A Tale of Two Cities: Belfast Week 9

Pulling into city centre, Belfast seemed like a typical European city. Cafes and shops lined the streets with ancient looking buildings and cathedrals. After a short bus ride, we began to see some different sites. The streets were lined with walls which boasted a peculiar type of street art. The history of this divided city was expressed in two different ways, between varying sets of murals within miles of each other. 

    Our journey started on the west side and was guided by our program director who had once lived in the area during its most tense moments. We stopped at a memorial garden which commemorated members of the IRA who had died in the troubles. There were pictures of women and children shouting and holding up trashcan lids, which our director explained were to alert others when the police were raiding houses. While another showed a withering man being held by a woman. Flowers were placed on the memorial in bright oranges, greens and white sporting the colors of the Irish flag. Through the rest of the west side we saw murals showing international leaders for civil rights, leaders of the IRA who had died in hunger strikes, and language which told the story of a victimized people who were fighting for justice and held ties with other groups in the world who have and are pushing for the same thing.

    The east side held a very different sentiment. The first memorial we saw used language such as “murder gang” to describe the IRA. There was a sense of unshakable pride in the murals and displays. Although a peace process is underway, the past is still remembered in different ways and each side reflected a different identity. We discussed this with a group of students who are studying in Belfast. We talked about ways US cities are divided in less visible ways such as by political association and social economics. We then went to a funky pub down the street with the small Belfast group and they told us more about their experience studying there. They said they hadn’t really seen any riots and people on the outside perceive it to be much more dangerous than it seems from day to day.

    We learned more about the divide on a trip to Derry on the second day. Even the name of the space is debated, while unionists insist on calling it “London Derry” most nationalists refer to it simply as “Derry.” After walking along the walls of the enclosed city, we went to an area known as “Free Derry.” During one period, the area was a “no-go” because the area was under no police control. There were many violent episodes that took place in the area, one remembered through various murals and a museum is known as “Bloody Sunday.” At the Free Derry museum, a woman whose brother died in the attack of the British police on what has now been proven were innocent civilians shared her story. She said she was away when he died, and her family never really talked about it. An inquiry was underway after the events to see the responsibility of the British government and the innocence of those involved, some speculating they were members of the IRA. The woman said her father said regardless of the results of the inquiry, nothing would bring him back and he knew his son was innocent. The British government formally apologized for the event in 2010. The museum also held pictures of those shot when they were younger. There was a letter written the week before the event by one victim, as well as a letter from a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force to a family of a victim stating their son was “happily killed because he was a terrorist.”

    After the emotional and somewhat shocking visit to the museum, we went to a museum for the Apprentice Boys which are a Protestant group which commemorates a much more distant event, the siege of Derry. While the man presenting us with videos and history of the siege was very nice, because the siege had taken place in the 1600s there was less of an emotional tie to the Protestant defense against attack from a Catholic king. It was harder to connect to their story and the demonstration seemed a little fishy.
    The next day we got away from the city and took a visit to a sea side castle which has fallen in and out of British rule. The castle was originally under Norman rule in medieval times and after periods of British rule has now been returned to the Northern Ireland government. It seemed bizarre seeing a castle complete with cannons and princesses still standing in modern times.

 It seemed picturesque compared to the world of violence we had just learned about. We then returned along the lovely Irish countryside back to Dublin away from the conflict but still remembering what I had learned.