The Troubles

Here in the North periodically in conversations you will hear a reference to in one way or another to "The Troubles." A casual and innocuous mention of the period of 30 years of bloodshed between Irish Catholics/Nationalists and Protestant/Unionists.
Need a little background?--being the ethnocentric Americans we are, I bet we could all use a brief and broad summation (I apologize in advance for the gross generalizations). Well, when Ireland gained its status as a "free state" in 1922, the compromise was that big bad colonial Great Britain would retain 6 counties in the north of Ireland, which to this day is considered part of the United Kingdom. Eventually, years later when Ireland became a Republic, many Irish wanted ALL of the island to be part of it, including some of the people in the UK controlled northern Ireland. They are called Republicans or Nationalists. For years, the para-military face of this sentiment was the Irish Republican Army or IRA. They have since partially broken off into splinter groups but in terms of violence have been relatively quiet for the last decade. Besides the distinction of being nationalists, they are predominately Catholic as well.
On the other side of the fence, literally, are the Protestants. Here is the "Peace Wall" in West Belfast seperating the Catholic and Prostestant working class neighborhoods.

Now these people would like to maintain their ties with Great Britain and are referred to as Loyalists or Unionists. Their para-military faces are many but the big ones are the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA). At the hands of "volunteers" of these groups and the IRA and its off-shoot organizations, many pretty grim atrocities have occured over the past years in Belfast and around Ireland.

Still with me? Well, if you are thirsty for a better understanding hit up Wikipedia.com. You know the drill.

Anyways, last Saturday my friends from Dublin and I decided to take a tour down Falls Road (Catholic) and the Shankill Road (Protestant). We went one of the ubiquitous black taxis, whose drivers often specialize in giving tourists the run-down on the conflict. Obviously for me it was all new information and sights. This also was the case with my two friends from Dublin, one of whom had only visited Belfast in her youth and recalled being terrified the whole time. My Belfast born friend June was a bit more up to speed with the past events. The Troubles narrowly missed tragically affecting her family in the 80's, when her mother was hurriedly ushered from her car after a car bomb exploded nearby, followed shortly after she left her car by a bomb in the car next to hers.
The taxi driver, was pleasant and informative during the 90 minute tour, but lost marks on subjectivity. His partiality to the IRA cause was most evident in the praising remarks of the IRA "volunteers", who according to him, died as matyrs for their cause. He seemed reluctant to take us to the Protestant part of town saying that his taxi company had only been travelling within the area for the last 18 months as they had received threats. Hearing the propaganda tour, I was not surpised by this. Although it would have been the same way had we gotten into a Protestant run taxi.
Located all around these two streets are political murals glorifying the murderers from both causes and spewing divisive religous material. Ugly scars of ignorance and intolerance. Is this really 2009 in Western Europe!. Just some good ol' church going folks hatin' on each other. A conflict, the same constant, a different country.



Luckily this type of foul shit is located in one part of Belfast and if you didn't seek it out, you would never see the likes of it. Although for some, sentiments still run high and I am always aware of my terminology when describing things. British, Irish, Ireland, United Kingdom.

Human,
Brian