Stormont Parliament

Our correspondent at Parliament today was Allison Newberg:

Today we went to the Northern Ireland Parliament which many simply call “Stormont.” The approach to the building is quite dramatic and one knows that you are approaching a place of power. There is a mile long drive up to the Parliament Buildings that is surrounded by an absolutely gorgeous park. Our taxis dropped the group off at the top of the drive, we went through a security checkpoint, got our visitor passes, and began our experience. The Stormont Parliament Buildings are not open to the general public and one can only attend at the invitation of a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly. We were the guests of the deputy First Minister!

Shortly after our arrival at Parliament Buildings we were met by Martin McGuinness, who is the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. He met us out on the front steps to take a group photo [it was unusually sunny for Ireland] and he was amazing. He introduced himself to each person and shook our hands. He then took time to answer our questions and to give his opinions on a variety of topics. He shared with us some important work he is doing to encourage other peace processes throughout the world. He asked us not to share any specific details about his upcoming work until it is made public in the world press in the coming week. When it was time to go back inside, Martin McGuiness left us to get back to his work.

We waited a few minutes then went up the Italian marble staircase to the Assembly Room, where we watched a parliamentary debate. Take note, we watched it, not understood it. The Speaker and the ministers spoke incredibly fast and it would have probably helped if we all caught on to the Irish accent. After the debate we met by Jim Gibney, the senior political strategist of Sinn Fein, and led down to the lunchroom for a quick meal. We ate quickly in order to make our next tour. While the group ate lunch, Gina and I ran up to the ‘toilet’ and we were shocked. The restroom was the size of a classroom, and it even had a towel rack that entertained me for about 5 minutes. After we rejoined the group and everyone finished eating, Katie ran up to us and whispered, “Guys, Gerry Adams is here! I got a picture of the back of his head.” Acting on this information, a few of us snuck around the corner just to get a look at Gerry Adams eating a sandwich. Surrounding us in the dining room were the most prominent politicians in Northern Ireland: Gerry Adams – Sinn Fein, Mark Durkin – SDLP, Sir Reg Empey – UUP, etc. After we were done acting like paparazzi, we were off on next tour.

This took us into the Senate room; which is set up to mirror the House of Lords in the Westminster Parliament. We sat on incredibly comfy benches while our guide explained the historical significance of the 2 paintings on the wall. The paintings depicted the opening of the Parliament by King George V in 1921 and the other the first Assembly members after the Good Friday Agreement. We walked out into the lobby and met with Simon Hamilton, MLA. Simon is an upcoming politician in the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP); the party founded by the legendary preacher the Rev. Dr. Ian K. Paisley. Simon was the most impressive person I met at this point; aside from Martin McGuinness. He was well educated and helped shed light on the political situation in Northern Ireland from a Unionist perspective. He is a MLA, meaning he is a Member of the Legislative Assembly and represents his sector Strangford. He answered all of our questions without hesitation. And let me tell you, we had a lot of loaded questions! He answered with honesty and dignity and held nothing back, as far as we know. After 70 minutes [who was counting…] we left him on the front steps. We arrived back at the Elms Village [our dorms] and ravaged the refrigerator. We had an Italian feast this evening. We had evening prayer, as normal, and went over our day. We ended on an amazing note and I am looking forward to beginning our formal classes at Queen’s University and our Christian service tomorrow! =]

Miss you and love you mom, dad, grandma, and papa.

Allison

Click here to see more photos from out visit to Stormont

Day 4 - Sunday

Our Sunday correspondent was Katie Marini:

We slept in today for the first time. It was great to catch up on a little sleep, I think we’re all still on Ohio time. We went to 11:45 mass at St. Brigid’s, a Catholic “chapel” (only Protestants are allowed to call their houses of worship “churches” in Belfast!) just down the street from Queen’s. Interestingly, the mass in Ireland is slightly different from masses in the States. The Irish kneel a lot longer than we do—and they talk a lot faster too! Our first immersion experience in Belfast was greatly fulfilling and a great way to start the morning. We also had over an hour to work on our homework, which was a huge help for everyone.

Our immersion experience for the day continued in the afternoon with a shopping trip to the Belfast city center. We spent about three hours shopping. The guys actually bought more than the girls (I know hard to believe)! But it wasn’t easy getting there. Allison and I stayed home for a little bit after the group left to finish up some of our homework (see mom. =] I DO have a work ethic), so it was up to us to get to the mall on our own. We had to call a cab, and somehow manage to find the group in a seven-story mall - Victoria Square. Ironically though, after giving the cab driver ten pounds when the bill was only £4,90 we walked in and ran right into Mrs. Varnish and Ms. Duarte. We toured the mall a little bit and returned home to a wonderful pesto chicken dinner prepared by Mr. Bizga, and then we read a short play by Yeats called Catherine of Houlihan. We got to bed early tonight, so we should be well rested for our visit to the Stormont Parliment tomorrow!

Derry/Londonderry - Day 3

Sarah Pinter's reflection on our day trip to the Maiden City:

Our day began early with a journey by bus through the Irish countryside, which is kept lush by (you guessed it) lots and lots of rain. After about two hours, we arrived in the city of Derry/Londonderry. Although the city has an overwhelming Catholic majority, it also holds special significance for Protestants. In 1689, the Protestants of Londonderry held off a Catholic siege by the deposed King of England, James II, for over a hundred days. This later enabled the Protestant William of Orange to soundly defeat James at the Battle of the Boyne and secure Protestantism in Britain ( I know that you'll hear more about that on July 12). Catholics call the city Derry, Protestants call it Londonderry, and anyone wanting to avoid conflict affectionately refers to it as Slash City.

In true Irish fashion, it was spitting rain when we arrived, but soon it cleared up and the sun came out. First we walked through a museum to brush up on Londonderry's history. It was a great introduction, but the next museum we saw, the Museum of Free Derry, was profoundly sobering. The Museum of Free Derry is dedicated to Bloody Sunday, during which a Catholic civil rights protest was brutally put down by the police, resulting in thirteen deaths. We then broke for lunch at an Irish pub with one of the men from the museum, Rauri O'Hara, who proved to be an engaging conversationalist.

Michelle Gattentenio was our afternoon correspondant:

The second half of the day was full of personal stories and a wonderful scenic walking tour. We met our tour guide Adriene and started walking around the wonderful city of Derry/Londonderry (depending on which side of the political fence you are on determines the name of the city-crazy!!) Adriene took us up on the walls that surround the entire city- they were erected in the early 1600s to fortify the city. Up on top of the walls yielded the most amazing views- we saw the Bogside (The Catholic neighborhood), different murals and a bunch of different memorials- the one that seemed to impact most of us the most was the Hunger Strikers Memorial. It was in the shape of an H to represent the H-Block where Bobby Sands and the other hunger strikers were kept in the jail. It was amazing hearing the stories Adriene had to tell about his personal experiences not only in jail but with the hunger strikers. He was incarcerated in the H-Block for four years and participated in the Blanket Strike (the protest where the men refused to wear the prison uniform and do demeaning jail tasks in order to gain rights as political prisoners back). He told us how he knew Bobby Sands and the other hunger strikers, which was amazing. It was so interesting listening to him talk about what the mother's of the hunger strikers had to go through when it came to deciding whether or not to save their sons when they became to weak to function.

We talked about it after we returned 'home' and couldn't imagine our mothers or being mothers and having to either let out son die for something he believes in or save them from something they asked us not to. It really made the events and deaths of the hunger strikes more personal. After the tour we got the chance to walk around the town a little and then got back on the bus to go back to the dorms. Well we all got on the bus and crashed- it was a day of excitement and we were all thankful and ready for a nap. The countryside was beautiful- so green and hilly. It was so fun seeing all the sheep- an interesting fact all the farmers paint their sheep a certain color in order to distinguish "whose is whose" when they wonder away so we saw pink, green, blue and red sheep! What a fun country!

Cheers!

Michelle Gattenio

Click this link to see more pictures

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

Check out todays pictures by clicking here!

Arrivals

Hello Everyone!

Today begins our Belfast Diary. For the past 10 days we have been involved in an intensive pre-departure course at Walsh Jesuit to prepare us for the Irish Studies program here in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We have studied many topics in Irish history, literature, politics, and faith communities. Our study has enabled us to understand the origins of the conflict in Ireland, the complex historical events which ultimately led to the partition of Ireland, the sectarian division in the north, and the amazing transformation that is taking place. We hope that you will journey with us to this beautiful corner of the world from which we hope to learn how even the most protracted conflict can be transformed through a commitment to justice and peace.

I began my day very early today here in Belfast. I arrived in advance of the students to put things in order and continue need program set-up here on the ground. I wanted to catch the 6 AM bus to Dublin Airport to greet them and help them get them safely transported to Queen's University Belfast. I quickly got ready and made my way to Bus Terminal for the Dublin Bus. After a two and half hour journey I arrived at Dublin airport just in time to see the students, Ms. Duarte, and Mrs. Varnish emerge out of customs. All the students were wearing their maroon and gold Walsh Jesuit Irish Studies t-shirts so were easy to locate. They were in great spirits and excited to "get to Belfast." After the essential "toilet" breaks we made our way to the bus.

The weather in Dublin at the time of our arrival was a light rain. About an hour into our journey the clouds began to break and Ireland began to reveal her rolling green hills. The weather here has been typically Irish - a cool mix of rain and sun. After a few semi-conscious hours we were in the main bus terminal in Belfast. We ordered taxis and made our way to our "home away from home" the Queen's University Residence Halls. I asked the students to do something quite unorthodox in international travel; to eat lunch and take a long nap. Usually, when you arrive in Europe, you want to stay up as long as possible that first day to adjust to the new time zone. But, we intentionally arrived here today to attend the last night of the Solemn Novena of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Why a novena? The Solemn Novena of Our Lady of Perpetual Help at Clonard Monastery is an amazing experience that unites that Catholic Community of Belfast annually in prayer. It was originally brought in the 1950's to Clonard by a visiting American Chaplin. Crowds from the very beginning came in droves to the event and the novena has been prayed constantly ever since... it attracts well over 15,000 daily and thousands more follow online. The faithful flock daily to the 10 masses from all over the city. People's petitions and thanksgivings are publicly read aloud during the novena and are very touching. Tonight we are attending the last session on the last night. This session is very special because of what happens immediately after... Clonard is run by the Irish Redemptorists. Now many of us know that the Irish are known as a musical people. The priests who have led the novena all come together after the last session and have a "sing song." Each sings a song, often a traditional Irish folk song, and the people join along. It is awesome experience that we considered a "must" for the students. You can watch us online tonight the service is webcasted. Go to www.clonard.com and click "Live Webcam." We will be on at 6 PM Eastern Standard Time.

We are doing well. Soon we are leaving for dinner out at Deane's Deli then will make our way to West Belfast for the Novena... we will write more soon.

All the best!
Mr. Bizga

Here is the day through Gina O'Riordan's Eyes:

We finally made it! After one week of studying at Walsh Jesuit, two flight delays at Hopkins and JFK, and Mrs. Varnish losing her luggage (it was found eventually), we finally made it to Belfast, Northern Ireland. Mr. Bizga met us at the airport in Dublin and got us to the bus that took us to Belfast. We hailed cabs at the bus station and arrived at the dorms, Elms Village, in the early afternoon. We were given our room keys, internet passwords, and hauled our tons of luggage to the furthest rooms on the campus (of course). After getting settled in our own rooms, which included an individual bathroom, desk, bed, and closet, we went with the proctors’ friend Raymond to Deane’s Deli for some dinner. What do you know – we all got gourmet burgers for our first international meal in Belfast! What Americans!

Then Raymond had to leave, so we went on a short tour of the surrounding area. We saw city hall with a statue of Queen Victoria and an Ulster Bank that looked like an old government building. Taxis took us to the hospital (because one could not get near in a car) where we then walked to Clonard Monastery. Clonard had been holding a Novena for the past nine days and today was the last night. We attended the last Mass then priests from around the country went up to sing songs from their birthplace. They were all talented! There was one who played the guitar, another who played the harmonica and another who sang a song for the Meath football team! It was 1 am before we got out of the packed Church. While walking back to the hospital to catch our taxis, we came across a few drunks who thought we were Spanish and kept saying “HOLA!” to us; we thought it was hilarious! Exhausted and jetlagged, we all went to bed as soon as we got back to the dorms. Our first day in Belfast is over…but our adventure is just beginning.

God bless!

Gina