Afterthought

We have now been back from Belfast for a whole week, which has sufficed to effectively solidify the confusion created by our ten-day visit. This is not to say that it’s negative confusion. Rather, I find this confusion to be inspirational.   

The opportunity to witness firsthand the complexity of conflict in Northern Ireland, as well as the experience of participating in a peace building process, has personally increased my own desire to learn more about these issues.  Throughout the visit and over the past week of contemplation, I have found that I am continually debating with myself potential new strategies and compromises for what violence still exists in Northern Ireland.  While I have consistently proved myself wrong in this debate; each time that I am forced to revise my opinion I find I have something new to bring to the table.  Some forgotten opinion is remembered, some new fact is discovered or some new conversation is had. The percentage of my thoughts that these ideas preoccupy is pretty incredible considering the relatively short length of our stay.  I sympathize with anyone who had lived through 30 years of conflict and spent the next 15 trying to comprehend what just happened. 

 

            Throughout the experience I have noticed my desire to think critically about these issues has really grown. Coming from the Sociological and Criminological background of my studies, I assumed that perspectives taught to me in school would shape the way I interpreted the experience. While this is true, I found even more so that I have wanted to try and devise my own theories. The line between academic study and “the real world” (as it has been described to me by countless family friends, professors and my parents) has undoubtedly become clearer.  Personally, the timing of this trip could not have been better for me. I’m now in my last semester of my undergrad degree, and naturally, most of my focus has been about what comes next.  While friends are applying to grad school or finding jobs, I am inspired and guided by the experience I had.  Specifically, it has given me the realization that real change can manifest itself in personal pursuit.  That as inspired individuals we have the ability to inspire progress in others.  Being able to watch as the children we worked with eagerly took to the lessons we taught was reassuring to my faith in a brighter future for this often overlooked generation.  One highlight would be watching a young boy excitedly assume a super-hero stance, his fist high in the air, after I told him of his often overlooked super power called empathy. 

 

            Another aspect to this experience that’s worth noting is how we as participants were treated.  Given the circumstance, at times we were students, at times volunteers, travelers, teachers and tourists.  The ability to interchange between roles was granted to us by the amount of respect from just about everyone we met while away.  We weren’t kept on a short leash or tirelessly paraded around by guides. We were free to interpret and experience Northern Ireland, Belfast and the troubling aftermath of violence as we saw fit.  This ability allowed for everyone participating in the trip to create an experience unique to them.  There were opportunities for everyone to utilize their talents, explore their interests, and provide their insights. Because of this you feel as if your contribution to the cause is personal and not in any way a part of a cookie cutter school trip.

 

            To me, the most drastic contributor to what divide still remains in Belfast is from the social deprivation that exists.  It seems the sectarian divide now has little to do with religion or nationality but rather debates over what historical narrative you believe.  Naturally, descendants still align with which side caused less harm to their family and friends. Due to this however, Belfast struggles to achieve the necessary amount of group coercion needed to overcome a divided past.  But there are many strong signs of healing.  The younger generation, which we had the privilege of working with, seemed to be less in tune with sectarian beliefs than their elders.  Similar to how in Canada we might hope today’s youth are less racist or homophobic than yesterdays.  If we frame the problem in terms of a social rights issue within the context of global citizenship, the divide seems less overbearing.  The peace walls still exist (in actuality there are more being built than are coming down) but the conversation from both sides about how to bring them down is being had.  To think that when we’re over in Northern Ireland talking in schools, taxicabs and restaurants, we are somehow facilitating this conversation makes the entire process worthwhile.

 

            As an experience, working with Peaceful School International and The Saint Mary’s University Conflict Resolution Society is everything it could be.  The experience to me will undoubtedly be one of the most memorable opportunities of my undergrad and the time I most likely learned the most.  The opportunity to travel with a group of truly amazing people, work together and learn from one another isn’t something easily found.  I would recommend anyone interested to peruse it, and anyone else to look for similar opportunities or to create their own.  You learn a lot more about yourself when given the opportunity to teach others, to broaden your comfort zones and to travel.  The trip to Belfast was all that and so much more. 

 

Thanks to everyone who made this a possibility.

The Stories

One thing that has surprised me about our visit to Belfast is just how willing people have been to share their stories.  There were a couple pre-arranged talks organized for us before we arrived, but some of the most astonishing recollections of The Troubles came from people we met casually.  By asking a lot of questions and demonstrating how keen and interested we were, people jumped on the opportunity to share their interpretation of events.

 

Ruth, the manager at Farset International and a long time friend of the program, adopted us as her surrogate family for the length of our stay.   Her upfront personality and unwillingness to be overly politically correct, allowed us access to a very honest story.  It was told through the eyes of someone who has lost countless friends and family members to the conflict.  She described once as a young girl being nearly blown up in a terrorist explosion.  The near miss resulted in her being briefly taken care of by a group of Catholic people in the neighborhood.  When she had finally come to, she quickly returned home and pretended as if nothing had happened.  She was more afraid to how her Protestant mother may have reacted to Ruth receiving aid from Catholics, than what could have been a horrific tragedy.  Through this, Ruth has grown into an incredibly strong and capable woman, somehow made strong by the events she had survived.

 

Every taxi we took through the city posed as an opportunity to access another viewpoint.  One cab driver told us stories of the 3 times he claims murder attempts had been made on his life.  Another very up front taxi driver stayed for an extra 10 minutes after he had dropped us off to do justice to his story of how he got involved with the IRA.  He graphically described his first “job” and how happy he was to learn who his first target would be.  This man, he described as a low life responsible for ruining many lives from selling drugs.  The taxi driver told us how he had been wearing a full mask when he shot out the man’s knees.  He wished he could have taken the mask off, as if his victim knowing his own identity would have made him feel more proud of what he was to do.  Luckily, he said, he kept the mask on.  He now lives down the street from this man.   He claims the man is still a low life but now walks with a limp.  The above mentioned scenario was fairly common throughout our interactions with taxi drivers in particular; and reflects the level of shockingly honest disclosure people were willing to share during our time in Belfast.

Many of the stories that were shared to us had an agreed upon distrust and disrespect for the police force.  During The Troubles, the police force serving Northern Ireland was known as The Royal Ulster Constabulary.  The RUC at its peak had about 8,500 members serving.  From the start of the conflict until the signing of The Belfast Agreement in 1998, 319 officers were killed and another nearly 9000 were injured.  During the conflict, the RUC was the most dangerous police force in the world to serve in. This police force was disbanded in 2001 due to allegations of bias.  This led to the creation of The Police Service of Northern Ireland.  

 

 Three members of the PSNI came in to talk to our group once again about their interpretation of events.  The officers openly discussed the lack of respect they felt from the public, something they felt was slowing changing but still far from many other countries.  The officers were extremely friendly.  They let us try on their riot gear, and sit inside the fortified Land Rover police vehicles.  While the police in Northern Ireland are usually scrutinized, the stories they told of working the front line during riots were just as harrowing as any other.  The representatives who spoke to us claim that now the majority of police efforts in Belfast are centered on community policing and communication in an attempt to win over the respect of the public.

 

Our last night at Farset, Ruth managed to convince her husband Jim to come speak to our group.  Jim served in the British Army for years during The Troubles. He was stationed various locations around Belfast.  The stories he shared with us involved some of the most horrific recollections of torture and disembodiment of soldiers imaginable.  He recalled constantly finding bodies, losing friends to makeshift explosions, entering booby-trapped houses and being taunted and attacked by young children.  The lawlessness described by Jim seemed hard to fathom in a city we had all grown very fond of the previous few days.

All of these stories told slightly different variations as to what happened during the 30 odd years of violent conflict in Northern Ireland.  All were a little unwilling to accept the brunt of the blame, but very willing to admit to taking part in various atrocities.  Non-violent people were turned violent through a strain forced on them by unjust conditions.  They knew what they were doing wasn’t right but didn’t see any other options.  What worries me most now is the lasting impact that this trauma would have on an entire city.  It’s quite clear many of those willing to share their stories with us were suffering from some form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  It seemed to me that maybe sharing their stories with us, people who would listen, was some form of coping with this. 

 

 Although the conflict is officially over, Belfast is still a very fragile place.  We asked similar questions to most of those who would talk.  One of these questions was whether or not they thought trouble could ever start back up.  They all agreed it wouldn’t take much.  This being said, talk about peace is winning over evidence of violence in Belfast.  All the stories shared with us were talking about the past.  It is clear that new trends have begun to emerge to make peace and reconciliation the focus; the stories however will always remain.

Our Classroom Visits

We have now finished our last day running workshops in schools.  What an amazing experience it has been.  While none of us expected anything short of a moving and rewarding adventure, it’s safe to say we’ve been touched beyond expectations.  

So much hard work and preparation goes in to the workshops we do.  We have practiced amongst ourselves for hours, studied our scripts, and had numerous practice runs in schools back in Nova Scotia.  While we were all confident in our abilities, the success you feel when you can see the impact made on these children reaffirms everything we’ve worked for.

We spent our first day in a slightly different scenario than we had anticipated.  With the guidance from Peaceful Schools International Coordinators, Rick and John, our group facilitated workshops to a team of recreational soccer players.  The youth were all males aged fifteen to seventeen.  Most of our practice and training had revolved around youth considerably younger than this age group, so at first I think we were all somewhat intimidated.   
 

 

 
However, Rick and John are such strong leaders they took the reins, leading a discussion that cut deep into issues of violence, trust, peace, home and personal conflicts.  By mid afternoon our small groups and 1:1 ratio with the youth broke down a lot of the tensions and anxieties.  By the end of the day I think our group and theirs both benefited pretty enormously from the situation.  The arrangement of the day allowed a lot of time for the youth to interact more casually with us as facilitators.  This allowed them the opportunity to ask us about our own experiences as people only a few years older than them. 

 

Wednesday was our first day spent in primary schools.  Our team was divided into two groups, one visiting a local Protestant school and the other a local Catholic school.  My group had the opportunity to visit a school called Wheatfield.  Wheatfield is significant in that it is located in the Ardoyne community in Northern Belfast.  Just down the road from Weathfield is Holy Cross Primary.   

 

Holy Cross was the site of what became known as the Holy Cross dispute, a time of protest where Protestant radicles blocked the front entrance to the school, interrupting Catholic school girls and their families from being able to walk to school.  In the early 2000's the dispute involved the IRA and garnered mainstream media attention from around the world.  It was during this time that Hetty van Gurp, the founder of Peaceful Schools, decided to get involved with the peace project in Belfast. 

 

Thursday, our second day in schools, our whole group traveled to Holy Trinity Primary School.  There, the school’s eccentric and friendly principal welcomed us in.  He happily adorned the SMU sweater given to him as a gift as he proudly toured us around the facilities.  Between workshops each of us had the opportunity to join the students in their playground for recess.  The amount of energy created when 15 playful foreigners from Canada join a group of 150 eager primary school children is not to be overlooked.  Between conga lines, games of tag and discussions about comic books, the atmosphere, although positive and educational, might not easily have been described as peaceful.                

 

At the end of our day visiting Holy Trinity we were invited to join the school in the assembly room to watch a performance they had prepared for us.  There, we were serenaded by the African Drum Club (who could seriously play) and a quick concert.  Rather than a choir group, the entire school sang a couple songs about peace and love while their principal, still wearing his SMU hoodie, accompanied them on piano.  The performance blew us all away, inspiring our own impromptu concert in response.

 

Friday, as our last day in school we travelled to St. Clares Primary School.  St. Clares sits on an interface, a dividing line between Protestant and a Catholic neighborhoods.  This school however, is a Catholic one.  By this point we all felt fairly confident and polished with our workshops.  As the day wound down and the realization that this would soon be over set in, it was a little hard.  So many months of preparation went into this; the time goes by so quick it’s hard to even process everything that happens.  By the end of our last workshops, between our time in schools in Belfast and back in Halifax we estimate that we have reached several hundred youth.  The thought that even a percentage of those kids would truly internalize the messages we teach is pretty incredible.

 

You can learn a lot about something from reading, watching documentaries, asking questions and talking to people, but nothing compares to how it feels to actually go somewhere and see it first hand.  I think we were all a little taken aback by the amount of discrimination that still exists in Belfast.  The ability to feel like you make even the tiniest impact in removing that discrimination makes every bit worth it.  The truth is that this sort of interaction really does work.  The kids really do care.  They listen.  They are young enough that what we teach them now will ultimately mold who they become as people when they’re older.  As foreigners and fun loving people, we are able to entertain them and reach them on a level that otherwise might be unobtainable.  We come to their classrooms with funny accents and talk about the importance of huge concepts like empathy and what they can do to become a good global citizen.  On top of this, the satisfaction we feel from this kind of work will undoubtedly start an addiction in most of our group to continue perusing initiative positive change.  The time in schools has been so overtly positive it’s really hard to even explain.  Throughout those few days I had the chance to connect with students from across the world and with new friends from this program I had just made.  We were able to share true human emotion and to promote something positive.  Feeling that is indescribable.

 

Paramilitary Monday and Green Vrs. Orange

The past two days have been a blur.  While fighting the temptation to become overwhelmed with the complexity of such a contentious issue, we have managed to remain intrigued by the various views presented to us. 

Monday, we had the chance to visit two so-called interpretive centers representing both sides of The Troubles.  The interpretive centers presented themselves as small-scale museums, located in two of the most obviously definitive Loyalist and Republican neighborhoods of Belfast.  Each visit was followed by a talk, led by representatives from both the Loyalist and Republican communities.  

 Our day started off traveling by taxi to The Andy Tyrie Interpretive Centre.  The center was located in a part of Belfast know for its strict commitment to the Protestant cause.  The street was lined with Union Jack flags, commemorative morals of the UDA,UDF and shops selling Queen Elizabeth souvenirs.   

We were welcomed in to the center by Billy Rowan.  Billy toured us around the various exhibits of the Museum, stopping to explain his own role within the conflict and to point out newspaper clippings of the events that he felt were of specific importance to the narrative of the Loyalist effort.

 After the brief museum tour, we were led upstairs to a small room arranged to look similar to how an official press release might appear.  In the middle of the room was a table draped in an Ulster flag. Behind it, Billy sat accompanied by two other Loyalist representatives.  At first, the set up presented itself as intimidating and militant, however, we were quickly made to feel comfortable by our hosts, who gave us the opportunity to ask questions about the conflict, and their own involvement in paramilitaries.

The conversation we had was extremely honest and straightforward.  Although the setting of the event made the first few questions skeptical, weary amidst militant propaganda, the theme of conversation focused largely on the peace process and the steps these volunteers were making within their communities to bring about peace.

 By the end of the Q&A, I personally had developed an empathetic understanding of the struggles as seen from Loyalist eyes. 

 (ABOVE):Loyalism starts young.  A "Born in Ulster" baby bib seen in a Protestant Souvenir shop.

From here, we boarded another taxi to Tar Anall, the Catholic interpretive center.  When our taxi came to pick us up, the drivers had to discuss amongst themselves where was the best place to drop us off.  Being a primarily Loyalist taxi company, the drivers usually didn’t drive fares to the Catholic neighborhoods.

Tar Anall presented itself similarly to the Andy Tyrie Centre.  We were left to walk around the museum, and to browse the exhibits of newspaper clippings, artifacts, books and flags.  The Tar Anall museum was largely made up of historically significant artifacts and crafts made by Republican prisoners while held hostage at Long Kesh prison. 

 While the Andy Tyrie Center functioned as a memorial of lives lost and a display of the once power of the UDA, Tar Anall had a lighter and more artistic interpretation of events.  While we browsed the impressive woodworking projects made by Republican prisoners (with tools later taken away with the removal of political status) traditional Irish pan flute music played over the loud speaker.

(ABOVE):A guitar with drawings done by prisoners inside Long Kesh (The Maze)

 

After touring ourselves around, we were brought to meet Evelyn Glenholmes.  Evelyn shared her amazing story as an Irish Republican growing up in Belfast during the 1970’s.  What started out as a familiar narrative of Irish repression, quickly became personal as Evelyn revealed details of her fathers imprisonment and her own run from British forces.  At one point, Evelyn held the top spot on the Scotland Yard’s most wanted list.  She has spent years on the run and afraid for her own life.  She has now returned to Belfast and spends her time educating on the topic of peace and reconciliation as well as political and community development.   Evelyn’s story was one of the most harrowing and amazing stories I have ever had the privilege to listen to first hand.

 By the end of this talk, it was clear the sympathy for Republican survivors felt by our group was immense.

 

 In short, the day was nearly overwhelming.  While trying to remain removed from the emotional commitments of conflict, I found myself unable, and instead locked in for a confusing, emotional, roller coaster.  In a short span of time we were taken both physically and mentally to two vastly different sides of a divide that has been prominent for hundreds (if not thousands) of years.  Throughout the day I found myself wishing I had more knowledge of the history and a better understanding of the people.  At no point did I feel as if the stories I heard were in any way untrue, yet the facts didn’t match up.  Both sides told us earnest accounts of personal injustices done to them, their loved ones and families.  Both sides have been the victims of hate crimes and brutally violent urban warfare.  At points, I felt ashamed of my privileged position to study such a conflict without direct involvement in it.  At other times, I felt grateful for my life void of such strict bias.  In all, a chance to hear these first hand accounts made me realize the divide goes much deeper than Irish or British, Protestant or Catholic, Republican or Loyalist.  The only context I could come to understand was that it was Green versus Orange. 

  Amidst the discrepancies in stories, there was one unifying factor.  There was an obvious desire by both sides of the conflict to progress.  Both wanted lasting peace.

After Evelyn’s talk we visited one of the peacewalls dividing the city.  There, we took turns passing around a marker, and signed our names.

Our First Weekend

We have now been in Belfast for a full two days of exploring, sight seeing, touring and taking in the culture of Northern Ireland.  It has been non-stop, and I think we're all feeling ready to settle in to a bit of a routine for the next week of visiting schools.

Made it to Belfast!

Our crew is safe and sound and has arrived at Fraset International in Belfast! After a long trip everyone is pretty happy for a shower and a meal.  First impressions are overwhelmingly positive.

Our loud and hyped-up team draws a lot of attention on the plane and in the airport. 

Coffee, yogurt, fruit salad and I believe that was an egg product in the dish but it couldn't really be verified.

Killin' Time.

Heathrow - London

I guess travel hubs like Heathrow attract many different varieties of people. This was a champagne and caviar shop, each of these little guys of sturgeon caviar cost about 500British pounds.

 

Finally in Belfast! 

We arrived to a misty sunset and about 8 degrees. 

This is Lee. A man born and raised in Belfast who claims to have seen it all. While he drove us to our hotel he recollected about the way Belfast use to be. Lee has an optimistic view and thinks within the next 40 years the looming sings of the post-conflict society he toured us around won't be visible. 

And finally here.

Home for the next 10 days.