They really should start charging an entrance fee at the Shankill estate in Belfast where most days tourists flock to gaze at and take pictures of freshly painted political murals.
Here on one gable is Princess Diana resplendent in tiara and black evening wear. There, on another, is murdered LVF leader Billy Wright dressed in regulation blue denim. And if you stand with your back to the Grim Reaper, ladies and gentlemen, you can just about see the home of former UFF commander Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair.
Norman, our taxi-driver tour guide, smiles as he points out Adair's street and says this type of sightseeing would have been impossible just a few years ago. He is a driver with Black Taxi Tours, a vehicle that in the not-so-distant past would have been a target for paramilitaries in certain areas.
These days Norman takes those who have been dubbed "terror tourists" around the Catholic Falls and the Protestant Shankill with equal ease. He doesn't tell his passengers what religion he is, although they usually ask. "When they see people waving to me on the Shankill Road, they kind of work it out for themselves," he says.
No matter how acceptable to locals Norman insists these tours are, it is difficult not to feel uncomfortably as if you have stumbled into some kind of human zoo, strolling around the Shankill or the Falls with a disposable camera and genial tour guide in tow. On the Shankill, children play golf on grass covered in scorch marks from recent bonfires. "The biggest one in the North," a young boy informs the strangers as he passes, as though he might be training for Norman's job.
It soon becomes clear as the tour continues, winding its way through Catholic areas, that the Protestants have by far the most impressive murals. Many of the murals off the Falls are too small to be as effective and others could do with a fresh lick of paint.
People come from all over the world to take the tours which have been made popular mainly through word of mouth. They cost £7.50 a person and last about 1 1/2 hours. "We get all sorts. The Americans are particularly fascinated and want to understand both sides of the conflict," says Norman. The tour also explores the less explosive but equally interesting aspects of Belfast's history and architecture. The wonky Albert Clock, for example, has become Belfast's leaning tower, because it was built on reclaimed land. The landmark clock has four faces and each one tells a different time.
Norman also points out the famous Harland & Wolff cranes, which tower over the shipyard where Titanic was built. They are called either Samson and Goliath or William and Harry depending on whether you prefer your references biblical or royal. Then there is St Anne's cathedral which holds the remains of Sir Edward Carson and is built of stone from each of the 32 counties. Onward, to the slightly less appealing sights - this tour is nothing if not balanced - of a freshly paint-bombed Orange Hall or a freshly paint-bombed mural of Bobby Sands. For the first-time visitor, the wall at the peace line separating the communities in the Falls and Shankill is eerie and reminiscent, symbolically at least, of its Berlin cousin. It is complete with mawkish messages of peace that contain the occasional flashes of dubious humour. F k Peace, Smoke a Joint advises one person's scribble.
A favourite piece of Belfast graffito included near the beginning of the tour has nothing to do with the Troubles, concerning itself with what some might feel is a more pressing matter. "No topless bathing," reads the slogan behind the Belfast Telegraph offices, "Ulster has suffered enough."
For more information on Black Taxi Tours, call 048 90 642264
