Belfast - Ireland 2014 - page 546

Planning Your Time: Allow three hours for your visit, and expect lots of walking.
Most people will spend an hour in the Transport Museum and a couple of hours at the Folk
Park. You'll arrive (by rail or car) between the two museums at a point somewhat closer
to the Transport Museum. From here, you have a choice of going downhill to the Trans-
port Museum or uphill into the Folk Park. Assess your energy level and plan accordingly.
Thosewithacarcandrivebetweenthemuseumandthefolkpark(otherwise,it's200pant-
ing yards uphill). Note that the Transport Museum is all indoors—a good bet if it's rainy.
The Folk Park involves more walking between buildings spread across the upper hillside.
The Red Hand of Ulster
All over Belfast, you'll notice a curious symbol: a red hand facing you as if swear-
ing a pledge or telling you to halt. You'll spot it, faded, above the Linen Hall
Library door, in the wrought-iron fences of the Merchant Hotel, on old-fashioned
clothes wringers (in the Ulster Folk Park and Transport Museum at Cultra), above
the front door of a bank in Bangor, in the shape of a flowerbed at Mount Stewart
House, in Loyalist paramilitary murals, on shield emblems in the gates of Repub-
lican memorials, and even on the flag of Northern Ireland (the white flag with the
red cross of St. George). It's known as the Red Hand of Ulster—and it seems to pop
up everywhere. It's one of the few emblems used by both communities in Northern
Ireland.