I was in the black taxi with Tomas, and as we we neared the roundabout at the Glen Road (only the second one from our house on the trip down the Andersonstown/Falls Road), traffic was suddenly backed up. Tomas turned around (he, unfortunately, was in the crappy facing-backward-pull-out seat) and asked the taxi driver what was going on. Here, I have re-enacted it for you:

Tomas: Here, what's going on mate?
Driver: What?
Tomas: What's going on?
Driver: What?
Tomas: With the traffic, mate, what's going on with the traffic?
Driver: Oh, security alert, down by, uh, offa the Springfield Road.
Tomas: What for?
Driver: What?
Tomas: What's the alert for?
Driver: Where? Down the road, not sure exactly...
Tomas: No, WHAT.
Driver: Oh right, what, I don't know. Suspicious objects, probably.
Tomas: Aye, three dead clowns.

We got through the roundabout at the Glen road, and inched down past the park and the City Cemetary, and as we got to the intersection at the Whiterock road, the taxi driver went through the roundabout, and then, instead of going straight, swung around at the last second (as black taxi drivers are want to do) and went right, down through the back streets off the Falls. We weaved our way through the streets and then came back up to the Falls past the Whiterock road, and came up finally on the other side of the Springfield Road, where we could see police directing traffic. But the road was still backed up. So he went back through the side streets (the very narrow tiny sidestreets, might I add, so much so that I often thought we're gonna sideswipe that car parked on the sidewalk and I'm going to end up in the driver's seat of the other car) and finally came up on the other side of the Culturlaan. Looking back through the window, we could see that the block the Culturlaan sits on was completely cordoned off and there were a few police vans parked across the road, a few of the cops standing about. Then occurred an apparently typical Belfast conversation that I had never witnessed before:

Tomas: It's the Culturlaan?
Lady Sitting Next to Me: There's no cars parked outside, so it musn't be a car bomb.
Tomas: Suspicious objects outside the Culturlaan. They must've found some Ulster Scotch speakers.

Later, when I got into work, I mentioned the back-up to Caoimhe, who also lives in Andytown. She said her 'wee nephew' goes to school just beside the Culturlaan, so she phoned him and asked what was going on. Apparently, it wasn't the Culturlaan at all (which I never really thought it was, it's a rather benign place, at least for West Belfast. I mean, plop the thing down on the Newtownards Road and you'd have trouble, but it's smack in the middle of Republican West Belfast. No problem.) It was the Beehive, which is a pub just across the road. Apparently, someone got killed there.

So there you have it. My first real authentic Belfast experience. Now, for all of you at home, it's your job to calm down my parents and assure them it's not dangerous here. They're probably freaking out. I think I'm safer here than in Murderapolis...

written by  ebienelson on February 10, 2009 from Belfast, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: "She is the Belle of Belfast City..."
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Update: No one got killed in the Beehive. They found 'suspicious objects' (i.e. unviable pipe bombs) near the intersection of Shiels Street and the Falls Road. So. There ya go. There's a fabulous picture of it on the front page of the Irish Times yesterday, google it.

written by  ebienelson on February 12, 2009

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