The Troubles

For many reasons, including personal, I kept track of the conflict in Northern Ireland. I was 10 when it "started" and almost 40 when the Good Friday agreement was announced. (We were in Heathrow headed for Belgium when it was announced. The terminal got quiet for quite a while.)

Unless you experience something directly, the only other way to get how it feels to go through something is for another human being to communicate it to you. Our eyes, our posture, the movement of our hands--you need to be in another person's presence to get some connection to their experience.

We woke up in Belfast, and were determined to figure out the lay of the land. Having grown up in a tourist destination, I know the best way to do this is to ride around on a Hop On/Hop Off bus, preferably with a live guide. We did, and we highly recommend Belfast Sightseeing Tour. We caught it near the beginning of their loop and rode to the end.

We saw  the Titanic Quarter, heard about the Belfast Giants (the local, highly successful, hockey league), the #1 Tourist Attraction in the World (The Titanic Experience), rode out to Stormont and heard the story of how the current crop of legislators are refusing to meet, but still being paid. Northern Ireland is united in at least one thing, disgust at having to pay people for a job they are not doing 🙂.

This was in East Belfast, and as we drove back to the river, the Union Jacks grew thicker, and murals began to appear. This is Unionist territory, and we asked our driver about it. He pointed out the pocket neighborhood left of Catholics, and the metal screens that can be swung over to protect the windows.

From there we crossed the river and journeyed up to Shankill Road, Falls River, and the Peace Wall. Again you could tell you were in Unionist territory by the Union Jacks, the Flag of St. George, the Ulster Banner. In contrast, Falls River was dominated by pink flags celebrating the Belfast Pride parade coming up on August 3.

As Marian said, the bus tour was excellent, and the message is uplifting. Terrorism is slowly being replaced by tourism. But nothing stands against stupidity. The UK voted for Brexit, and ended up with Boris Johnson for PM. Worse, the USA is contending with the profound stupidity of liar, con man, accused rapist elected as president by a population who thinks like the Provos and Unionists did: The other side is worse, so anything I do is justified.

I wanted to get a feeling of what price gets paid by letting this spin out of control, and I am supported by a patient loving wife. So we tried to get a "black cab", a regular taxi driver who is willing to take you on a personal tour around Falls River and Shankhill. (We thought we were out of luck since we couldn't get anyone to allow us to book online. But again Belfast Sightseeing Tour came through. Their booker downtown called up his contact, and after a little sweet talking we had a driver.)

Of course, being us, it wasn't really a black cab.

This is a picture of our driver Rodney and me. We are standing in the remembrance garden for the 36th Ulster division in WW1. They left Ulster with 760 men. 76 came back. The division had been formed from the Ulster Volunteer Force, which had been raised by Sir Edward Carson to try prevent Home Rule (e.g., Ireland governs itself).

Rodney and I are standing in front of a plaque commemorating the Shankill Road bombing. In the far distance there is a blue building with a red cross. Three IRA members created a bomb, and one took it into the shop in that building and put the bomb on the counter. The intention was to tell everyone to clear out then detonate the bomb, killing the UVF leaders who were supposedly having a meeting there. The bomb detonated early, killing everyone in the shop, and not affecting the UVF at all because the IRA had had bad intel. Typical CF in wartime, multiplied by infinity because you brought the war to a civilian shopping area.

We in the United States are deep in a period of stupid, where it's becoming increasingly easy to see the people who disagree with you as "The Other." Rodney is a Unionist (he tried to be scrupulously fair, but it wasn't that hard to tell when he's covering the IRA and Falls River area), but 30 years of his life were pissed away by stupid. Also, on his right inner forearm there is a deep gouged scar, with thin lines radiating from the scar, up and down and around his forearm, the arm you see pressed against his body in the photo.

At dinner last night we heard the story of a woman who had lived through the Troubles, and came back to Belfast as a tourist. She was on a tourist bus, heard the guide's broad Dublin accent, and demanded to be let off the bus. She was sure that going through the Shankill they would be shot if anyone heard a voice so unmistakably from the Republic of Ireland. She spent the tour standing next to the driver, trying to find the best cover possible from the inevitable attack.