beer, including the importance of 232 Fahrenheit — the temperature the barley is roasted — and at the end, you can sample a pint. The Irish take their whiskey as seriously as the Scots, and with a similar number of varieties. You can have a very clean tasting Jamesons, or go for a more peaty Teeling. The difference is Jamesons uses hot air to cook the mash, while Teeling and others might use peat or hardwood fires for cooking. The peat is readily apparent. Dublin and Belfast are a tale of two cities, but not as polar opposites in the way Dickens opened his classic novel. In Belfast, there seem fewer examples of Irish accents and more Scottish and British accents. Government offices are marked “Her Majesty’s…” (guess the sign guy didn’t get the memo) and there are Union Jacks everywhere. The quick wit remains, but perhaps a bit more restrained, at least until slightly lubricated at the local pub. The Titanic Museum in Belfast — built on the same land the famous, doomed ship was built — is a must-see for any first-timers to this historic city. It may well be the benchmark by which all other museums should be judged. It’s design
carefully considered, its artifacts expertly curated and its tour narrated by signs and by portable audio players well worth the extra eight quid to rent. The tale of the ship’s construction is fascinating, and drives home how in those days work was work — hard, sweaty labour devoid of health and safety considerations. The narration tells of how workers had a total of seven minutes off time per day, and how casual labourers — who made up the bulk of the staff — had to arrive at the shipyard by 6 a.m. to queue up for work. At one point of the tour, you board what resemble ski lift cars for a ride through a mock-up of building the boat while narration tells of the hard work and the pride Belfast took in its construction. More than 100,000 turned out to watch its triumphant launch, from a spot marked out on the ground outside the museum, where the Titanic and its sister ship, the Olympic, were built side by side. Windows overlook the spots. From there, the tour turns to outfitting the Titanic, from its lavish first-class staterooms and dining rooms to its third-class staterooms that aren’t that far removed from their modern cruise ship counterparts.
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