Belfast - Day 2

The following text was prepared by Jacob Clark:

Since today was our first day in the Protestant and Roman Catholic Communities, we were exposed to many varying viewpoints on the complex situations regarding Belfast, Northern Ireland. Our studying prior to the trip was beneficial because the three tour guides and Glenn Jordan, all phenomenal speakers, referenced many of the events, works, and concepts that we had discussed in class. Through these people’s insights, we were able to realize the complexity of the situation in Belfast.

To start the day, Glenn Jordan, a friend of Ms. Duarte and Mr. Bizga who helps run a Methodist mission in East Belfast, visited us to discuss Ireland from his perspective. He initially told us about Queen Elizabeth II’s recent visit to the mission, following with a brief history of Ireland and a detailed review of the tension points in Ireland. Progress in the educational system of Northern Ireland is delayed due to the government’s immense problems. Poor education is a factor that contributes to the spiral of poverty that has trapped generations of men of women. Furthermore, many of the children trapped in poverty do not have proper role models to guide them. We related these problems in Ireland to problems in other countries in the world. For instance, the race issue that has been prominent in American history follows the same pattern as the conflict in Ireland between the Unionists and Nationalists. We also related the problems in Northern Ireland to the problems in Zimbabwe and the Middle East.

After a quick lunch, we hurried to meet Sean McCotter, a former member of the IRA, or Irish Republican Army, who has joined a group that offers tours among its members’ neighborhoods. He showed us part of the Catholic community along Falls Road and the surrounding area and reiterated events that we had studied in class and read about in Northern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction by Marc Mulholland. We were able to see the memorial that commemorates the members of the IRA who have died in the area, and we were also able to see many murals that decorate the neighborhood. Additionally, we saw the walls, called “Peace Walls,” that separate the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods. After the tour, we made a quick cross through the gate onto the Protestant side of the area, and Sean passed us on to Jake, a former member of a Protestant paramilitary group.

Our second half of the day was recorded by Gina O'Riordan:

Gina O’Riordan

After Sean brought us through the gate to from the Catholic Falls Road to Protestant Shankill Road in West Belfast, Mr. Jake Kane showed us the wall of partition between the two sections. He described how when he was eleven years old in the 1970s he carried bombs to the wall for the para-military Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), which he later joined in his teenage years, and how he was in prison for a total of twelve years for his activities. As we walked down Shankhill Road, the center of West Belfast’s Protestant section, he discussed the history of Protestant involvement in “The Troubles.” We viewed numerous murals painted on what seemed like every available visible side of the buildings. One of them depicted the Red Hand of Ulster. Jake explained that this symbol, seen on the flag above the mural, was the hand cut off and thrown to shore by an Irish noble competing in the race to be king of Ulster when he saw he was losing the race.

After the tour, we went to the bus stop and caught a lift down to the Milltown Cemetery which is the Catholic cemetery of Belfast. Our tour guide Padraic McCotter (Gaelic for Patrick) was the brother of our first Catholic tour guide Sean Padraic brought us around the “beautiful, but eerie” cemetery, as Allison described it, with beautiful headstones. He showed us the Republican plot, which is the place of internment of Bobby Sands and other Sinn Fein & IRA members who died during The Troubles. Afterwards we went to dinner at the pub across the street. Padraic told us that he went to prison for 15 years for shooting a British police officer in Belfast. It started to rain, as it had throughout the day, when we caught the bus back to the college. Mr. Bizga forgot his camera on the double-decker, which he later retrieved; we waited at the bus stop for him. (Connor said hello to 83 girls as they walked by – wonders why girls won’t say hi back! So that ended our second day in Belfast. Be back soon!

God bless!
Gina

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