SquaresRenew 8: Reflection Space
A couple of days ago I wrote about the statues outside Belfast City Hall (above – squared!) We also explored the building inside – at least the ground floor which you can do on your own; you need to book a (free) guided tour to see the rest. It is as beautiful as you would expect from a lavish Victorian civic space with marble, tiling, stained glass, and a magnificent dome. However, my focus today is the excellent exhibition covering Belfast’s history.
This exhibition is so detailed that I wondered how it was going to handle the history of the Troubles. Answer: it didn’t directly, offering instead a Reflection Space which allowed visitors “to read archived experiences of the City citizen’s recorded during the traumatic years of ‘the troubles’ and to pause and reflect on this painful period in the City’s recent past”. Here are some of the text panels (two of which are squares – just couldn’t do it with the rest). I hope you will read at least some of it and agree that the spirit of renewal and restructuring shines through.
As a bonus, and because I probably won’t revisit the City Hall in any other post, here is a sample – definitely not squared – of the fabulous interior.
Part of Becky’s SquaresRenew Challenge, using images from our April 2024 trip to Northern Ireland to illustrate one or more of the following:
- Move forward
- Reconstruct
- Renew
- Burgeoning
The Glasgow Gallivanter 
Thanks for sharing the words of the citizens of Belfast. Very powerful. And true even today in our divisive societies.
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I think we could take lessons from Belfast in how to approach healing divisions. i was impressed on the whole.
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The dome is imposing looking at the exterior , but the interior is exquisite. The exhibition seems to have found a way to hold some space for everyone, no easy task on such a difficult topic. Beautiful words in a beautiful building.
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Yes, it was very well done.
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Those text panels are absolutely brilliant, Anabel. The spirit of renewal and restructuring definitely shines through. <3
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I think, and hope, it is the reflection of most people’s feelings – to get on with a normal life without a return to violence.
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oh this has been curated so well – a lovely approach and a very thoughtful set of squares. I am going to keep this post open so I can come back and reflect on it again when I have more time and not rushing to catch up as well as go out
PS rectangles with longer sides are allowed when surrounded by others with 4 equal sides!
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Glad you like it. And I knew you’d be flexible! You’ll have to be quite a few more times I think …
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well I have a 2 long sided rectangle in mine today so I cannot talk!!
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This is a beautiful building and I like the way they have address a difficult history.
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Yes, I thought it was very thoughtfully done.
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The stained window is fantastic.
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One of a series – I’ll have to show them all some day.
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Oh, how interesting, Anabel! And I believe Margaret has made a valid point “a difficult topic has been thoughtfully tackled”
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She has indeed, and as I just said to her too I couldn’t think how they could possibly deal with it. Yet they came up with a way.
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It looks as if a difficult topic has been thoughtfully tackled.
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Yes, i just couldn’t think how they were going to cover the complexity of the troubles otherwise. This was an excellent solution.
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That reflection space seems a perfect fit for Becky’s themes and there are some powerful quotes there. And I love that stained glass window!
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Yes, I thought the quotes were very powerful, and encouraging. We saw something similarly uplifting in Derry which I’ll include later.
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Like the D.S. window. Bob. BSS.
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It’s stunning – as were all the windows.
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Very interesting.
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Thanks, Jude, I thought it was well handled.
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I love the bottom two quotes, especially the one on the left, and that window is just fabulous :)
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There was a whole corridor with beautiful windows, but given the way I am writing up Belfast I decided just to give one example. Maybe I’ll use them in another way some day. Yes, the quotes are quite moving.
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