This week our motoring columnist Brian McDaid takes us along with him on a trip to Belfast in his Berlingo….
I was so looking forward to the wee spin up to Belfast last week. A Sunday was set aside for it. For me this is where my real Christmas starts when you head off a wee journey away from the hustle and bustle of all the loops and hoops we find we push ourselves through on the run upto Christmas.
Being alone for a couple of hours behind the wheel of the Berlingo is just what I need before Christmas. It’s time where I can reflect on good and the not so good Christmas over the years without someone trying to gloss over them and try and cheer you up. As I crossed the border on Sunday morning my network connection went down after passing Nixon’s corner on the way into Derry, I knew I lost my connection because I usually listen to the radio through an app on my phone.
I recently changed my phone company, and they do offer a better price but recently anytime I crossed the border into the north the service dropped off and you would be a good bit into the North before your network would send you a message to say you were roaming and your service, if a bit limited, was restored.
The Bellevue Bar a familiar land mark on the way into Belfast.
On the motorway.
I’m not sure where exactly the M2 motorway starts when I am heading into Belfast and where the M22 ends. So as soon as I could see that I had phone coverage I pulled in to set up my sat nav for the final part of my journey. Google maps on my phone I use that picks up Bluetooth on the radio in the Berlingo. It’s the audio that I’ll be listening which I think is great. Which lets you keep your eyes on the road. I think it is through Spotify that I’m working. So I pick music that is low and turn up the radio so when sat nav gives an instruction I’ll hear it in good time.
It’s a far cry from heading ‘In to the North’, long before Satellite Navigation was anyway reliable. We always made sure we knew we were going but more important where not to stray into in your journey there.
My first ever trip into the North on my own was before I was legally the age to drive. It was on the Saturday before Christmas I was 16 years of age. I left school that September to start an apprenticeship as a carpenter with Terrence Ponsonby. It was 1980. It was at my first ever Christmas party the Friday night before. I got the Lough Swilly Bus into Derry, I didn’t know where Killea was but according to the front of that old bus the way we were heading was “Derry Via Killea ”. I often went to Derry with my Auntie B and often watched as a soldier or R.U.C officers walked up the aisle of our bus and the point of a gun brushing past inches away. On that Saturday morning I was in the Derry bus on my own and as we went through the army checkpoint after Killea the young soldier went through the bus and took a long look at everyone including myself who at 16 blushed for no reason at all. I can still hear me saying ‘shopping’ in a grown up voice when he asked me my reason for my journey.
(I relived this same journey just before Lough Swilly closed for good and have included a photo of three Derry Swilly buses)
A journey to Derry that I revisited on Loughswilly Derry bus pictured at the station with three Derry Bus parked beside an Ulster Bus Photo Before Lough Swilly closed for good. Brian McDaid.
Celine Dion
As I set off with Google maps leading the way my choice of music Celine Dion is singing in French, ‘Sous Le Vent’ or something coming up on the display in the dash.
‘Ah Jesus Dion, will you sing something I know!’
A few miles earlier I made my way over the Glenshane. I looked across at the snow covered mountains before the Ponderosa came into sight. The radio reception fades in and out as Sunday morning Christmas songs come in and out like the tide. It’s a pet hate of my grown-up children who give out to me when I listen to a radio reception fading like this. I love listening to the radio when I’m driving, I love not knowing what the next song will be and loving it when I know the song and maybe join in on the chorus.
‘Continue on for 22 miles!’ she says.
A view of the snow covered mountains high on the Glenshane pass on the was to Belfast last week Photo Brian McDaid.
A winter road trip to Belfast just before Christmas. Photo Brian McDaid.
The road into Belfast is a road I travelled for many years and although it has undergone many changes there are parts of it that have never changed like when you climb out over the Glenshane especially on a good day and you see the vast countryside in front of you. Likewise when you drop down into Belfast on the M2 and Belfast Lough comes into sight. I’m always on the lookout for ships coming or going into Belfast Harbour.
The Bellevue Arms that sits high above the Motorway on the Antrim Road, better known for the different brands of lager it promoted over the years like Tennents and now Harp, with its ideal location is one of the first landmarks that say for sure that you’re heading into Belfast.
The Bellevue Bar on the way into Belfast
“Take the right to lane for the M3” comes across the sat nav just before Celine Dion breaks into the Titanic song ‘My Heart Will Go On’ as I pass the odyssey where the Titanic was built all them years ago.
Today, I’m too busy to enjoy that change of music and a spot on the map coming together as I try to focus on getting over the flyovers and around the roundabouts and turns to get me on to the Stand Road. Then I kinda know where I’m going.
It’s a quick turnaround to pick up a son that has finished his third-level education before pressing home on the Sat Nav and along with Celine Dion sings ‘So this is Christmas, and what have you done, another year over and new one just begun’.
My son looks across at the side of my face trying to catch my eye and wonder would there be anything better on the radio station with the bad reception!
As we head out of Belfast my son looks up at the bar high above the M2 motorway.
‘There’s a place for a pub.’
Something that we both agree on as we head for a fog covered Glenshane pass.
And again lost network reception and Google maps for the final part of our journey home to Donegal.
Happy Motoring Folks
