Shankill, Falls, and Culturlann & the Baroness Blood

"Making peace, I have found, is much harder than making war."
- Gerry Adams

This morning’s correspondent is Tom Wintering:

Today we set off at 9:30 to join Jake, a resident of the Shankill area of West Belfast, at the Peace Wall separating the Shankill (Protestant) area and the Falls (Catholic) area. While in the taxis headed for our meeting point, we heard a news bulletin that a main gate between the Shankill and the Falls had been closed last night due to reports of violence in the area. This, however foolishly, made all of us very excited; we were finally going to see the Troubles in action. Much to our chagrin, when we arrived at the Peace Wall, Jake informed us that, in reality, the gate, which is closed every night, had not been reopened due to mechanical problems. Our hopes of being a part of history were dashed.

As we walked along the Peace Wall, we stopped every so often to look at the graffiti that covered the walls. In many cases, as Jake explained, this graffiti, or art as he called it, had been commissioned by the Belfast City Council to replace paramilitary emblems and to emphasis positive aspects of the area’s history and culture. Covering these memorials were years of messages written by tourists calling for an end to violence, the establishment of peace, or just wishing the city well. After reading several of these messages, Mr. Bizga and Gabby decided to add to the wall. Mr. Bizga hefted Gabby up on his shoulders so that she could reach a blank area. Just above the metal ribbon that stretched through one mural filled with words like “peace,” “love,” “harmony” (so basically the great mottos of the ‘70s), Gabby wrote “We are here to help each other through this, whatever it is” with the name of our school (Walsh Jesuit High School) and a very, very small reference to the school of the “outsider” of our group, Pat. When Gabby had finally made it off of Mr. Bizga’s shoulders, we continued the tour.

Jake told us about his experience in prison. He had joined the UVF, the Ulster Volunteer Force, as a youth. After several years fighting the IRA, who he wholeheartedly believed were terrorists, Jake was put into prison along with many other members of the UVF. While there he and his buddies began work on a tunnel leading out of the prison and used soap to cover up the dirt on the walls from the digging. They also used the poles from the prisons volleyball nets to create handmade shotguns. To disguise the shotguns the prisoners would hang them on their cell walls and use them as towel racks.

As he finished his stories about prison life we continued walking the length of the Peace Wall. Along the way Jake stopped at the last part of the wall where the IRA had left a 500-pound bomb in the street several decades ago, which exploded and reached over the Peace Wall to the linen factory on the Falls side that the British Military were occupying at the time. We then entered the main section of the Shankill. Jake led us down the blustery streets, showing us murals on the sides of the buildings. One mural, the one that Jake said was closest to his heart, depicted the five major attacks on loyalists in the Shankill, which led to the deaths of 25 members of the community at the hands of the IRA. He then showed us to our last stop on the tour, the Memorial Park, and explained that it commemorated the deaths of every loyalist who had given his or her life for the cause. When he completed the tour, we said our goodbyes and headed into the Catholic side of West Belfast.

Robert, our tour guide, was one of the two men we met from Relatives For Justice yesterday, so it was wonderful that we knew him already and were able to spend even more time with him today. He, like Jake, was also a prisoner during the Troubles, although, unlike Jake, Robert was a member of the IRA. While serving his sentence in prison, he took part in the Blanket Protest along with several other members of the IRA. Robert then went on to explain the Hunger Strike and all of the politics that were behind the strike. Many of our group were confused how abstaining from food could be a true sacrifice until Robert told us that fasting is a part of Irish tradition. According to the “unwritten law” of Irish tradition, which says that if a person has done any wrong, a family, friend, or neighbor should sit outside of the wrongdoers home and fast until the wrongdoer makes amends. If the faster dies before the wrongdoer makes amends, the wrongdoer must care and feed the faster’s family. This, in effect, was what Bobby Sands was trying to convey to the people of the North of Ireland and the Westminster Parliament: that they were in the wrong and he would fast until they made amends. Bobby and nine other fasters gave their lives in the hunger strike, attempting to show the British government that the atrocities that the nationalists/republicans believed the government was committing against them must end.

Along Falls Road, Robert explained the meanings and stories of the people featured on each of the many murals on the buildings. We also made a quick stop at the Remembrance Memorial which, much like the memorial on the Protestant side, paid tribute to the fallen members of the community who had given their lives for the republican/nationalist cause. At the end of the tour, we enjoyed a wonderful lunch at An Culturlann and then went “home” to visit with Baroness May Blood.

This afternoon’s correspondent is Ryan Bellmore:

"We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English."
- Winston Churchill

Baroness May Blood MBE, contrary to particular perceptions, is not the eponymous character of a play. Rather, she is a member of the House of Lords who quite enjoys visiting students’ kitchens for discussion. She unassumingly entered our unnaturally tidy common room and plopped herself down next to the scrupulously placed tray of biscuits (cookies). Then the fun began.

As a former mill worker, she explained Belfast/Good Friday Agreement’s benefits and shortcomings in the frame of the Unionist working class. Everyone talks about the benefits—economic and investment growth, peace, tourism—, but only she discussed the repercussions—disproportionate investment favoring the city center, growing political apathy among the post conflict generation, and continued influence of Protestant paramilitary groups. Most notably the Baroness helped found the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition and successfully brought her female party to the table of the Good Friday peace talks. Prior to her involvement, women were absent in political decisions; now, female politicians have graduated from community involvement to national politics.

She summarizes the ongoing tension with, “We love everybody; we just don’t like each other.” Mainly this reflects the segregated education system, whose problems warrant their own blog, and biased hiring of teachers and police (although the latter professions are improving since the Fair Employment Act). Every official we met discussed the drastic changes they see in Northern Ireland, but the Baroness focused more on what has not changed. How does peace on the legislature floor matter if the people still line their gardens with cages for protection against missiles? To her, the tension has only moved into politics instead of evaporating. Finally, her most charismatic aspect is her humor, which the English do not understand.

After taking pictures with her, the students walked over to a local coffee shop while the adults interviewed with a local newspaper. Walking there and back was probably more time consuming than sitting there reading because, when we returned, they were still interviewing. Fortunately, our jolt of caffeine assisted us in giving lengthy, academic responses to the questions the journalist asked upon our arrival. We discussed identity and colonialism as origins of the conflict in Ireland.

Noodle dishes purchased at Oodles, a shop a few streets away, restored everyone’s sense of wellbeing.

Quote of the Day: “The English have no sense of humor.”