We had a more leisurely morning and didn't leave for Stormont until 1pm. We got there a lot faster than we thought we would so we went to the Stormont Hotel for tea/coffee. Once we were finally served, we had to drink it up really quick to get to our tour on-time. We tried to park in the parking lot, but it was full and it took us a while to maneuver out because we were a big bus in a small parking lot. Luckily, we didn't hit anyone's car on the way out. We found another parking space then had to go through security to get in. Stormont is the Northern Ireland parliament building. Our day consisted of having a short information session with 6 representatives of different parties. They have many parties involved in politics unlike in America with our basically 2 party system. The parties do fall under the categories of Unionist (Protestant) and Loyalists (Catholics). The lady who met with us from the Sinn Fein party was scary. She outrightly told us that she was an ex-combattant. The Troubles, the para-military violence that occurred between the Protestants and Catholics, still exists today in people's minds and largely influences politics in N. Ireland. We sat in on a Parliament session, which for the most part was largely boring. Our art professor really wanted to see a piece of stained glass by David Eisler, whom he did a workshop for and who also did the stained glass in the parish church that we visited. The stained glass is located in the Stormont Castle where the higher-ups in parliament have their offices. It is open to the public once a year, and yet we were able to get in.
We were escorted to the stained glass where we read the John Hewitt poem that inspired it and Neil talked a lot about the glass. I just thought it was cool that we got into the castle. Then we went home.
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