Glasgow to Dublin

Mid morning I began my journey from Glasgow to Dublin which involved many transfers and several forms of transportation. I first took a bus from Glasgow to Stranraer. From Stranraer in Scotland I took a ferry to Belfast in Northern Ireland. The ferry was a huge catamaran ferry which was really fast. In Belfast I took a bus from the harbor to the bus station. I tried to spend all of my british money in Belfast before catching a Dublin bound bus across the border into Ireland. I was surprised that there is really no continuous highway that connects Belfast and Dublin. I realize that Northern Ireland and Ireland were at war until fairly recently, but it seemed like the bus was taking two lane roads most of the time. It took more than 3 hours to go about 100 miles.