Why I Travel (With Thanks to Ned Kelly)

This piece about my motivations for travel was commissioned by a magazine in 2014, but never published for space reasons. Here it is at last, for your enjoyment...

I travel to connect the dots.

I’ve always been fascinated by history – I even gained a degree in it from the University of Western Australia – but I don’t want to only learn about it through books.

There’s nothing I like more than actually visiting the place where a great historic event took place, something that people still talk about today.

Even better is to link together a number of places connected to a famous person or happening, and step in the footprints of those who were there at the time.

One of my favourite journeys was a retracing of the life of Ned Kelly, the notorious bushranger whose gang robbed banks and fought police in northeastern Victoria in the late 19th century.

Whether they think he’s a hero or a villain, everyone knows about Ned’s famous showdown at Glenrowan, when he confronted police in the dawn light in a home-made suit of armour.

But not many know about the green sash he was awarded at the age of 11 when he saved a drowning child from a river in Avenel. Exploits from his short but eventful life are scattered all along the signposted Ned Kelly Touring Route.

I went one better in 2011 when I visited the tiny town of Moyglass, two hours from Dublin, Ireland in County Tipperary. Nowadays the village is basically just a cemetery and a pub, but what a pub.

The Ned Kelly Village Inn is festooned with Kelly memorabilia, and for a very good reason. In 1840 Ned Kelly’s dad, John Kelly, was working as a farm labourer here and stole two pigs.

Caught, he was sentenced to transportation to Australia, thus starting the journey that would lead to Ned and his dramatic fate. I felt pleased and privileged to have been to both ends of the tale.

On other trips I’ve linked together such major events as the sinking of the SS Titanic, visiting the Belfast shipyards where it was built, and later the cemetery in Halifax, Canada where many of its tragic victims lie.

I’ve visited Roman ruins stretching from England to Egypt, via Italy and Hungary and, of course, Rome. I’ve wondered at strange architectural relics of Eastern Europe’s communist era, from Poland to Slovenia.

And I’ve been to all three corners of the so-called Polynesian Triangle, Hawaii, New Zealand and Easter Island, amazed at the ancient Polynesians' navigational skills.

Once I’ve been there, it’s not just dusty old history to me. It’s a story, of real people and their lives.

Why do you travel? Feel free to comment below.

I Am a Bond Villain (Nyah-ha-ha)

Yesterday I published my latest book for Kindle, with the unlikely title of I Am a Bond Villain: A Travel Writer's Strange Affair With Britain & Ireland.

It's a collection of my articles about the UK and Eire, which have appeared in newspapers, magazines and websites over the past decade.

It's also a director's cut of sorts, as many of the chapters contain additional material which weren't part of the original published pieces.

As I was putting the book together, I noticed how often I'd written travel articles about British and Irish culture, particularly concerning British fictional characters.

With that in mind, I'd like to share the Foreword, to give you some of the book's flavour and to outline my love for this part of the world...

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Foreword

I’d travelled to Britain many times in my mind before I actually set foot there.

My childhood and early adult years were awash with fiction emanating from the United Kingdom.

As a young boy I marvelled at monsters invading the London streets and its Underground in black-and-white episodes of Doctor Who. As I got older, the first novels I read were the haunting science fiction stories of John Wyndham, including The Day of the Triffids.

I also enjoyed the Poirot mysteries of Agatha Christie, which often took me into the English countryside with its trademark stately homes and quaint villages (both concealing sinister secrets).

In a neat reversal in the 1980s, the excellent Sherlock Holmes television series starring Jeremy Brett led me to devour the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, still excellent after all these years.

Similarly, the 1990s Jeeves & Wooster TV series starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie introduced me to the marvellous (and plentiful) works of PG Wodehouse, which I’m still working my way through.

And later that decade I played Duncan in a production of Macbeth at the University of Western Australia, finally taking part in my favourite of Shakespeare’s plays.

Given this immersion in imagination, it seems only fitting that the first four chapters of this book focus on fictional characters.

When I first arrived in London in 1990, I was delighted to discover that the British capital was even more complex and layered than had been suggested by these creative folk; as was the land beyond.

Armed with a thick UK railway timetable and a Britrail pass, Narrelle Harris and I proceeded to explore this familiar/unfamiliar country, passing through the cities, towns and countryside of England, Wales and Scotland.

Much later, I was lucky enough to add Ireland – both north and south – to this tally. In both Northern Ireland and the Republic, I was glad to find connections to my own life and experiences, and to make the acquaintance of the warm, complex people of that island.

This book is a collection of my published travel articles about the UK and Ireland, which first appeared in newspapers, magazines and websites. It’s not intended to be a guidebook or travel memoir, rather a series of glimpses into aspects of these two nations.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed writing them, and that they provide inspiration for your next visit to Britain or Ireland.

Cheers!

Tim Richards

Melbourne, 2013

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Here's the link again: I Am a Bond Villain: A Travel Writer's Strange Affair With Britain & Ireland.

If you buy the book, I hope you enjoy it. If so, please take a moment to review it on the Amazon website or via the Kindle link. Thanks!

Pubs of Belfast 2

Last week I shared images of three fine old laneway pubs I visited on my trip last year to Belfast, Northern Ireland (hosted by Aer Lingus and Tourism Ireland). Here are three more to make up the set...

1. Duke of York (11 Commercial Ct). This pub was situated in the most attractive entry (the Northern Ireland term for alley) which I'd seen so far, dominating the space with planter boxes, colourful signage and outdoor seating.

Although I'd been endlessly warned about the Belfast weather, it was actually well behaved during my visit and I sat outside the pub for a while when the sun came out:

2. The Journos' Hangout. According to the Belfast chapter within Lonely Planet's Ireland country guide, the Duke of York used to be the pub of choice for print workers and journalists, and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams once worked behind the bar here.

Nowadays it seems to attract a broad clientele, fitting with the Cathedral Quarter's recent reawakening as a cool nightlife zone:

3. Red Hand. Both the pub's interior and exterior are decked out with signage from now-defunct whisky and beer brands. This variant of Guinness, Red Hand, caught my eye as this legendary hand is a symbol of Northern Ireland and appears on its flag.

The legend of the Red Hand of Ulster claims that during an ancient absence on the throne of Ulster (a northern kingdom), whoever's hand first touched the shore at the end of a boat race would become king. In a grisly display of lateral thinking, one of the potential kings allegedly cut off his hand and threw it onto the shore in order to win the crown:

4. Kelly’s Cellars (1 Bank St). Not in an alleyway, this 1720 pub is located behind a stretch of modern buildings and therefore stands out like a beacon with its intact old-fashioned look:

5. Stew... or stew. I was here around lunchtime, so I asked the barmaid if the pub offered food. Turned out there was just one dish - Irish stew. Damn good though, and cheap - the stew and a half-pint of Guinness was only £5.30 all up:

6. Crown Liquor Saloon (46 Great Victoria St). My final memorable pub dramatically departed from the humble look of the likes of Kelly's.

The Crown Liquor Saloon was refurbished in insanely over-the-top Victorian decor in 1885 in order to attract the beautiful people attending the opera house down the road. The result is a riot of tiled surfaces, gleaming brass and decorative windows:

... and on top of that, it must be one of the few National Trust properties in the UK where you can order a pint, pulled from a tap. I like that.

This post was sponsored by AFerry.co.uk.

Pubs of Belfast 1

A year ago I spent a few days in Belfast, Northern Ireland (hosted by Aer Lingus and Tourism Ireland), and discovered some marvellous pubs.

I'd arrived in the city mid-morning on a weekday, having just endured the 23-hour flight from Melbourne to London before flying the short hop across the Irish Sea.

I've always believed the best way to forestall jetlag when flying west is to stay up until the local equivalent of one's usual bedtime, so what was I to do for the rest of the day before a dinner appointment?

A flick through the Lonely Planet chapter covering Belfast gave me the answer - check out its numerous attractive old pubs, many located in alleyways the Northern Irelanders call "entries".

Given the city's maritime history, these were probably once rough-and-tumble joints full of boozed-up sailors and dock workers, so it'd be interesting to see what they were like in these more refined times.

My course was set; first port of call...

1.  Bittle’s Bar (103 Victoria St). Just down the street from my hotel, this corner pub decorated with a big shamrock stood out because it couldn't be much more of a corner pub without completely disappearing into its own acute angle:

2. The Champ of Lunches. Inside I found a narrow but cosy triangular space with a big portrait on one wall of Oscar Wilde and other Irish writers serving pints of beer. For lunch I ordered what I was soon to jokingly call the national dish of Northern Ireland - pork and leek sausages with "champ", a mixture of spring onions and mashed potato:

3. Pottinger's Entry. This was my first Belfast alley, named after a prominent local family who supplied Sir Henry Pottinger, first Governor of Hong Kong:

4. Morning Star (17 Pottinger’s Entry). This pub dates from 1810, when it was one of the termini for the Belfast to Dublin mail coach. It has some interesting architectural features on the outside:

 ... and a fairly shiny interior:

5. Winecellar Entry. By this point, of course, I'd realised that I couldn't order a pint of Guinness in every single pub... especially not in my befuddled post-flight state. So it was down to half-pints (well, one had to be civil). Here's my next alley, though less visually exciting:

6. Whites (1 Winecellar Entry). Here I found what's claimed to be Belfast's oldest tavern, dating from 1630. This is a good point at which to pay tribute to the friendliness of the locals - while I was taking photos in the alley a young guy who was passing stopped to have a chat and tell me more about the pubs, before heading off about his business:

... and here's the interior. Although there's been a tavern here since 1630, like so many of these places it's been completely remodelled from time to time. I found out later that Whites was rebuilt in 1790 and more recently refurbished in the 1990s after a fire. Here's what the interior looks like now - dim, cosy and atmospheric:

Next week: Three more Belfast pubs - one full of colourful signage, another humble but with special stew, and one spectacularly overdecorated for the Victorian gentry...

This post was sponsored by AFerry.co.uk.

Belfast Reborn

I've just spent three days in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland. Of course we've all heard of Belfast, and for all the wrong reasons - for decades it was in the news as a result of its sectarian violence, euphemistically known as "The Troubles".

However, the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 put an end to that, and every year of normality since has seen Belfast mature into an attractive small city with some lively nightlife. It's also enabled the city to rediscover its 19th century heritage as a mighty industrial hub.

Here's a few random snapshots which I took of Belfast over my brief stay.

The first pic is the lunch I had on my first day there, in a great old-fashioned pub called Bittle's. On the plate are pork and leek sausages, and "champ" - mashed potato with spring onion. Not only was this a good filling lunch, I saw it on a few other menus over my stay. In fact I started to think of it as the signature dish of Northern Ireland. Went well with a Guinness too.

The Cathedral Quarter of Belfast is threaded by a series of alleyways, for some reason known as "entries". They're atmospheric narrow laneways, often housing classic old pubs. Here's the entry to Pottinger's Entry, named after local lad Sir Henry Pottinger, the first Governor of Hong Kong:

Does the below clock tower look as though it's leaning? Indeed it is. The Albert Memorial Clock was built above the subterranean course of the River Farset, and unfortunately the damp reclaimed ground shifted over time. Incidentally, Belfast took its name from the Farset, being situated on béal feirste, literally the mouth of the Farset in Gaelic...

Having been a busy industrial city in the 19th century, Belfast has many solid commercial buildings near its waterfront. Here's some elaborate decoration on the side of a former seed warehouse that's now the Malmaison Hotel:

To learn more about The Troubles, I took a black cab tour of the remaining sectarian murals and other reminders of the conflict. One of the most moving was the Peace Wall that separated Protestant and Catholic communities, covered with graffiti by visitors from around the world:

Another memorable element of Belfast's past was the SS Titanic, which was built and launched here a century ago. Here are the remains of the slipways down which Titanic and its predecessor Olympic entered the water for the first time:

And here are some pieces from a Titanic chess set, made to order by the creative types at local gallery Open Window Productions:

And finally, the Big Fish sculpture on Belfast's regenerated waterfront. Covered with tiles bearing images of the city's history, it also marked the return of salmon to the adjacent Lagan River after over a century of industrial waste was cleaned up. It's a fitting symbol for a city that's been reborn in more ways than one...

Disclosure time... on this trip I travelled courtesy of Tourism Ireland and Aer Lingus.