Imagine Peace

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King James I started the Troubles when he conquered Ireland, threw the Irish Catholics off their land, and replaced the Catholics with Scottish Protestants. The Irish responded by killing thousands of Protestants and wiping out an entire Protestant village. Later Oliver Cromwell arrived, conquered all of Ireland and killed many Catholics in the process. Between 1969 and the Irish Republican Army (Catholic terrorists) and the Ulster Freedom Foundation (Protestant terrorists) set off many bombs and killed more than 3,000 people.

Let me first start off by saying that every trip from here on out has started out with me saying to Jason, “Bloody hell, it’s fekkin' cold”. Because it really is.

Belfast is a lovely little town on the coast of Northern Ireland. From Catholic pubs to Protestant rants, we received by far the warmest welcome here in the this town. Which gave me pause (and I echoed this sentiment at the Peace Wall dividing Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods-more on that later) if the people can be so nice to us, why can’t they be nice to each other?

We began our tour of Belfast in a Black Cab tour, which picked us up in front of the town hall, all dressed up with Christmas cheer. Our tour guide, otherwise known as a taxi driver, informed us that we were about to receive a tour of “all of the bad parts of Belfast.” 15 foot walls covered in cracked and peeling paint, topped with yards of barbed wire divided the neighbourhoods. “It was the only way to keep ‘em off one another,” are cabbie explained in a thick Irish brogue.

Not all of the walls were in need of paint, however. We continued our tour into neighbourhoods that were as quiet as graveyards. Next door to flats decorated with lights, tinsels, and a life-size Santa Claus, Protestant murals expressed the desire for peace: from a mural of the Protestant hero, Stevie “Top Gun” McKeag, who killed hundreds of Catholics, to a mural of Oliver Cromwell killing Irish Catholics with the quote: “Catholicism is more than a religion, it is a political power. Therefore, I’m led to believe that there will be no peace in Ireland until the Catholic Church is crushed.”

Dissonance was the theme of the day. Chapels and centres with “peace” or “unity” in their titles stood behind stone walls or big iron gates, with the murals glaring in vivid reds and blacks in the distance.
The Catholics loved the Protestants too. Bobby Sands, a Catholic hero who starved himself says, “our revenge will be the laughter of our children.” A mural with the title the “Manchester Martyrs” depicts three Catholic heros who exploded a bomb in Manchester. Murals portray other heros, such as well known Irish Republican Army bombers, Liam MacCarthy, Kieran Nugent, and Martin Meehan. Other murals portray Catholic ideological heros: Frederick Douglas, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Che Guevara, and Fidel Castro. The centerpiece quotes the “Star Spangled Banner” and depicts George W. Bush sucking oil through a hose from a graveyard that surrounds a sign showing the way to Baghdad and Basra. The hose is supported by a “British Support Hook.” The people of Belfast have strong political opinions.

Ending the tour was the legendary Peace Wall, a temporary 15 foot wall mounted in the 1980s, again dividing the neighbours. As we drove along, we could see holes being dug so that the Peace Wall could become a more permanent structure. We walked along the wall in the bitter cold December afternoon, reading messages to Belfast from people all over the world. Jason and I added our messages.
We came away just as puzzled as before the tour; many people have forgotten how this whole conflict started. We would never know, in the friendly “how are you’s?” who is Catholic and who is Protestant. Even though things are quiet now, tension still exists.

After the reflective mood of the day, we decided to take in a wee bit of music and Guiness—there are many pubs in Belfast, so it was a matter of deciding which one. The guidebook suggested many, but warned us that Kelly’s Bar “does not cater to tourists” and boasted traditional Irish music sessions.

Light pooled outside the dark alley as the door to the pub opened. We made our way into the warmth and the light and up to the bar to order a couple of pints. Conversations were laced with more Gaelic words than English. Everywhere we looked, groups of locals crowded around heavy dark wood tables clutching pub glasses in their hands. Jason made his way to the bar. Just a few feet away, I found a corner of a long table to set down at. Curious--there was a small guitar case on the bench next to me—no matter, I pulled up a short padded stool for Jason.

We sat quietly sipping our Guinness as the conversations around us got louder as the night went on. A dark-haired woman gestured us over and informed us that we were sitting in the band’s spot, and offered us a couple of cozy seats next to the fireplace. Emily, as she introduced herself to us, also informed as that the band would be starting at anytime. And they did. After every couple of songs, another bar patron would ask to join the musicians. The patron would pull out their instrument and play along.

Emily decided to tell everybody in the band that we were from Seattle. While a man was playing his bodhran, she tapped on his shoulder and then cursed him out, because he would not stop playing in order to listen to her. Shortly after, Emily said her (drunken) goodbyes as the musicians continued. After the set, one of the bongo drummers asked us if we were friends of Emily’s. We told him that we just met her, and after that, the band was much friendlier to us. “Aye,” they said, “that one there is a troublemaker.” We settled back into our corner with another pint as we tapped along to the music.

Because we were on a weekend trip, and really, really did not want to rent a car, we decided to do something we have never done before---a bus tour (it was really a small van) to the coast line to see the Giant’s Causeway—and the guide would even drop us off at the airport on the way back to Belfast. On the way, we passed Carrickfergus Castle, a castle built by King William of Orange. We pressed on. Our van played traditional Irish music, and our guide occasionally provided us with information about the various towns, “up ahead is a very famous location, the nine glens where a very famous person, named John once lived.”

After a few stops, including lunch at a pub for lunch (with the obligatory wee pint o’ Guinness), we made it to the tour’s highlight, “The Old Bushmill’s Distillery.” This distillery distills a very famous Irish whiskey. I think many people may have joined the tour for the sole purpose of sampling the Irish whiskey. We went to the bar and asked for our samples. We were informed that they could not serve us, because we didn’t take the tour. I don’t think anybody in our van had an opportunity to sample the whiskey.

The real highlight came just 15 minutes later. A bus takes people to the Giant’s Causeway. Being adventurers, we refused this complementary service and decided to hike high above the Giant’s Causeway along the Irish cliffs. Then we walked down stone steps, past the organ to the Giant’s Causeway.

According to our guide, the Giant’s Causeway was formed when the Irish giant, Finn McCool built a bridge across the Irish Sea to Scotland to fight the Scottish giant, Benandonner, who was also building a bridge from Scotland. The two giants fought, destroying the bridge. Then Finn McCool built an organ for his wife and layed down for a nap forming the cliffs that we hiked over. Uninformed, fun-killing, and arrogant geologists claim that volcanic activity formed the Giant’s Causeway. Each rock is a perfectly shaped smooth hexagon. Beautiful and breath-taking, nonetheless.

Foamy white waves crashed against the rocks again and again as we made our way back to the van. Irish flute music lulled the group to sleep until we stopped at the airport to board our flight back to England.

We hope everybody is having a good holiday season. We are a few weeks behind on our blogs. We don't want to overwhelm you with many blogs all at once.

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Photos

Stevie "Top Gun" McKeag
Died before he was 30

Bobby Sands
starved to death

Belfast Workers Unite
The only mural in Belfast celebrating a time when Catholics and Protestants joined together

U.F.F.
The eye of this sniper follows you wherever you go

Living Hope Belfast
You can see the U.F.F. sniper from this church

Only the Dead...
...have truly seen the end of war

George W. Bush
And the rockets red glare...