Day 12 – May 21 – Wednesday: The North Coast (continued)-Back to Belfast

An on-going account of our trip to Ireland and England. Click on images for larger view.

We wandered around Portrush for part of the morning, walking past the marina and catching a glimpse of the houses across the bay. (Right: The Portrush Town Hall)

The major attraction of the day was the Giant’s Causeway, a rocky volcanic outcropping. The distinctive feature of the formation is the hexagonal shape of the columns, which number 40,000 according to one of the signs. I couldn’t help wondering who counted them and how they kept from losing count.

And flowers of course…

Abbie will tell you I have a fixation about sticks. I'm always looking for just the right piece of wood to whittle on, and can't resist bringing some home in the suitcase. I found this one interesting, but didn't pick it up and bring it with me.

Derick Bingham

Back in Belfast for the rest of the week, we had a meeting with Derick Bingham, a prominent Bible teacher among evangelicals in N. Ireland over several decades, who is also Adjunct Professor of English Literature at John Brown University and an author. Abbie and I first heard of him back in the 80’s through cassette recordings of his Tuesday Night talks at the Crescent, a church in the neighborhood of Queen’s University in Belfast. The talks were aimed primarily to reach the university students, and Tuesday Night at the Crescent enjoyed large numbers of hearers over the years. It was Bingham’s autobiography of C.S. Lewis, A Shiver of Wonder, that I read on the way from Funchal to Belfast three weeks ago.

He related the story of C.S. Lewis’s life and its influences, and spoke of his recent book, The Brontes – Veins Running Fire, published in 2007. But it was impossible for him not to say something about the changed situation in Belfast since the 1998 Good Friday agreement that brought an end to the bombings and violence that marked the city since 1960. Just a few days before we arrived in N. Ireland, the leader of the Ulster Unionists, Ian Paisley, did something that was not only unthinkable just a few years ago, it was something he had vowed he would never do: join in a government with Martin McGuiness of the Sein Féin party, whose military arm was the IRA.

On the following day we heard even more remarkable firsthand stories of the Troubles from one who grew up as the son of a Unionist paramilitary leader in the 60’s and early 70’s. Some of that story and photos will be in the next posting.

Derick looks over material before his meeting with us (left) and afterwards, autographs books for us.