Before leaving Dublin and heading to Belfast, I wanted to include a fun fact about Guinness, the makers of beer and stout.  Their brewery is in Dublin, and they are considered the best employer in the city.  Good on them!  But the fun fact is that employees can take home nine pints of Guiness per day—for free!  If they want, they can opt to take it all at the end of the year and give cases to friends and family for Christmas.  P-A-R-T-Y!

Here are some other (completely unrelated) facts about the Republic of Ireland (“Ireland”).  The green stripe in Ireland’s flag represents the Irish Nationalists/ Roman Catholics, and the orange stripe represents the Unionists/ Protestants.  The white stripe in the middle represents a (hopefully!) lasting peace between the two groups.

The only official flag of Northern Ireland is the Union Flag (Union Jack).  There is no official local flag, and the various flags flown represent different communities identifying with different flags.

One thing I learned about Ireland that I highly respect and appreciate is that it is one of the few countries that have never enslaved others or discriminated against other ethnic groups.  (They were always under control by other countries, so when they finally became a republic, they were all about freedom!)

It’s not like Northern Ireland is always happy about being controlled by the British as part of the United Kingdom, though.  Take membership in the European Union, for example.  Northern Ireland voted to stay in the E.U. and were against Brexit, but they had to leave the E.U. due to losing that vote.

Now, about that cider farm… We visited Armagh Cider Company’s apple orchards and cider-making facility to learn all about how cider is made. This family-owned farm makes cider for several different labels as well as their own brands.  Tasting the cider was, of course, the highlight, and the lunch served with it was delicious!

(For all photos, click on the image for a full screen view.)

Later in the afternoon, we arrived in Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland, and went on an orientation tour after checking in to our hotel. 

Back in the 19^th century, the city was an industrial center and was the hub of Northern Ireland’s booming linen industry.  It is also where the Titanic was built.  This is a zoomed-in view of the shipyard from our hotel window:

These are a few scenes photographed during our orientation tour:

Belfast, Northern Ireland’s principal port, is a city with a turbulent history, the subject of my next post:

IRISH ADVENTURE #6: THE TROUBLES OF THE 1970s: THE SITES AND STORIES