Today Matthew is adding to his series "I've been to..."
I've been to Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland has been synonymous with “The Troubles” for most of my lifetime, so visiting Belfast was my opportunity to see the epicentre of the conflict for myself.
The conflict in Northern Ireland is a complicated one to explain briefly. The population is made up of around 65% loyalists, in the sense that they are loyal to the Queen. They are predominantly protestant. Around 35% of the population see themselves as republicans, in the sense that they would like to see the 6 counties of Northern Ireland join the 26 counties as the Republic of Ireland. They are predominantly catholic.
Things were complicated by the fact that the constitution of the Republic of Ireland laid claim to the territory of Northern Ireland, and people born in Northern Ireland could choose between British and Irish citizenship.
After suffering general unrest since the Irish war of independence in 1920, the troubles began in earnest in the late 60’s, and raged through the 70’s and 80’s, increasingly spilling over to the British mainland. I moved to London in 1992, and the threat of terrorism was a daily fact of life. London had developed a reputation of being a dirty city, but when you lived there you quickly realised that this was because the authorities had taken away all the rubbish bins. They represented a very convenient place to hide bombs.
The tube was frequently suspended as any unattended package was assumed to be a bomb, forcing a shut-down of the line. I clearly remember the emotions when being evacuated from a station because of a suspect package – you knew it was almost certainly it was a false alarm, but the IRA did leave bombs on tubes in 1991 and 1992 so there was a real sense of fear as you (and several thousand others) tried to leave the station as quickly as possible. You can imagine the anxiety in the air.
The troubles became very real for me on December 10th, 1992. I was living in North London, and I’d got home unusually early, so was watching the 6 o’clock news with my flatmate. Suddenly, there was a dull whoomph, and the bay windows to the garden bowed inwards before vibrating violently for several seconds. We looked at each other, and almost simultaneously there was a report on the news that the IRA had called in a bomb warning to our local tube station, which was about 1/3 of a mile away.
The IRA realised that murdering innocent British civilians was bad for their PR, so they generally issued coded warnings to allow the authorities to evacuate civilians. The police were seen as weapons of the oppressive British government, and therefore they were “legitimate” targets – the plan was to kill members of the emergency services as they completed evacuations.
I must have been one of the last people to travel through the station before it was closed. Nobody was injured in the attack, but as it turned out, the blast we’d experienced had been from the detonator. The IRA had packed a van with a fertilizer bomb, but the bulk of the explosives hadn’t been triggered by the detonator. I can only imagine the damage that the bomb would have caused if the entire device had gone off.
The Good Friday agreement of 1998 effectively brought the troubles to an end, although there is still tension and the occasional outbreak of violence. The agreement saw a devolution of government to the country, with power shared between the loyalist and republican communities. A referendum was also held in the Republic of Ireland, through which 94% of voters agreed to amend the Irish constitution, removing the territorial claim to the 6 counties of Northern Ireland.
Belfast today is a city which today shows the scars of its past, mainly in the form of the extraordinary murals painted on the many buildings.
There are also a number of “peace walls”, large barriers built to separate the two communities. Before the walls, a loyalist garden might back onto a republican garden, producing tension and conflict that the authorities could do without.
It’s hard to believe that these walls can exist in your own country in the 21st century, as they look like they belong in see in Berlin or the Gaza strip, But they are a reality and many of them actually have been constructed after the signing of the Good Friday agreement.
We took an open top bus trip around the city and experienced an echo of the bad old days. The bus had to be diverted from its normal route down the loyalist Shankill road because of a demonstration taking place. (This is why most of our particular photos show Republican imagery.) It turned out to be an extension of a demonstration we saw outside Belfast town hall.
In 2012, a city council resolution limited the number of days on which the Union Jack (the British flag) could fly over Belfast to a maximum of 18 days a year, having previously been flown every day of the year. Understandably, loyalists are extremely unhappy about not being able to fly their nation’s flag over the city’s main buildings. It’s hard to imagine any other place where a group of politicians can decide to ban the flying of their country’s flag, but given Northern Ireland’s history, for the most serious issue of the day to be a dispute over the flying of a flag represents real progress.
It was fascinating to visit Belfast. Tourism is growing strongly, driven in no small part by interest in understanding the troubles. It is ironic that the thing that once drove the community apart is now something that brings it together. We received a very warm welcome from everyone we met, and people seemed happy to finally be able to welcome people to their great city after so many years of isolation.
We had a great time in Belfast. We both felt very welcome and safe.
As Matthew mentioned, we toured Belfast on a double decker bus.
We chose a local family run business that did a decent job with the tour.
But, I will say that we felt very conspicuous driving through these neighborhoods snapping photos atop a big green bus. The reality of the conflicts in Belfast are very current.
They come very highly recommended and think it's important to hear this story.
Have you toured Belfast? We'd love to hear your stories.
