Some authors write history books, some write travel narratives, others write books of humor, but author Will Ferguson, combines them all into his travel books. As good as Hitching Rides with Buddha was telling the story of the authors hitch hiking odyssey from the south of Japan, all the way to the very north end, Beyond Belfast is even better! A 560 mile walk around Northern Ireland, encompassing as much of the geography, the people, the history and the culture as is possible. The author does his best to explain what caused "the Troubles" from the very beginning of the country up through the 30 years of the troubles and beyond. He does the whole book in a very entertaining and readable style, that at times will have you laughing out loud- such as death by sausage- to the somber tone when discussing the senseless butchering of often times innocent people during "The Troubles". The descriptions of what a beautiful country Northern Ireland is and the warmth and hospitality of the people Protestant and Catholic alike as well as the quirkiness and craziness that is there, makes for an exceptional piece of storytelling. This is definitely a book worth reading! ( )

3.75 stars

Will Ferguson set out to walk along the Ulster Way in Northern Ireland, starting and ending in Belfast. The trail was meant to follow all around N. Ireland, but as Will found out, there were plenty of places where the trail seemed nonexistent. Ferguson’s grandfather originally came from Belfast, but Will was trying to dig deeper into his mysterious history. While he was in Ireland, he thought he’d also do some investigating into his orphaned grandfather’s past.

The majority of the book focused on the trip, the walking of the trail, rather than his grandfather’s past. He includes a lot of Irish history and folklore, as he travels through. Ferguson is usually very funny, though I didn’t find this book nearly as funny as some of his others. But, the Irish history was all interesting, and since I like biographies, I was interested in Will’s family history, too. Once I got past the fact that it wasn’t a funny as some of his other stuff, I really enjoyed it. ( )

Some authors write history books, some write travel narratives, others write books of humor, but author Will Ferguson, combines them all into his travel books. As good as Hitching Rides with Buddha was telling the story of the authors hitch hiking odyssey from the south of Japan, all the way to the very north end, Beyond Belfast is even better! A 560 mile walk around Northern Ireland, encompassing as much of the geography, the people, the history and the culture as is possible. The author does his best to explain what caused "the Troubles" from the very beginning of the country up through the 30 years of the troubles and beyond. He does the whole book in a very entertaining and readable style, that at times will have you laughing out loud- such as death by sausage- to the somber tone when discussing the senseless butchering of often times innocent people during "The Troubles". The descriptions of what a beautiful country Northern Ireland is and the warmth and hospitality of the people Protestant and Catholic alike as well as the quirkiness and craziness that is there, makes for an exceptional piece of storytelling. This is definitely a book worth reading! ( )

Enjoying the banter and craic of Canadian Will Ferguson's humourous memoir of his hike across N Ireland.. contains much historical info enroute including political background. I've gained a much broader understanding of the world of Ireland, thanks to Will.

Looked forward to his return to familial Irish roots in 2nd part of book.. ( )

This book was fascinating. Not only is Ferguson really funny (at least funny in that special Canadian sense) but he has researched the history and geography of Northern Ireland extensively. One minute I would be laughing out loud and reading sections to my husband and the next I would be almost crying at the cruel stupidity of both the Protestants and Catholics.

Ferguson has a family connection to Northern Ireland. His mother's father was orphaned at a young age in Belfast. The famous Barnardo Homes took him and his brother in and planned to send both the boys to Canada to work on farms. However Will's grandfather was sickly and could not go on the ship so his brother went to Canada and he was left behind. Eventually the brother managed to get him to Canada. Either the grandfather didn't remember very much about his parents or he chose not to talk about them so there was very little known about the family background. The only clue was an old picture that showed the grandfather dressed quite smartly in front of a set of stairs with large urns. From that Ferguson hypothesized that there was a family estate somewhere in Ireland just waiting for him to claim it. Of course, there is the small matter of his three older brothers who would have a prior entitlement but Will figures he can take care of them.

Thus the seed is born to explore Northern Ireland and he decides to walk the Ulster Way "the longest waymarked trail in the road". He does this in the fall of 1999 just after the peace accord between the IRA and the British government. It turns out that the Ulster Way is more of an idea than a reality and Ferguson has many wrong turns and missing paths ahead of him. He perseveres and discovers much about Northern Ireland, including, eventually, the truth about his grandfather.

I'll never walk the Ulster Way but I feel like I have after reading this book. I certainly want to visit Northern Ireland and see for myself some of the places Will talks about. In the meantime his website has some great pictures he took during his trek. I would have liked to have had these pictures in the book itself but finding them in full colour on the internet is an acceptable substitute. ( )