From Castlereagh to Clonard

Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours, no feet but yours,

Yours are the eyes through which to look out
Christ's compassion to the world

Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good;

Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.

~ St. Theresa of Avila

Our morning correspondent is Sonja Schnell:

Our beautiful Sunday morning. Yes, it was actually sunny in Belfast as we walked to St. Brigid’s parish. We went to the 9:30 mass, and it was, to the delight of Jessica, much better than the one we attended last week. Our priest had a charismatic voice, and I believe that his homily spoke straight to the hearts of those individuals who encounter sectarian struggles in Ireland or anywhere in the world. He explained that the scriptures tell lay people to be present where the priests and bishops are not. He described lay people as the “salt of the earth,” those who are there on a daily basis to spread the word of God in place of the clergy. He declared that it was our duty to live God’s word in our own lives. He posed the Gospel as a challenge. He said it was a challenge to live the way that Jesus lived, to spread peace and goodwill and the Good News. His booming voice maintained my attention throughout the service, a great improvement over the mass last week. We walked out into the Irish sun with revived spirits and new outlooks on the situation in Northern Ireland yet again.

About half of the group headed to Roast coffee house after mass, while the rest of us simply walked to the dorms in order to work on our ever-growing piles of schoolwork. I cooked Gabby a quick breakfast, everyone split up to journal. Our scholarly attempts were cut short as we realized we needed to leave for Lower Castlereagh to clean up the mess from last night’s festival and for some community interaction. Although we could not do homework (what a shame) we were excited to see all of our friends again! Apparently they did not party hard enough the night before because, by the time we arrived at the Leisure Center, everything was clean! In my opinion, this showed a great display of the consideration the members of the community have for the land they were graciously allowed to use for the festival. Instead of cleaning first we were able to join the kids in the leisure center for, in the words of Ms. Duarte, “social interaction.”

This interaction, within about thirty seconds, turned into a football match. Surprisingly, the Americans were faring quite well with a close 2-1 game before we were called to an award ceremony for an influential member of the community. When we returned to the indoor field, our teams switched members slightly and an hour long game began. Jayson, Patrick, and I were the only Americans who partook, but we were a force to be reckoned with. The game has been one of my favorite experiences of the trip. Gareth and others joined in the fun, and we had a five vs. five feud. I received the nickname Donovan, a striker for the USA team, and being traded to join the community boys team, our long game ended with an unknown score and many exhausted players. Regardless of the heat and sweat, it was worth it to play with the community boys/men. It also helped that I had the opportunity to fake a few out with my mad soccer skills, and the rest of our group was there to watch ;)

After our goodbyes, which were laced with sadness as we have enjoyed our time there so much, we headed back to Queen’s for dinner. I am going to deeply miss everyone at the Lower Castlereagh Community Group. Every individual there was exceptionally welcoming and a ton of fun. I can only hope that we keep in touch. Michelle gave us her contact info as well as some parting gifts, so we can continue our relations with the group. I hope that everyone has the opportunity to see how amazing situations different from their own can be. I never would have expected to fall in love with the area I drove into on that first day, but now I can truly say that I have.

Our afternoon correspondent is Sarah Murray:

After returning home from Lower Castlereagh, we relaxed, read, and wrote journals. For dinner, Sonja and Mr. Bizga prepared a multi-cultural feast of tacos and pirogies. Sonja, Gabby, and I worked off the calories by learning hula moves from Jess. The lovely ladies danced almost nonstop until Raymond arrived.

Raymond and Ms. Duarte packed us into taxis, and we headed to Clonard Monastery, where Father Alec Reid, the orchestrator of peace talks between nationalist leaders, resided and held talks between important political figures such as Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Féin, and John Hume, leader of the Social Democratic and Labor Party. Raymond, who knows literally everything, gave us a tour of the monastery where we learned about the artwork in the chapel. We were also educated about the history of the Redemptorists, whose mission is to help every disenfranchised person in the community. During the last week of June each year, a nine day Novena, which over 150,000 people attend, is held at Clonard.

In addition to knowing everything, Raymond is a master organ player and has played for Sunday mass at Clonard since he was quite young. He played a few pieces for us using his amazing skills. He allowed us to play for awhile, and Sonja and Pat displayed their own skills with "The Entertainer" while I, of course, showed off with a few classical and Beatles pieces. We eventually had to leave the organ and continue our tour. We then went behind the scenes and saw the secret back room in which they keep the holy wine and crackas.

Ray led us upstairs and showed us the Peace Wall right next to the monastery. In 1969, the two areas were seamless, but petrol bombs frequently destroyed houses in both communities when the Troubles began. These violent attacks prompted the government to erect the wall and install bomb- and fire-proof roofs on the houses adjacent to the wall. He also showed us where a young brother was shot on the upper floor of the monastery during the Irish Civil War in 1922. We went out to the garden where we saw the priests' lovely roses, hedges, and trees, then we were picked up by taxis and went home to Queens.