5/30/06 - Into The North

Belfast, Northern Ireland
My first impression of Northern Ireland was that it really isn't very different at all from the Republic. Of course, there are a few obvious differences: the currency is the British Pound rather than the Euro, distances on street signs are in miles rather than kilometers (although it actually took me a little while to realize that), the lack of a smoking ban in bars and restaurants (coming from CT and then Ireland, I realized how nice this really is), and the accent is noticeably different from those found in the Republic - even Donegal - and also a bit tough to explain ('down' is pronounced somewhere between 'doyne' and 'dine'). But all in all, it definitely didn't *feel* like a different country.
Sure, the spectre of sectarianism still haunts Northern Ireland, but the aspect of it most visible to the average tourist are the murals painted by both sides, mostly on the ends of row houses. These murals, alternatively colorful & sombre, hopeful & defiant, are now among the prime tourist attractions in places like Derry & Belfast, and in many ways I think they act as a glossy, seemingly harmless veneer over what absolutely remains a very ugly, bigoted and petty conflict. 17 years after the fall Berlin Wall, a similar divider remains standing between the the Protestant Shankill neighbourhood and the Catholic Fall's Road neighborhood in order to keep violent elements in both neighborhoods from making forays into the other. 4 gates exist in the wall, all of which are shut in the evening (the latest at 10PM) and opened again in the morning, and only a few years ago, sections of the wall had to be heightened to keep rocks, firebombs, etc. from being tossed over. Just earlier this month, a 15 year-old boy was beaten to death with a baseball bat in Ballymena, Co. Antrim by 7 other teenagers, apparently for no reason other than the fact that he was Catholic.
I'm not going to claim my 6 days in Northern Ireland made me any sort of expert on the Troubles (especially since I didn't really have any contact with hard-line catholics or protestants, who generally assiduously avoid political discussions with outsiders), but I did speak at length with 3 different people with interesting insight into the conflict: Maria, a student from Paraguay I met through couchsurfing.com who had been teaching Spanish at two local schools, one protestant and one catholic; William, a taxi driver who gave me a tour of Shankill & Falls Rd and some interesting historical & political commentary; and Dyfe, a Moroccan staying in my hostel who had been in Belfast for several months taking English classes, and who originally stayed in a rough-and-tumble protestant neighborhood.
William the taxi driver estimated that 90% of the population of Belfast is sick of the conflict, and only 5% of the population ardently supports each side. Sectarianism is mostly limited to the undereducated and poorer sections of the population, and persists in - as well as is partially sanctioned by - the school system, which is for the most part still segregated. Integrated schools exist but aren't common, and in one Protestant school some of the students chided one of Maria's fellow teachers for wearing a green t-shirt. Interestingly, as part of a resume exercise, when she asked her students to list their nationality, the Catholic students responded almost uniformly with Irish, while the Protestant students used English or the UK.
'Protestant' and 'Catholic' are most commonly definitions of the two sides, but these are perfectly interchangeable with 'Loyalist'/'Nationalist' and 'Republican'/'Unionist'. However, Protestant and Catholic are the most historically significant terms, so they remain the dominant ones (and so they're the ones I'll use here), even though they no longer really reflect the tenor of the conflict (no one's fighting over the exact role of the pope in governing the church). The latter two pairs are actually much more accurate, since most of the hard-line sectarians are actually not religious, and except for acting as a rallying cry and/or source of identity, religion actually plays a very minor role in the conflict. The real fuss, or at least the main ideological divide, centers around the Northern Ireland's political status in relation to the Republic and the UK.
However, it's not really all about ideology. The various factions on both sides (the Real IRA and Continuity IRA on the Catholic side, and UVF, UFF, and UDA on the Protestant side) are little more than gangs, and are heavily involved in drugs, prostitution, and extortion. At this point in the game, the leaders of these gangs are at least as interested in preserving the status quo and making sure they get their share of the spoils as they are in advancing their respective ideological causes. There have been spells where the infighting between factions on the same side has been heavier than between the two sides. The power of the gangs is such that the police can really only do so much, and are often content to sit back and let them fight amongst themselves.
Finally, tensions are at there highest every July 12, when protestant organizations throughout Northern Ireland have parades (known as marches) in celebration of the victory of William of Orange (William III of England, also of 'Glorious Revolution' fame and affectionately known to adoring Protestants as King Billy) over the Catholic James II in the Battle of the Boyne, which essentially guaranteed that the English monarchy and hence government of Ireland would remain in Protestant hands. Amazingly, this battle happened in 1690, meaning that one of the main flash points of the conflict is a wound that has been forcibly held open for over 300 years (the Protestants having conveniently ignored the fact that a significant portion of William's army was composed of Dutch Catholics).
Belfast is definitely a rapidly changing and developing city, and one that has come a long way since the bleak times of the 70's and 80's - there's a lot of optimism in the air, which makes it easy to overlook the fact that the Troubles still exist. But I'm glad I spent enough time there to scratch the surface & see that a lot of ugliness still lingers (and is still being bred) just below that surface.

Daily Summary

• Weds, 5/24 - arrive Derry, N. Ireland
• Thurs, 5/25 - walk around the city walls of Derry (supposedly most intact in all of Europe), St. Columb's Cathedral, & the Catholic Bogside neighborhood (site of the Bloody Sunday violence during a civil rights march in Jan 1972)
• Fri, 5/26 - bus from Derry to Portrush, Co. Antrim. attempt & fail to hire a bike to ride (for insurance reasons, nowhere in or around Portrush rents bikes anymore) approx. 8 miles to see the Giant's Causeway, a rare rock formation on the Antrim Coast that is one of Ireland's more well-known natural tourist attractions.
• Sat, 5/27 - attempt & fail to hire a taxi to take me to see the Giant's Causeway (none available). decide to walk/hitchhike, and manage to catch a ride most of the way. the Causeway isn't nearly as massive as the pictures make it out to be (rather just one pier-type structure of hexagonal rocks, with a few other rare rock formations around) and mobbed with tourists. interesting, but as with most hyped-up tourist destinations, actually a bit dissapointing. walk/hitch back to Portrush, bus to Belfast. few pints at a few places in Belfast, including the Crown Liquor Saloon (apparently one of the most famous pubs in Ireland)
• Sun, 5/28 - walk around the campus & botanical gardens of Queen's University in S. Belfast
• Mon, 5/29 - Black Taxi tour around Belfast, including the shipyards where the Titanic was built, murals in Shankill and Falls Road, and the 'peace wall' dividing the two.
• Tues, 5/30 - flight from Belfast to Glasgow, Scotland

Brilliant Quote: "fighting for peace is like f*cking for virginity" - graffiti scrawled on the 'peace wall' dividing Belfast

Reading

• Still working my way through David Copperfield

Photos

Next Stop: Glasgow, then the west coast of Scotland and on to the Highlands