BELFAST~I took a black taxi tour of West Belfast, epicenter of The Troubles and still a flash point for sectarian conflict between the Protestant Shankill Road community and abutting Catholic Falls Road neighborhood. My visit was just nine days after the annual 12 July celebrations, the triumphalist commemoration of the 1690 victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne. Some images:

Mural of William of Orange.

Shankill homes decorated with the British Union Jack.

Site of Shankill bonfire, still smoldering nine days after the 12th of July.

Driving into the Nationalist (Catholic) Falls community. Gates close at night.

Nationalist side of the “peace wall.”

Nationalist hero Bobby Sands, who died on hunger strike in 1981.

Sinn Fein political office on the Falls Road, battened down for the evening.