Breaking Barriers in Belfast

Our morning correspondent is Jayson Lesyk:

Today our group woke up early for a morning visit to Roast, a nearby coffee shop. After surrendering to the rain and retreating back to the dorms, our small group converged on the buffet-style breakfast. After filling ourselves with fried sausage, fried bacon, fried potato bread and everything else fried, we returned to the dorm rooms to get ready for our third busy day in a row. By 8:30 a.m. we were whisked off in taxis to meet with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

The officers of PSNI, were extremely gracious and welcoming as we entered what looked to be their impenetrable fortress of a police station. It was shocking not only to see, but also feel the sense of unrest and occasional violence within Northern Ireland. The tensions and conflict that had ignited the civil war 40 years ago have been reduced considerably but still remain within the barriers and whispered animosity that follows sectarian groups. Nevertheless, it is apparent that Belfast and the Northern Ireland are now quite safer and more desirable places to live. Regardless of the lingering mental and emotional walls that are still left from many years ago, Belfast has truly become a city to be genuinely proud of.

At the station we were warmly welcomed by a female officer, Sergeant Cardell McIlroy, who let us know that we would have an eventful and interesting day. We were first taken to a conference room and were met by a retiring police chief to talk about the service and all it entailed. He explained that the police force had been greatly reduced from what it had been but was not nearly down to the number many hoped it would be. He also elaborated on the efforts to achieve a proportional representation of Catholic and Protestant officers by 2011. The PSNI has a positive discrimination policy of recruiting 50% of its officers from a Roman Catholic background and 50% from a non-Catholic background. This policy was recommended by the Pattern Report and aims to change the perception in the Catholic community that the police are a Protestant police force. He then began to explain to us how their closed circuit TV (CCTV) surveillance system worked 24/7.

In the Silver Control Room, ten large monitors manage parades, marches, public gatherings, football matches, and other public events that have the potential to get out of hand and to break out into a full-scale riot. The officer went through the intricate process of how all their officers are involved in this riot management. The officer then took us up to the CCTV control room which was home to 42 cameras, 3 of them being stationary cameras above gates between Protestant and Catholic hotspots. The other 39 cameras were able to be fully rotated, tilted, and zoomed in and out. After being given a brief demonstration of how they operated the cameras and their full capabilities, we were then allowed to play around with the control station for awhile, during which Sonja showed off her wonderful control over the situation as she “jailed” three different unruly citizens in four minutes. Now THAT’S impressive! The officers in the monitoring room acknowledged the privacy issues inherent in maintaining the cameras but are convinced that they keep the citizens of Belfast safer.

Unfortunately, we were not able to see the Custody Suites (cells), but two officers accompanied us as we were given an unprecedented tour of Belfast in two of their armored Land Rovers regularly used for riot control in conflict areas. We were all awed after being told that they would survive nearly all “missiles,” or what we would call snooker balls, rocks, and bottles. Also, these “tanks” were fully equipped and armored to be ready to deal with petrol bombs.

Our drivers, Constables Withers and Wilson, explained that most police officers did not actually live in Belfast itself for fear of threats against their lives. They also showed their lighter sides, joking and playing pranks, such as using their sirens to scare the Walsh Jesuit women as they sat on the massive hood. We were taken to many “interfaces,” or areas where heavily concentrated Catholic and Protestant residential communities meet. The Irish tricolor or British Union Jack clearly indicated nationalist or loyalist areas.

As our tour progressed, we were taken to some of the murals, paintings, and artistic graffiti spots around west, central and northern Belfast. It was interesting to see how the people viewed their own lives and conflicts, so to speak. Their expressions of pain, hatred, and sorrow were touching and chilling at the same time. It was easy to see that the ghosts of the Troubles were ever present yet seemed to be retreating and dying out as a new, more accepting the younger generation takes the place of their fathers and mothers. This generation does not bear the weight of chains forged out of real and perceived injustice and injury. The new generation that is coming of age seems largely unaffected by many previous barriers created by an individual’s cultural and religious identity.

When we were taken to another police barracks, Ryan needed to use the “toilet,” so we were taken into an extremely secure strategic building. It appeared to have windows from the outside, but once on the inside we found out that these were, in fact, false windows. The building was designed to withstand rocket and mortar rounds. Thanks to Ryan’s bladder, we had the opportunity to try on body armor and to experience being handcuffed. To say the least, I was not too eager to put anything on my wrist after this experience. Later, as the brightly checkered yellow and blue armored vehicles pulled up in front of the Lanyon Building at Queen’s University, many a pedestrian looked on in wonder at the smiling and chattering group of teenagers pouring from the rear doors. We felt very special. The police told us that our group experienced extraordinary access and groups do not go out in the land rovers.

All in all, today was an eye-opening experience. Not one that merely gave our group a better idea of what the city was like, but an experience that dug at the heart of what it means to live in the city of Belfast. Although many areas around Belfast may still be plagued with a sense of sectarian identity that may promote animosity, the city is showing great improvement. Belfast is certainly still home to the same sectarian tension, but this is slowly giving way to the peace that is being worked for by dedicated citizens and leaders on both sides. We are here to study the “peace process,” and it is exciting and encouraging that Belfast seems to have become a place of opportunity for its own inhabitants and the many that come to this beautiful city.

Our afternoon correspondent is Patrick Burke:

Once lunch had concluded, we had another lecture from Dr. Eamonn Hughes, the Queen’s professor teaching our literature portion. Everybody was obviously much more awake in this lecture than his previous one. I was very tuned into this talk because he was stressing the importance of dinnseanchas, the lure of land, and how it carries knowledge in the names. For example, the native Irish had much dinnseanchas, as they had names based on each physical feature of the land. He related this to Brian Friel’s plays that take place in a setting called Ballybeg, meaning “small town.”

Another point that Hughes stressed was the different viewpoints cultures had about land. The first Europeans to arrive in Ireland saw that the Irish were living among nature, without showing any interests in industrialization. The Europeans saw this as wasting land, as their main focus was imperialization and to conquer other countries. I was surprised how much history is connected to the literature in this country, and how much poetry there actually is about the land. It is amazing to think about everything we’ve been learning and how it is all connected. Everything is beginning to tie together.

After Dr. Hughes lecture, we made the short hike back to the Queen’s Elms, to rest for a bit. We then called up the “Fona Cab” to come pick all of us up. We then headed to the temporary City Hall of Belfast, to meet the Lord Mayor, Naomi Long. Naomi had great enthusiasm, and I could tell that everybody took an immediate liking to her. She is a member of the Alliance Party, so she has a middle ground between the nationalist Sinn Feinn and the unionist DUP.

She spoke about her plans for breaking down barriers, not just physical barriers, but also the psychological barriers that have plagued this country for hundreds of years. Her theme for her administration is “Belfast without Barriers.” By barriers she refers to not only the physical barriers, such as “peace walls,” but also the mental barriers that separate communities. I appreciated her pragmatism - she realizes that, during a one-year term, big changes most likely will not appear. It takes time to make change, and what she can do is to start projects that make precedents for other Lord Mayors of Belfast. It will take much time to erase the barriers that separate so many in this city and from our tour with the PSNI, there are too many physical barriers still in place. The walls lead to mental barriers that keep people apart. Physical division leads to social division and communities grow apart. The cycle needs to be broken and her administration will hopefully be a big step in that direction.

The next part of the day was possibly the most humorous part, as we were given some free time to “build a bear” from the Build A Bear store in Victoria Square. Why would we want to build a bear you may ask? It is for Dr. Dominic Bryan, the head of the Irish Studies Program at Queen’s University. Dr. Bryan is totally against those bears, as we found out during a 5 minute rant of how much he hated them because he felt the store was exploiting parents (as any toy store has the potential). In the spirit of the new Lord Mayor we wanted to break down his mental barrier to the Build A Bear phenomenon. It was our first concrete attempt at conflict transformation in Belfast. We decked it out in ridiculous Scottish and Irish gear, based on a photo we had from and unnamed source (Raymond) of Dr. Bryan from a Burns Day party. I must say our “little Dominic” had a pretty slick hair do. Jayson also had a good time at the mall looking at the “Belles of Belfast City.”

After our task was done we walked over to an Italian restaurant, Pizza Express. This was an enjoyable dinner, I will not go into too much detail, but the food was GREAT. I enjoyed pizza for dinner for the second night in a row, and some nice lemon gelato. It was all good times until Jayson decided to flirt with the girls at the table next to us, and Mr. Bizga was the one who ended up getting the numbers. In the end I’m pretty sure just about everyone enjoyed the dinner. We took the cabs back to Queens and now everyone is settling down for the night. I hope for another fun day tomorrow!

Another day down, it seems as if we’ve been here for about two weeks. This was the first day that we’ve faced with crummy weather, but it’s been what we’ve expecting.

Click here to see more pictures from our day!