Hello from Northern Ireland! It’s been a delightful two days here already, and I’ve already been exposed to a great deal of Irish culture and history. After the overnight flight, we drove to Belfast to stay at our hotel for these first few nights. Belfast is a very different city from what I got used to in Pittsburgh. The roads are tight and aged, lined with wide sideways and old houses made of a red brick that Belfast is known for, called “Belfast Brick.” The sea is so near everywhere we’ve gone that there’s always been seagulls around. For every building with a modern exterior, there’s another ornate structure like the original Queen’s University of Belfast building. It’s just like I thought it would be: packed with visible history, both old and new.
On both days from twelve to three o’clock, the whole Haller Global Fellowship Program group helped out at Holy Trinity Youth Centre, a small youth centre(see, it’s European, so it’s “centre”!) for 6-13 year-olds situated in one of the less fortunate areas of Belfast. It’s a great little place for helping kids turn out right in an area that is, apparently, often disparaged for producing hooligans and criminals. I didn’t know this until after both sessions, and it really surprised me! The kids I met there were incredibly polite and well-behaved. They put up with me needing them to repeat their names much better than I could’ve at their age! Many of the children were very interested to hear about America, which was fun.
What stood out to me the most thus far were the Peace Walls in. We went to see two specific walls in Belfast, Divis Street’s International Wall and the Cupar Way Peace Wall. The International Wall is in a Catholic/Republican area, and has organized changes to the murals upon it to reflect causes that the movement supports. The Cupar Way wall, in a Protestant/Unionist area, is the longest and most famous Peace Wall. It used to house many murals, but is now home to supportive graffiti and notes left by tourists. However, what touched me the most was not the actual contents of either wall. Rather, what I felt was most poignant was the other side of the Cupar Way Peace Wall. It has never had any murals on it. What graffiti is present now is illegal and small. It has no large sidewalk and road beside it for ease of viewing it. It is pushed right up to the homes on the other side, so close that fencing needed to be put up so that things thrown over it wouldn’t hit the houses. This paints a picture that the wall was more effective at keeping Catholics out of sight and away from the Protestant area rather than protecting the groups from each other. However, we also heard that the members of the community still living in the homes behind the wall don’t support it being removed, either, because it still protects them. This, more than anything, shows me how the legacy of the Troubles still continues to this day. I know I say this as an outside observer, but in spite of the murals, I do not believe that the walls can truly ever represent peace; their presence remains a sign of lingering animosity. I regret to say that I didn’t take any pictures of either wall.
I arrived here only yesterday and it feels like I’ve learned and seen so much. I couldn’t even fit the museum or the castle into this post, aside from the pictures included below! My time in Ireland will only get more packed with excitement as it continues, and I’m looking forward to finally seeing Carrigart!
Above are images from Carrickfergus Castle, Belfast Botanic Gardens, and the Ulster Museum.