By the Lagan Side

We arrived in Belfast and settled into our dorm rooms at Stranmillis College. The next day we visited the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont. Stormont houses the government of Northern Ireland, and has been dissolved in the past during times of trouble in Northern Ireland and was ruled directly from Westminster. We took a tour of the building which is quite an impressive place, and then got to meet with representatives from the Alliance Party, the Green Party, SDLP, Sinn Fein, and the Ulster Unionist Party. It was interesting to be able to hear about the current debate over choosing a minister for Police and Justice, especially because Alliance and SDLP are in a bitter feud over the position. That morning SDLP released an e-mail a member had accidentally received from Alliance party leader and favorite for Police and Justice Minister, David Ford. In the e-mail he called the Bloody Sunday enquiry “pointless”. He said it is pointless not because he doesn’t care about the victims and families of Bloody Sunday, but because he thinks the British State will doctor it up so much that the diluted version they receive will be worthless. His comments still sound very callous, but even more callous was what the Alliance MLA we met with pointed out. SDLP had received this e-mail 4 months prior and waited to release it when it was of political use to them. It is really disheartening when a party born out of the civil rights movement uses people they have sworn to protect as political weapons, and if they truly cared about Ford’s comments they should have released the e-mail immediately so that the families of those lost on Bloody Sunday could here what Ford had to say about an enquiry in search of closure for their loss.

Also on a side not when I asked a guy who worked at the Free Derry Museum (a museum focusing on Derry’s involvement in Civil Rights and the Troubles and run by many Bloody Sunday victims family members) what he thought of David Ford’s comments about the Bloody Sunday Enquiry being pointless he referred to them as “pointless comments made by a pointless politician.” So I don’t think they were as upset as the SDLP thought they would be.

Another poignant moment at Stormont was during our talks with SF and UUP representatives. I was amazed at the consensus between these two parties. Now when I say consensus I mean consensus on approach rather than their vision for the future of Northern Ireland. People throw around the phrase “shared future” a lot in the North, but I don’t really know how you can have a shared future when you have two groups working for completely opposite ends. The SF rep we met said that they were first and foremost dedicated to uniting with the Republic of Ireland and getting rid of British presence in Ireland, but added, we can not do this without finding accommodation for Unionists. The UUP MLA we met said that if SF wants to create a united Ireland, then being the only all Ireland party (they have seats in the Dail of the Republic and Stormont in the North) they need to make the Republic a more appealing place to live. In my opinion it already is a more appealing place because it isn’t part of one of the most brutal empires to ever exist, but the fact that Ireland’s biggest export is people, and they traditionally have a poor economy are more practical arguments for the Union. Anyway, I was impressed at the understanding and ability for open dialogue both men possessed.

While in Belfast we also took tours of West Belfast with former political prisoners. West Belfast consists mostly of two neighborhoods, The Falls which is a Republican stronghold, and houses Sinn Fein’s headquarters, and the Shankill, the epicenter of Loyalism. We met our former IRA tour guide, Joe, outside Divis Tower on Falls Road and he talked to us about his role in the conflict. He was in prison during the 1981 hunger strikes and was in the cell next to Bobby Sands, the first hunger striker that Margaret Thatcher allowed to die rather than grant political status. It was very moving to hear Joe talk about his friend, “Sandsy”, and how the world would be better off he was still alive today. It was definitely an experience I simply couldn’t have gained reading a book about the H-Block Hunger Strike, and gave the people involved a very real and human face. Joe spoke about how the prisoners were not just common criminals and the British Government was way out of line to treat them that way. They were prisoners because they belonged to an armed political movement and should have been treated as such. The fact that Thatcher allowed 10 men to die of starvation rather than allow them the 5 demands they asked for, some as simple as wearing their own clothes is appalling to me (1) the right not to wear a prison uniform 2) The right not to do prison work 3) The right to free association with other prisoners for recreational and educational purposes 4) The right to one visit, one letter, and one parcel per week 5) Full restoration of remission lost through the protest). Joe described the IRA members in jail at that time as never have been in jail before the conflict and never being in jail after the conflict, they simply were not common criminals. Thatcher had to say on this topic, “There is no such thing as political murder, political bombing or political violence. There is only criminal murder, criminal bombing and criminal violence. We will not compromise on this. There will be no political status.” My question for Thatcher would be; was it criminal murder when you allowed 10 people to die rather than even negotiate with them?

On a lighter not Joe showed us the restaurant where Bill Clinton and Gerry Adams shared a hamburger. He talked about how stupid it looked when they tried to act like it wasn’t planned. A convoy of black limos rolled up and out jumps Bill Clinton and who happens to be out for a stroll and also in search of a hamburger? Gerry Adams.

We walked from the Falls neighborhood towards the “Peace” Wall. Belfast is divided by many walls which separate sectarian areas of the city in order to maintain peace. I don’t really have a good grasp on this subject, but in my opinion, there is nothing peaceful about a wall. These are structures that dominate the landscape of Belfast and segregate its people. I hope that I can see the day when there is no such thing as a “Peace” Wall.

Joe left us at the wall and greeted our former UVF tour guide Paul. Paul is a native of the Shankill area, and is very proud of where he comes from. Shankill is the most disadvantaged area of NI and being a community worker, Paul is extremely passionate about changing that. He showed us deserted and desolate blocks of housing that the Housing Authority will not knock down because they claim that they are historic and charming. Although I am very opposed to a lot of Paul’s political views, he struck me as a very funny guy, and I had to agree when he suggested that maybe the members of the Housing Authority should come live in this shanty area and the people of the Shankill could have their cozy estates in South Belfast.

A lot of the deprivation in the Shankill is because with the Civil Rights movement for equal treatment of Catholics came a neglect of the Protestant working class that was also disadvantaged at the time. Another reason for this that Paul didn’t bring up, but many other community workers in the Shankill over our stay in Belfast brought up is that if a Catholic kid from the Falls gets a degree and a profession, he/she will get married, have kids, and live in the Falls the rest of their life and invest in the community. This is the opposite of Protestants in the Shankill, many kids end up leaving as soon as they get the chance, and then their neighborhood never sees a return on its investment of education and resources.

One thing I found particularly sad about Paul’s tour was that he talked about how when ex-combatants came out of jail, they could be a taxi driver, or a community worker. The Loyalist/Unionist community usually looks down on former prisoners, while the Republican/Nationalist glorifies them, and gives them prominent roles in the community. For example Joe from the Falls is a teacher. Not to say Paul’s position of a community worker is not as important and prominent as a teacher, but the fact he is limited in careers within the community he once took up arms to defend is really unfortunate.

Another thing I noticed about the two communities is that if you take away the in-your-face murals of masked men with automatic weapons, deceased combatant’s memorials, and paramilitary insignias, by looking at the Falls and the Shankill, you could still tell they would be high crime areas. That is because they are both inhabited by a neglected working class, and couple this with a political and sectarian conflict, and it is no wonder that the two areas were hot beds of violence during the troubles. Belfast was a truly interesting city and I could go on and on about it but I’m sure no one really wants to read too much more. I will most likely be returning their to do my independent study project and look at the role ex-combatants play in their community now that the armed struggle is over.


Stormont


Sandy Row


the International Wall on the Falls Rd


More of the International Wall, Republicans use a lot of images of solidarity with Palestine and Latin America


another Republican mural on the Falls


Bobby Sands memorial on the side of Sinn Fein HQ, Sands was the first hunger striker to die


"love should know no boundaries" written on the "Peace" Wall



Loyalist UVF mural



our tour guide in front of a UVF mural


Loyalist UDA/UFF mural


Republican mural


mural about the "Peace" Wall, on the "Peace" Wall


such a peaceful wall (sarcasm)