Divided Identities

Our morning correspondent is Alexis Gable:

Hello, hello, from Belfast; this is Alexis. This morning was quite an eventful one. It began for many of us bright and early, as a group of us (Katie, Emily, John, Nina, and me) awoke at 6:30 for a morning run. We were so proud of ourselves after 25 minutes, at an incredibly admirable pace I might add, that we decided we deserved a morning coffee at Starbucks. This was the first instance of anti-American tourism that we experienced. Katie asked the wonderfully kind lady behind the counter “Do you have iced coffee?” to which she replied, “No, we don’t serve immigrant coffee.” That’s some quality customer service right there. (It is also important to note that we later found out they do in fact serve iced coffee.) Needless to say, we will still be returning, as it is the only coffee shop that is open at 7 in the morning; apparently, the people of Northern Ireland don’t get coffee on the way to work.

We ate breakfast next, some of us across the street in the conveniently-located campus breakfast place and some of us in the dorms. We headed out to the Student Union to grab a cup of coffee and walked to the Irish Studies building to begin our classes. Our first professor was Dr. Peter Martin. He was a bit jaded at first in my opinion, but as the class went on, he began to become what I assume is his charismatic normal self. He informed us that his father was actually born just south of Akron (Green?? Didn’t ask…), but he later immigrated to Dublin, Ireland. He began his class with a brief history of Ireland, which ended up serving as a great cumulative review of the history Ms. Duarte taught us back at the WJ. The first thing I noticed is the fact that European paper (A4) is longer than ours, making it inconvenient for our American binders and triggering my slight OCD. However, there is quite clearly a more important realization. His bias toward certain events made it clear within the first few minutes that he was Protestant, an incredibly unusual occurrence since the Republic of Ireland includes an overwhelmingly Catholic. It is interesting to note that Dr. Martin focuses on Irish Catholicism, despite his Protestant practices. It was a new experience for us to experience firsthand a man who has lived through many of these events and to hear him express his Irish roots in his own words.

He explained to us the importance of sports and culture in Northern Ireland, with writers such as Seamus Heaney, Brian Friel, Brian Ward, and C.S. Lewis, actors such as Kenneth Branagh, Liam Neeson, and Stephen Rea, and sports such as football (soccer), hurling, Gaelic Football (similar to handball), rugby, and motor sports. It is interesting to note that much of the Irish music is the same as America. During my time here thus far, I have heard Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, the Eagles, many 1970s disco songs (unfortunately), and the Temptations. Apparently in addition to American music, Northern Ireland is famous for its emo (pronounced E-M-O) music as well as its punk music, serving as a way for young people to not associate with either side of the Protestant/Catholic conflict and to express themselves in whatever way they please.

My favorite quote from Dr. Martin was “If we stop believing that Protestantism is better than Catholicism, less enlightened, then what do we believe?” The city of Belfast is based upon the fact that there is a rivalry. Without this rivalry, a similar enemy for many people, the people have nothing, and they don’t know what to do with themselves. I found it interesting as well that he was completely unaffected by the Troubles, a thirty-year period of various bombings and terrorist attacks by all sides in the conflict: the British police, the IRA (Irish Republican Army, a primarily Catholic military group responsible for the majority of the bombings), and Loyalist paramilitaries, who want to keep Northern Ireland in the UK (unionist) and are generally Protestant. Since he lived in Dublin at the time, the Troubles in Derry/Londonderry (Catholics call it Derry while Protestants call it Londonderry) seemed far away. Vince related these tragedies to September 11, 2001 in America. However, most Americans felt as if they knew those killed on a personal level, bringing the country together in a time of crisis. Lastly, he challenged us to ask “Who are the victims?” For example, if an IRA man imprisoned for bombing a local market is killed by a member of one of the dead’s family, who is the victim? Obviously, you can tell I really enjoyed what this man had to say.

After a short break, and for Katie and me a sprint to the Student Union for assorted fruits, we were entertained for an additional hour and a half by Dr. Dominic Bryan. He is an enthusiastic Englishman, with Catholic roots, which is rare, seeing as England is overwhelmingly Protestant. We had quite an odd mixture of religions and places today. He began to talk about how the conflict in Ireland is no different from conflicts in America; in fact, he claimed that Ireland has considerably less conflict than America. In America, ethnic minorities are jailed much more often. There are higher crime rates and greater economic inequality. However, the two conflicts don’t appear to be similar since Northern Ireland is experiencing a specific type of conflict, “an ethnic conflict with ethno-national overtones,” in Dr. Bryan’s words. Dr. Bryan next went into a brief history of the rise of population and politics in Northern Ireland; Belfast in particular. He ended by saying that Belfast is in many ways a changing city – more democratic, divided, and expensive. University, their word for college, sometimes serves as the first time a Protestant talks to a Catholic, and vice versa.

After classes, we went straight to lunch, which is where I believe Sami picks it up. Belfast is wonderful so far, filled with lots of learning, as I’m sure at least my parents will appreciate, but also fun. Miss you Mom, Dad, TJ, Todd (and Killian and Foster too)! Talk to you all soon.

Our afternoon correspondent is Sami Rose:

Regretfully, Dr. Dominic Bryan of the Irish Studies Institute at Queens could not give us our Belfast tour because of the birth of his fifth child, Penny. His colleague, Liam Kelly, kindly stepped in and provided the necessary commentary for the tour. He was born and grew up in Manchester, England and, although a tour guide from the area would have been a blessing to hear from, his perspective on the area was appreciated. We boarded the bus hurriedly in front of the Irish Studies building and began to connect the dots of our studies with actual places and parts of the town.

Liam talked about a concept called “telling.” The idea is that everyone on the streets of Belfast always can pinpoint exactly who the person next to them is within a matter of minutes. As our lecturer earlier, Peter Martin, said, “There are eighty ways to tell whether someone is Protestant or Catholic. The eighty-first is to ask them whether they are Protestant or Catholic.” Names, houses, T-shirts, sports club clothing, and even which side of the street people walk on are all indicators of their beliefs and identity. Liam even mentioned a journalist friend of his who came to Belfast, and even he was participating in the “telling” tradition. To an outsider, labeling people as one religion over another may seem to have little significance, but when sectarianism has defined a country for so long, you can only trust those who are like you.

Flags fly proudly everywhere in the Protestant community because tomorrow officially begins the marching season. On the twelfth of July, a march and ceremony are held in memory of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. On the first of July, a smaller celebration, popularly known as the “mini twelfth,” is held to honor those Protestants lost in World War I at the Battle of the Somme.

Even within communities, though, divisions are still current and growing. Each section of the Protestant community partakes in the events of marching season, and they compete to see who has the biggest fire. The competition is so important and rooted in their identity that Protestants torch the content of other Protestants’ bonfire material so that there is no competition. We saw a group sitting on top of pallets to protect them from being burned or stolen. This is a local demonstration of the siege mentality that some Protestants have.

We drove past murals painted both in Catholic and Protestant areas. Some had messages such as “You burn our homes, we build a nation” and other slogans that showed the victimized feelings of Catholics. The Bobby Sands mural was another significant piece. It features a smiling Bobby with the words, “Everyone, Republican or otherwise has their own role to play… our revenge will be the laughter of our children.” In the Catholic area there were also Gaelic phrases and messages displayed, while in the Protestant area, Gaelic would be seen as a foreign language with no connection to Northern Ireland. We thanked Liam after the tour and, with typical Irish hospitality, he assured us that we were very welcome.

Splitting into small groups on the expanse of lawn in front of Queens, we began to digest some of the images of the day. Questions arose such as will the peace wall ever come down? Are the walls preservers of peace or a way of ignoring the issues? Do they promote peace or fear?

After reflection we split again based on food preferences and headed off to find dinner. Some traveled to the French Café Sandwich store, others to Oodles, a popular noodle place down the street, and others traveled to an Italian restaurant where the girls quite fancied the waiter. Feeling nourished, we all met up again at the dorm for class time at 20:00. A story from the first part of Maya Angelou’s autobiography served as the inspiration for a found poem. Themes of shame, struggle for identity, and dreams were discussed.

These same themes can relate also to the people of Northern Ireland. Because of the distinct emphases on labeling yourself as a certain religion or political group, there may be some people stuck in a label where they feel alienated. A land divided between an island and a crown, Catholics and Protestants, nationalists and Unionists, republicans and loyalists, the divisions continue throughout everyday situations in Belfast. Among them they have no intention of letting go of an identity; the Irish are a stubborn people. But until they can either drive the others out or let each other stay, the peace walls will continue to grow taller until the division becomes too heated to stop with painted cement. The situation remains unsolved because of the complexity of it. The way people live is nearly an impossible thing to change. As Peter Martin said this morning, “You can’t just stop being someone. Because then you would have to become someone else.”

Stormont Parliament

Our morning correspondent today is Tomas Bedell:

This morning did not start off well for me. I had trouble sleeping and was up for about two hours in the middle of the night. I fell asleep again finally and woke up to Ryan calling, “Hurry up, Dugan! We’re leaving in ten minutes!” These were not very pleasant words to be woken up by. So, I woke up and sprinted into the hallway in my pajamas and half-awake. All the guys were standing there in their suits ready to go, and they just laughed. Apparently they had tried numerous times to wake me up by banging on my door and yelling at me, but I didn’t wake. Fortunately, my clothes were laid out and I was ready in time.

A tour bus picked up the group and we headed off to Stormont Parliament where we would meet with members of the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly. On the bus ride we received a brief quiz from Mr. McLenaghan, SJ, on the various political parties in Northern Ireland (we passed with flying colors, of course). The building sits on a hill, so at the bottom of the road we stopped to take some great pictures of it. On the way up the hill, Mr. Brennan noted to us that we were heading north. Of course, we all sort of looked at each other like, “So what?” He was trying to make a point to us that the statue of Edward Carson, former head of the Ulster Unionist Party, faces south and appears to be making a strong gesture to the Republic. We then went through security and, after taking more pictures from the top of the hill, we headed into Stormont for our tour. Our guide, Pauline, was very kind. Something I found fascinating was how the government camouflaged the building during WWII to prevent its being bombed. The building is white, very large, sits on a hill, and all the roads that lead to it form an arrow that point directly at it, making it a prime target. So they covered the roads and camouflaged the building by putting dung and tar on it, thinking it would be easy to take off. The plan saved Stormont, but it took something like thirty men seven years to remove all of the tar and dung with wire brushes.

After our tour we went to meet with our first “VIP,” Gerry Adams, President of the Sinn Féin political party and a vital proponent of the peace process in NI. He only had a short time but made some very important points. He welcomed us to Ireland and thanked us for taking time out to come here and learn about its history, especially the peace process. I enjoyed his answer to Katie’s question about what he considered the hardest part of the peace process. He responded by saying that it is winning over your own people. He said he is powerless as a leader if he does not have people’s support in his decisions. Thinking about that made me have that much more respect for what he and others have accomplished. I cannot even imagine trying to convince thousands of people who have only known violence as the way to solve issues to put down their weapons and use totally political tactics in achieving what they want. This just reminded me of how strong a leader he is and the seemingly impossible challenges he helped overcome.

After meeting with Mr. Adams, we met with Mr. Simon Hamilton, a member of the Democratic Unionist Party. What stood out to me about his talk was his role in NI politics. He said he is proud to be a part of history rather than watching it and proud to see NI steadily improving after the Belfast Agreement. He admitted that the NI people wasted thirty years in making peace but was happy to see the situation improving. He said that the greatest healer in all of this is time and that things will eventually turn around. He used Ian Paisley (head of the DUP) as an example. Ian Paisley used to strongly oppose Sinn Féin and would never even be caught in the same room with one of its members. Today he and Martin McGuiness are working together on the political scene, something that would never have happened eleven years ago. Mr. Hamilton said that just as Paisley has evolved over time, so will the situation in Northern Ireland. We all hope that will certainly prove to be true.

Afterward, we headed downstairs for a nice lunch in the cafeteria where John, Patrick, and Sam and I talked about all of the unique issues in Northern Ireland. We certainly couldn’t omit the very interesting cab drivers! All of us are still suffering from jet lag and hope that today is the end of it. We’re looking forward to going out tonight and enjoy some World Cup Soccer with some of the locals (should be fun). Hope all is going well back home!

Our afternoon correspondent is Colleen McCarty:

This afternoon, still battling jetlag, the group met with Anna Lo, a member of the Alliance Party and their first elected minority leader to the assembly. The nonsectarian Alliance Party in Northern Ireland serves as a mediator between the Nationalist and Unionist parties, and helps the rivals see eye to eye. As Ms. Lo explained, the conflict between the parties is to the people of Belfast like waiting for a bus for so long, when finally two busses arrive at once, going two different directions. No one knows exactly where the busses are going, so no one knows which bus to board. This is where the Alliance Party comes in; they promote a shared society, free of prejudice, for the benefit of all. Ms. Lo enumerated the disadvantages of a divided society, noting the expense that accompanies two of everything- one for the Catholics, one for the Protestants- and noting the fact that the communities rarely mix. However, Ms. Lo also admitted that a desegregated society would be difficult to achieve, because as she said, “you can’t force people, only persuade them.”

After our meeting and a short photo op, the group returned to the dorms to change. We split up, and my group went to the drug store in search of adaptors and soap. After walking the two miles there, the eight of us decided to take taxis back to the residence hall in time for dinner and group reflection. I decided to write my blog while the others watched the Spain/Portugal “Battle for the Iberian Peninsula” World Cup game on our postage stamp sized television.

Slán go fóill,

Colleen

A Belle in Belfast City...

Our morning correspondent is Vince Matia:

Hello from Northern Ireland!After two weeks of studying, two flights, rain, thunder, lightning and a ton of coloring books, we are finally here.

Our Ireland adventure began Sunday afternoon. I got to the Cleveland Hopkins Airport around two o'clock on Sunday. They say that Sundays are the best days to travel because Sundays are the least crowded, but I say nay nay. Wow! it was swamped with travelers. The line stretched as far as the eye could see! Individually we were greeted by Mrs. Duarte, who informed us to check in. We all eventually got into the ridiculously long line to check our 44 pound bags. Then a Continental worker who took his job way to seriously began to escort us around and continually, and annoyingly asked if anyone needed help. First he was in a yellow, yes, yellow sport coat and directing people into the “check bags” line. Everyone in that line had large 45+ pound suitcases that would never fit anywhere besides the cargo area of a plane. But he kept asking, “Is anyone not checking their bags? Anyone?.....................Anyone at all?...........Checking you bags?”

Sir! you have directed these people by yourself into the “check bag” line because they had such a enormous bag. And on top of that, you can visually see the large luggage items we have. Yes!!!!! We are checking these bags! Stop asking!

After the yellow sport coat man cooled off, we all said our last goodbyes to our families and headed toward security. The lot of us were excited to begin our journey to Belfast, Northern Ireland. All of us waited in line to be serviced by one of the charming TSA workers. Why is it that the TSA security people are the nastiest, meanest, grumpiest people? Yet, you walk about one hundred yards an onto your plane and the flight attendants are extremely happy to be accompanying you to sunny Newark, New Jersey (or anywhere else for that matter).

The plane ride to Newark was... interesting. Some of us were next to each other and some were not. Emily, Colleen and Myself sat in the same row and I promptly browsed through the magazines. Sky Mall is my favorite with all its wonderful and completely useless items. Anyone want a $975 suit of armor? Anyone want a $1050 sarcophagus? If you do, Sky Mall is the place to go.

We taxied for a little while before the heavens opened up and it began to storm. Meanwhile, Emily is sitting next to me watching the lightning come closer and closer and louder and louder. She was, to say the absolute least, a bit frazzled. So I directed her to the emergency pamphlet of our plane to clam her nerves. Needless to say, we were delayed a few minutes. However, once the skies cleared up, it was smooth sailing to Newark, not including the few minutes of terrifying turbulence.

There we had dinner at a diner in the Newark Airport before hiking ten miles to our gate for our flight to Belfast. Once there we waited for the extremely nice flight attendant to inform us to board the plane to Belfast, Northern Ireland. While on the 5 ½ hour ride there, Nina came up with the most ingenious way of silencing awkward strangers. If someone next to you is annoying and you wish to be left alone, just pull out any children's coloring book and begin to color with your box of 124 Crayola crayons. And if they continue to talk, just start coloring outside the lines. Anyway, the long plane ride to Ireland went smoothly. The entertainment on board was very convenient to have, most of us watched a movie or two before falling asleep for the rest of the flight. Only to be awoken by the sudden diarrhea from that high quality airplane dinner! Our plane landed in one piece, we all made it through customs safely (no illegal immigrants here!) and we met up with Mr. Bizga outside the Belfast Airport.

We then got onto a bus and it drove us to our dorms at the Queens University. Did you know that they don't have stoplights in Ireland? Most of the intersections are roundabouts. And on top of that they drive on the opposite side of the street. This is going to take a little while to get used to!

Belfast is really beautiful! The countryside is so green! When our bus dropped us off at our dorm at the Queen's University, we got our keys and unpacked our bags. The dorms are nice, we each have our own bathroom with a sink, water closet and shower. Its quite nice but really small. I have to bend over to get my hair wet! We all had sandwiches for lunch/breakfast in the common room, and we started to drift to sleep. Mr. Bizga wanted us to keep moving to prevent jet lag, so he took us on a tour of the area. Although we were tired, we were excited to finally be in Ireland!

Our afternoon correspondent is Sarah Cifelli:

Good evening from Queens! Sarah here, with news on our first full day from remarkable Belfast, Northern Ireland. All of us are extremely tired, I must say, but we are forced to stay awake until at least 7:00 p.m. because otherwise we will completely screw up our sleeping schedule. Mr. Bizga expressed that the first day will be tough and miserable making the adjustment to the new time. The majority of us have not slept in approximately 33 hours which is honestly a rather enjoyable feeling... We’ve had rather gloomy weather today with lots of rain and clouds; a lovely welcome that completely proved to us our previous assumptions of Irish weather. This afternoon, after eating a nice lunch of sandwiches, soup, and crisps, we each received our weekly stipend of pounds: what we’d all secretly been waiting for since we arrived this morning. Pleased with our stash of strange yet cool-looking money, we suited up in our walking shoes and raingear and clearly looked like a group of American tourists. Mr. Bizga led us in prayer and then we were off for a tour around the streets of Belfast, partially to see the city, and mostly to keep our bodies moving to fight the tremendous jet-lag.

First we saw the massively impressive Queens University, a place straight out of Harry Potter. Then we walked many blocks to the city centre, stopping across from Robinson’s and The Crown, two of the oldest pubs in Belfast. These pubs are across from the Europa Hotel that was a common target for bombings during the Troubles and has been rebuilt numerous times. Our next stop was a quaint library, Linen Hall, holding a myriad of books by, on, about, and of everything Irish. It is said that it has the largest political collection in the world. We quietly climbed the creaky stairs to the main library and then proceeded to pick out the biggest and most ancient looking leather-bound and golden paged books and took some pictures. We made our way back onto the street and saw the very impressive Belfast City Hall. We eventually entered the glorious Victoria Square, my soon-to-be favorite place here. This heavenly place (a shopping mall) is complete with limitless swirly staircases and escalators and a huge glass dome overlooking the city. We didn’t have time to stop and browse stores today, but we will return on Thursday. After taking a ridiculous amount of group photos in the glass dome, we departed for the next length of our walk.

Our last stop was the lovely Merchant Hotel, a place we all felt slightly underdressed. We enjoyed high tea and it was amazing. I enjoyed three cups of merchant tea blend from a cute little teapot, and then treated myself to deliciously rich scones. A few others ordered beautiful mocha cappuccino grande latte something-or-others that looked rather pretty in their tall, clear glasses. Mind you that this entire time we are all fighting to keep our eyes open, keeping ourselves moving so that we do not just collapse to sleep in the street. All that tea did help a little though, keeping me conscious for a few more hours. After high tea, we caught some cabs home. I consistently forget that the roads are opposite here, so I get extremely confused when getting into cabs, crossing roads, etc. Four to a cab, we rode back to the Elms Residence halls and drudged inside. At 5:45, we hopped in our cabs, and a short drive later we arrived at Pizza Express. Although this sounds like a fast food restaurant, it was an extremely chic pizza joint. We each enjoyed a delicious pizza, leaving were hardly any leftovers. At first, Sami’s order came out wrong with chesse (she is a vegan) and she had to sadly wait for a new pizza, leaving us happily with an extra pizza to take home. We walked in the drizzling rain back home to Elms, went in to hang out a bit, and finally went to sleep. Lexi, Katie Bolas, Nina and I walked down to the BP gas station, just down the street, in search of more plug converters for the computers. We found none, but did return with Jones cream soda, gummy worms (snakes, actually), and other snacks to enjoy. After a day of jet-lag, walking in the rain, caffeine, and having mishaps with my room key 3 times (yes, already all on my first day here), I was sure to sleep for basically the rest of my life. Quite an adventurous day, I must say. Belfast is going to be an interesting place to be sure. Well, I’m off to bed, friends. Cheers!