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.