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Reports
Travelogue: St.Pauli CSC goes West Belfast Festival 2008
(Pictures will follow soon)
31.07.:
Arrival in Dublin, some sightseeing and a wee pub crawl with some nice trad music in The Palace. Early in bed but political discussions til 4 am – what a warm-up. ;)
01.08.:
Dixie gave us a lift up to Belfast with a short stop in Portadown including a stop to take some pictures of the loyalist murals – with running engine, a number plate of Dublin and Sinn Fein stickers might not go down too well there… after arriving in Belfast we checked into our house on the Broadway (side street of the Falls Road, many thanks to Uschi for sorting this and many other things out). Lunch in the Cultúrlann, best food in West Belfast! Next stop Donegal Celtic the site of the Antira tournament. Warm-up with some Guinness and Harp. Got a warm welcome and all the papers and programme for the following day. A political tour to West Belfast followed, somehow we ran into our guide Padraig every single day til we left Belfast. Brilliant gig by the Offenders from Italy with loads of pogo dancing in the evening.
02.08.:
Got up early to play football. Ludi of the Düsseldorf Bhoys organised very fashionable shirts with “Rhinish Resistance” on them for our “Team Germany” with members from Berlin, Düsseldorf, an Hamburg. 0:3 against Italy, 0:6 against Donegal Celtic U16, but a glorious 1:3 against mighty Congo – our first goal in 2 years at the tournament was enough to meet our target.
Back to Cultúrlann to grab some food where we realised that Pauline (who had to cancel the trip on short notice, at least that’s what she said…) must have been here shortly before us (see picture). Afterwards back to Davitt’s where we met 2-3 new people per night. Especially nice was the guy with some St.Pauli chant as a ring tone on his mobile.
After a couple of drinks we headed to the Roddy McCorley Club which turned into a forced march of 80 minutes in the pouring rain. Another lesson learned: whenever anyone in Belfast tells you that it’s just about 20 minutes to walk – get a taxi.
At the Roddy McCorley we met many of the folks of the tournament etc., good and cheap beer, brilliant atmosphere, but rather bad music except for a spontaneous guest appearance of two of the lads from Congo. The Club has its own small but interesting though a bit chaotic museum. After last order we went back to the Falls Road and into a pub to finish the night.
03.08.:
We were invited to join the West Belfast Festival Parade and walked in the section of WARN (West Against Racism Network). At least 1000 pictures were taken of our CSC banner. The whole parade was good fun. Afterwards back to Davitt’s (as always) and then to St. Galls G. A. C. (Gaelic Athletic Club) for a musical trip through different countries and their respective struggles for freedom and human rights. A capella and unplugged, it was rather calm but still (or because of that) quite impressing. From there directly to the St.Pauls Club to a gig of Gary Og and band – a nice surprise that he played there and we gave him a rare St.Pauli shirt.
04.08.:
Visited the IRA museum. Some politcal sightseeing in Belfast. Met the relatives of the Ballymurphy Eleven who are still waiting and fighting for the truth about the killings of their relatives. Then we took the opportunity to watch a Hurling match at the Sarsefield GAC. Cheapest beer there so far – 2 Pounds. Back to Falls Road and to the White Rock Pub for some drinks, Fish&Chips and meeting Antifas from Berlin, Cologne, and Regensburg.
05.08.
Daily breakfast in the Cultúrlann, daily shopping in the Sinn Fein shop and off to the really interesting lecture „Raiders of The Lost Archives“ presenting results of the research in declassified documents of the British government about the conflict in the 6 counties and especially UDA/UDF and their relationship to the official British forces. Not just interesting information, but presented in a very entertaining way as well!
From there, we just managed to get to the TAL-Center in time to meet Paul Maskey, Sinn Fein representative for West Belfast in the assembly for a report about the current situation and Sinn Fein politics, a discussion followed. 2 hrs were over like nothing. In the evening a trip to the Ardoyne Festival and a couple of beers in the Kickbans G.A.C. – the winner when it comes to the cheapest Guinness we found (1.90 Pound and really good taste). Afterwards stayed as long as possible in a pub next to Broadway as we had to get the bus back to Dublin airport at 2 am for our flight back home at 8 am.
All in all it was a really good trip and we all hope to be back next year! And a big thank you to everyone who helped, showed us around or just talked to us and let us have a really good time.
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| 08.10.2008, [CSC-User] |
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