got this little village with churches and stuff and they're all reconstructed from elsewhere in the UK, mainly from Ireland, but some things from the UK from mainland Britain. It's fantastic.

Stephen: 21:29

I can't praise it enough for how it's developed in the last 20 years. It's a city that I've always felt safe in Northern Ireland, but I feel even safer now. It's you. You walk around, the people are just so warm and friendly that they just want to better themselves. They just want to live in peace and just have all the nice things everyone else has had in their towns and cities for years and that's such a nice and a refreshing thing to visit. Every time I visit I see something different. I see something improved and less negativity on the news stories on the TV, which I love. So I know this was a bit of a mixed bag and I was kind of barking back to how it used to be, but definitely things have changed and I cannot recommend visiting Ireland as a whole, but particularly for me, northern Ireland, and you won't regret. Bring a camera, bring a good camera, bring video camera and bring up, bring a raincoat. Yeah, I'll put some links in the description if I remember about some of the places I've mentioned, but I think that's it for now.

Stephen: 22:46

Thank you very much for listening. Check out my social media page Steven speak, even speak. What am I saying? Infinite Prattle, a rebranded, rebranded infinite process. Infinite Prattle, infinite Prattle. So to go and check out Infinite Prattle, stevenspeakcom has now been updated. You'll be happy to know I'm still working on it. I'm still getting there still things to do. Yeah, but just go and check stuff out and give me some feedback. I always like to have feedback. If I put a post up, just reply to it like it helps me out, and if you'd like to subscribe, I would be mucho, mucho grateful. Thank you very much for listening and I will speak to you again soon.