Good Morning. We're going to Northern Ireland.
It looks like we've just crossed over into
Northern Ireland.
Didn't see any markings or any border
or anything like that.
First thing that we noticed is that it went
from kilometers an hour to
speed limit in miles per hour.
We're just a couple of miles outside
of Derry.
Tell you more about that when we get there.
We have now crossed the border,
and we are now in Derry, Northern Ireland.
Six Irish providences, which along with
England, Scotland, and Wales
form the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
Ireland was England's first colony
and remains so for the better part of 900 years.
Ireland became an independent republic
in the 1920s, but Northern Ireland
remained part of Great Britain.
And ever since then, the question
of Northern Ireland: whether it should
remain part of Great Britain
or join a unified Republic of Ireland
has been the source of a conflict
here known as "The Troubles."
This city Derry has tons of history.
A lot of it is linked to the conflict.
We're going to meet up with Michael
who is a member of the local city council.
He's going to show us around, starting at
The Guidlhall
Michael? Welcome to Derry.
Welcome to the Guildhall. Cheers.
My name is Michael Cooper.
I'm a blue badge tour guide and also
a member of the local government.
We're actually in the Guildhall, the seat of
local government in Derry, as we speak.
Very brief story: Monastic settlements
here are 1500 years ago,
basically an Irish population
that changed 400 years ago when settlers
came here from England and Scotland
during the Plantation of Ulster.
To stop Spanish invasion,
settlers were given a new walled city,
and they controlled the situation here for centuries.
Up until 1921, all of Ireland was
under British rule.
There had been then at that period
a war of independence,
basically a guerrilla campaign by the I.R.A.,
Irish Republican Army, to try to break
the link with Britain completely.
The British government agreed with the I.R.A.
that they would effectively withdraw from
most of Ireland, allowing free states to be created,
which later became the Republic of Ireland.
But to the sadness of the colonist who
had come to the north in the 17th century,
they wanted to keep the link with Britain.
The British government said that we will create
a separate state for you in the northeast
of Ireland that will remain under British rule.
Hence, the creation of Northern Ireland.
And that lead much later to protest,
demanding civil rights,
which ended up with a very long conflict.
But today because of our peace process,
the sharing of power and a very, very
different political system, as a result,
we've got a much more peaceful situation.
These fountains are pretty cool, but
I'd have to wonder how many unsuspecting
tourists have just been walking through
this central plaza and then gotten a jet
right between their legs.
A single or double espresso?
Ah... single is probably fine. OK
Thank you. You're welcome.
There are some "fines" in here, for sure.
Some cool, old vintage stuff.
Definitely some stylish trench coats,
which are always good for the next
couple of months because remember:
winter is coming.
And winter is coming in this vlog series, guys.
I get lost in a book store.
I might never come out.
I need to navigate my way out of here.
We're stuck in between
an argument of whether it's better
to put brown sauce, H&P
or red sauce, ketchup.
They're firmly in the party of brown sauce.
Micky over here is holding down ketchup.
McDonalds will never make brown sauce
so screw you and your tomato sauce.
I don't know... I like both of them.
I want some ketchup and some brown sauce.
Whew.
Thank you. Bye. See you guys next time.
Right now we're walking along the walls,
the old walls of Derry.
Its walls were built in the 1600s
when Protestant England was at war with
Catholic Spain and France
who hoped to ally with
Irish Catholics and invade neighboring England.
In 1688, Derry's walls were tested
during the English Civil War
when Catholic James the Second
battled Protestant William of Orange
for the throne.
James' Catholic army besieged the Protestant
stronghold of Derry for 105 days.
Thousands died from starvation and disease,
but the walls held.
An event still celebrated annually
and displayed in the Siege Museum.
Down the street, the Museum of Free Derry
tells the story of Bloody Sunday.
January 30, 1972,
when soldiers of the British Army fired upon
a peaceful civil rights march here in Derry,
killing 14 unarmed civilians
and escalating the cycle of violence
between Protestant loyalist and
Catholic Republicans.
It's been almost twenty years since
the 1998 Good Friday Peace Accord,
and while old wounds take time to heal,
Northern Ireland is moving forward.
We just spent ten minutes getting super deep,
getting really emotional, talking about
this entire situation, only to find out
that the microphone was not turned on.
The whole time? No!
Obviously, we've got people watching from
both sides of the conflict.
We've traveled to England, Scotland.
We love British people.
We've traveled to Ireland, and we love the Irish.
Being a traveler in these sorts of situations
allows you to be kind of a bridge between
cultures that otherwise wouldn't be able to talk.
And to foster this sort of peaceful
co-existence that we really need in this world.
Building peace, building understanding,
building communication is a process;
it doesn't just happen overnight.
Four years ago when we started this project,
Mark and I weren't really friends.
Frenemies. We were frenemies. Yeah, for sure.
And we decided that this project,
Vagabrothers, could be a way to create
dialog and encourage people to travel
with the goal of trying to create
understanding between different cultures.
Cross cultural communication. Yeah.
Telling this to you guys has been difficult for us.
But I think that when you have difficult conversations,
you come away stronger;
you come away with more peace of mind
and more understanding,
and at the end of the day,
that's what this project is about.
That's what that bridge is about,
and that's what this vlog is about.
That being said, when we do have beef,
the best way to squash it is to raise a
glass together. So we're going to head
over to a craft brewery over here
that's actually in an old military barracks.
I'm James Huey. I'm the owner and
proprietor and the brewer in the Wall City Brewery
in Derry, Northern Ireland.
It's a barracks built around 1841, and
during the Troubles, it was used as a
headquarters for the British Army.
It has always had a conflict history
but now it's changing to being a cultural and innovative hub.
I left Derry in 1996.
It was a bad time in the city.
I joined the Guinness Graduate Scheme
to learn how to brew.
I came back up here in 2010 with my wife.
There was a cease fire. There was a
Good Friday agreement.
So everything had changed.
We wanted to do something with local foods
with craft beers and also
something for the city.
It's great for people to be talking about
beer, food, and how the city's changed
instead of the usual political divisions,
which we have.
Cheers and Bon Appetit
Bon Appetit
Happy? Super happy.
Beautiful city. People here are very chill.
Making friends, drinking beer.
Having a good time.
We've just had a lovely feast
and a lovely couple of pints.
And now we're heading back across the bridge.
What are we up to over there?
One of the most important groups in the story
of Northern Ireland are the Ulster Scots.
They're Protestant Scots who came from
Scotland to here during the time of the [Ulster] Plantation,
and eventually made their way to America,
specifally to the Appalacians
where their style of music is fundamental
in creating American bluegrass.
We're going to head into a local bar
and hear the roots of American bluegrass and country music.
Let's go.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it's been quite the
day in Derry, our first day in Northern Ireland.
We had a couple of pints,
listened to some good tunes.
We're going to call it a night because we
have a lot of exploring left to do.
If you liked the video give it a thumbs-up,
share it with your friends, and subscribe to
Vagabrothers for travel videos every
Tuesday and Saturday
from all around the world.
In the meantime, stay curious, keep exploring,
and we will see you guys on the road.
Peace.