Northern Ireland Day Two: Queen's University and Crumlin Road Gaol

Day two was the beginning of our scholarly journey in Northern Ireland. We started the day bright and early as we headed to Queen's University Belfast to speak with Dean Tony Gallagher. The campus is beautiful and reminded me of Hogwarts. I would love to go to school there.

Dean Gallagher's presentation gave us some new information about the education system to think about. It was a great start to the research part of the trip.

After finding a place for lunch and eating there, we walked from our hotel to Crumlin Road Gaol. This is where prisoners from the Troubles and other criminals were jailed. The gaol opened in 1845 and closed in 1996 because it was too expensive to maintain. 17 men were executed there and we got to go into the execution cell where they have a noose hanging from the ceiling. I admit that it was pretty scary. It took me a while to fall asleep that night.

The old court house across from the gaol

We were served tea and scones!!!

Where prisoners were brought upon arrival

Rooms where prisoners were kept before being led to the court house

Tunnel to the court house

First of the many creepy statues in the gaol.

The padded cell. Creepy.

The education room.

The bathroom.

The outside of the gaol.

After that we took a bus back to city centre. My friend and I went to Primark and New Look for a look around. I did not get any clothing, but I did buy a cute sign to hang up in my room. It says: "good friends are like diamonds . . . precious and rare."

We then went to Fratelli's near the hotel. It is a cute Italian restaurant and I had pasta with shrimp. I posted a photo of it on Instagram. Here it is:

You can follow me on Instagram @thekschiap. Soon I will post about my third day in Northern Ireland when we went to Stormont, where the Northern Irish government is housed. 

Until then,

Kara