Bush breezes by Belmont in Belfast

Sitting in traffic this evening at the roundabout at the end of the Belmont Road, gazillions of PSNI traffic cops everywhere, holding the flow of traffic. I couldn't work out why until I realised that the motorcade of President Bush must be about to sweep past on its way back to the airport.

It was obvious we were going nowhere for a while, so I turned off the ignition and turned on Radio Ulster, where the usual Northern Ireland battalion of complainers were emailing and texting like billyo, giving off about what a nasty man George W is, and how outrageous it was that his visit was delaying them getting home on time. This place is FULL of people who do nothing but gurn.

So the motorcade eventually drove past, with about 30 police motorbikes in front, then the three or four big sleek black American cars with flags on the front (a Union Flag and a US Flag) carrying the President and First Lady, followed by sinister looking black trucks that were probably carrying enough weaponry to shoot everybody in the world at least twice over, and a few dozen police cars behind. In about 3 minutes it was all over and we were on our way, up the hill towards Craigantlet and back hame.

I did think it was kind of ironic that when I was down at the front of Belfast City Hall today there were protestors with posters which had a picture of Bush along with the headline "World's No. 1 Terrorist" - to then come home and see him on the news having met at Stormont Castle with... ahem.

(illustration above from The Scotch-Irish in History by James Shaw, 1899)