Strangeways

Profanity, I lived in Belfast for 2 years before emigrating to Turkey. I lived in the Queens University area, walking distance from the city center. I lived in Dublin as well before but enjoyed Belfast better because of its underground artistic scene and beautiful architecture. It is funny to read the first posts in this topic in which I said I lived in Belfast, meanwhile (a year later) I lived in two other countries (first Turkey and now Germany). This means I spent my life in 3 countries in 1 single year, how rapid time flies...

And I refrain from the Derry/Londonderry debate. One thing I learnt during my time in Northern Ireland: stay neutral, don't talk about politics or religion Actually there is an island named Londonderry close to Antarctica as well, but this Londonderry is unpopulated so nobody will be discussing over its name there.

Must admit I don't like Celtic or Rangers though. Too political, I don't like it when politics and sports interfere. Barcelona, Real Madrid and the Rome teams are other examples of teams I don't like for that reason.

And Shels won that title fair and square! The ironic thing is, the game we won the league was the last game in the top division. From champions to playing teams like Wexford and Monaghan, it is sad how the board financially ruined our club.

I have a lot of respect for the local Celtic fans, they are fantastic. I don't like the general Irish Celtic fans though. It makes so little sense if you see half of them support Celtic only to show how Irish or anti-British they are. Well sorry, but they're supporting a UK club. If they would actually want to support a real Irish team, they should stick to St Patricks, Shamrock Rovers, Cork City, ... choice enough. But no, they rather sit in front of a TV supporting a BRITISH team and meanwhile shouting "fuck Union Jack" whenever Celtic scores. Makes no sense at all.

I have nothing against the average Celtic fan though, only against that minority that does it only for political reasons and who really believe Celtic is an Irish club. It is a small minority luckily, the majority of Celtic fans are cool guys. In general Celtic is a nice club if you ignore that small portion of fans who bring politics into the game. Both Celtic and Rangers seem to also realise the issue and work hard to ban sectarianism.

And yeah, the QUB area of Belfast is nice. I lived right across the corner of the university, the uni was my neighbour really. The only bad thing is that the nightlife can be really decadent in Ireland, but apart from that it was a nice place to live with a lot of culture. I often went to open mike nights, poetry readings, traditional Irish music sessions, readings, ... That is the benefit of the university next door, it brings a lot of cultural activity right next to your doorstep. And the city center was only a 10 minute walk.

To me the city used to be Londonderry before I moved to Ireland because in my native Belgium all maps print Londonderry. Since I lived in Ireland and realised why it is such a sensitive issue, I try to avoid the debate because I don't unintentionally want to hurt anyone. So I usually either call both names or avoid the debate by using the nickname "Maiden City". It is only since I lived in Ireland that I realised the meaning of the double name and why it is such a difficult issue.