My group went to Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, this weekend. For 20 Euros, we got transportation, two meals a day, a room in a hostel and guided tours. Not so bad.

Belfast is an interesting city, to say the least. Unlike the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, along with England, Wales and Scotland. Because about 60 percent of the population is Protestant, the majority are happy about the relationship with England. The other 40 percent, however, are Catholic and want the entire island of Ireland to be unified as one nation. As a result, Protestants and Catholics fought intermittently for the better part of 50 years until the cease-fire that started in 1998. During “The Troubles,” as the period is called, groups like the Irish Revolutionary Army (Republicans/Nationalists/Catholics) fought groups like the Ulster Freedom Fighters (Loyalists/Unionists/Protestants) in the streets, using drive-by shootings and bombings to express their discontent with the other side.

While the fighting may be over, the scars of the war and the tension remain. “Peace walls” separate the two sides still and the two groups don’t get along so much as they have learned to tolerate each other. Perhaps the best thing (a relative term) to come out of the conflict were murals. Belfast is world renowned for murals created by the two sides to get their points across. Some murals memorialized fallen comrades, some are less tender–depicting masked men pointing machine guns at the viewer (a Loyalist trademark). Other murals are about anti-George Bush or commemorate a big Irish football victory. All of them, however, are beautiful.

I bet you want to see pictures of these murals. Well, you’ll have to look elsewhere (can I recommend Google?) because I didn’t take any photo. I’ll explain why on Thursday.