Is it just me or does your brain also block out 2020? For example, when I started to write this I thought, "Last year I went to Ireland." But it wasn't last year; it was 2019. Despite 2020 feeling like it had 27 months and each month feeling like it was 63 days long, when I think about things that happened I tend to skip last year.
It has taken a long time to write this because I feel like there's a lot I want to say and a lot that I should cover in order to give you as complete a picture as possible.
Northern Ireland
So in 2019 I went to Ireland and Northern Ireland. Did you know they are two different places? Northern Ireland is part of Great Britain. The Republic of Ireland is an independent country.
They split in 1921. Northern Ireland remained under British rule. Southern Ireland became a free state; now known as the Republic of Ireland. But 40% of those in Northern Ireland wanted independence from Britain so there's always been a large number of people who weren't happy with the outcome of that split.
EU/Schengen
How does that fit in with the EU and Schengen? Ireland is an EU member. Great Britain was up until Brexit. Neither are members of the Schengen zone. Schengen is what allows you to pass between EU countries without passport controls. It's also what makes people like me sad because no passport controls means no stamps in your passport when entering one Schengen country from another. So I don't have stamps for most of the countries I've been to :(
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| This map is pre-Brexit as it shows the UK still in the EU. [https://schengenvisum.info/wat-is-schengenvisum/schengenlanden/] |
But What About Brexit?
Brexit is the nickname given to Great Britain leaving the European Union. There were two main reasons people voted for Brexit (that's very oversimplified and I've further oversimplified those here) although - in an interesting twist - the majority of Northern Irish voted to remain in the EU.
1. Economics. Leavers felt that being tied to the the EU (which includes countries whose economies are not as strong as that of Great Britain) was dragging down the British economy.
2. Immigration. The foreign-born population doubled in 10 years due in large part to the economic issues already mentioned. Jobs were hard to find in many countries and the open borders policy of the EU meant job seekers from hard hit countries moved to places like Great Britain. At the time of the Brexit vote, seventy-seven percent of Brits believed that immigration levels into the country should be reduced.
One of the bigger Brexit debates revolved around the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Ireland remains part of the EU. The worry was that if a "hard" border went up between Ireland and Northern Ireland it would reignite tensions.
Back to Northern Ireland - The Troubles
- Did you think the fighting in Northern Ireland was a Protestant/Catholic issue?
- Did you think Sinn Féin was a person?
- Did you think "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland ended in the 1970s or 1980?
Northern Ireland is predominantly Protestant while the Republic of Ireland is predominantly Catholic and the conflict is often presented as a religious feud. But it's much more than that.
For several decades, the leaders of the Protestant, unionist majority (those who wanted to stay part of Great Britain), discriminated against the Catholic, nationalist minority (those who wanted to be part of a unified Ireland). The discrimination resembles the American discrimination against minorities (some past, some present) in many ways:
- Gerrymandering voting districts so that Catholics always had fewer representatives.
- Allowing only property owners to vote.
- Discrimination in employment and social housing.
- A Special Powers Act that allowed for detention without trial. Since the armed police forces were wholly unionist this was used to punish nationalists.
- Lack of official recognition of Irish nationality in Northern Ireland. The Irish language and Irish history were not taught in state schools. The tricolour flag of the Irish Republic was illegal, as was the Irish Republican party, Sinn Féin (not a person, a political party).
I can't cover everything about The Troubles here. It's complex and a lot depends on which side is providing the information. However, it's important to point out that the majority of people on both sides did not support the use of violence but the violence used by the minorities of both factions came to define the conflict. 3,500 were killed. Tens of thousands more were injured. Untold thousands were traumatized by violence. Thousands were sent to prison.
Belfast is still a divided city. Literally. Both physically and ideologically. The majority of peace walls are located in Belfast, but they also exist in Derry, Portadown, and Lurgan, with more than 20 miles of walls in Northern Ireland. They divide the predominantly Catholic section of the city from the predominantly Protestant section of the city. Gates close at night. They have separate schools and community centers.
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| One of the gates that closes at night. |
There's very little integration even now, more than 20 years after the Good Friday Agreement - the peace agreement signed in 1998 that ended most of the violence. Although there are hints that the desire is there among some in this younger generation. Some people send their kids to integrated schools outside of the segregated neighborhoods. There are some programs that try to introduce kids to the idea that maybe there's no need to be afraid of the "other" side. So they organize things like canoe trips for kids from both groups. The fact that this is happening in western Europe (as opposed to the middle east, for example), still today, between mostly white people, Blew. My. Mind! I had SO many questions!!
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| These houses that back up to one of the walls have cages protecting their back gardens. You can see that the wall had height added. This was because Molotov cocktails liked to find their way over the wall. But the cages stayed. My guide told me that the house on the far end needs to have the sofit replaced, which would require taking down the cage, and was planning to leave it down. This is a small step towards accepting that the peace agreement might be lasting - after more than 20 years. |
Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, saw the most fighting but there were over 10,000 bombings in Great Britain the 30 years of The Troubles.
When I visited Belfast, the downtown area was not much different from a lot of other cites.
But hire a guide for a "Troubles" tour - Trust me on this! One of the things you'll learn is that part of the Good Friday Peace Agreement involved letting out all prisoners on both sides (those in jail for Troubles-related offenses) so even those who might have committed arson or murder were freed. Some of these individuals are now conducting Troubles tours. Yup. Your tour guide might be a murderer. They have serious first-hand knowledge of what went down rather than tour guides who just learned a bunch of stuff. In the height of the violence many young people had been born and grew up knowing nothing but cinemas being bombed, busses being bombed, literal fighting in the streets of their neighborhoods. So when their homes and families were under attack they fought.
I'm not defending them. I don't have a side in this. I can say I consider myself to be a pacifist but my home, my family have never been under attack so I can't say what I'd do. And I can't judge anyone. The British government certainly committed atrocities no differently than they did elsewhere in the world. But the Republicans were not without fault. I want to talk to people from both sides.
It was so fascinating and I wanted to know so much more that a few days later, after returning to Dublin, I took a bus to Belfast, met up with a guide, and spent a few hours with him before taking the bus back to Dublin (my parents were arriving the next day so I couldn't stay any longer). I could definitely see myself going back to Belfast if I could arrange to just sit and talk to people all day.
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| The "Peace Wall" |
Belfast and Derry contain arguably the most famous political murals in Europe. It is believed that almost 2,000 murals have been documented since the 1970s.
Some of the murals are directly related to The Troubles but many are not. My guide told me that now, in order to be allowed to put up a mural, you have to apply and submit your proposed mural to...I don't remember. A committee or a governmental entity...I tried finding the answer online but came up empty.
Derry/Londonderry
The site of the Bloody Sunday massacre (of the U2 song) was in the Bogside area of Derry (also known as Londonderry). 26 civilian protesters were shot by British soldiers. It is considered to be one of the most significant events of the Troubles.
Recent Violence
Perhaps you've heard about a recent spate of violence in Northern Ireland. According to the BBC and ABC News:
Nearly 90 officers have been hurt in Northern Ireland's worst street violence for years, after sporadic rioting in several towns and cities since the end of March.
Young people have hurled bricks, fireworks and gasoline bombs at police and set hijacked cars and a bus on fire during a week of violence on the streets of Northern Ireland. Police responded with rubber bullets and water cannons.
Many of those involved in the violence were teenagers and even children as young as 12. They grew up after the Troubles, but live in areas where poverty and unemployment remain high and where sectarian divides have not healed.
Why is this happening now? There are a few possible contributing factors (and here's why I explained Brexit earlier):
Northern Ireland has been called the “problem child” of Brexit, the U.K.'s divorce from the European Union. As the only part of the U.K. that has a border with an EU nation — Ireland — it was the trickiest issue to resolve after Britain voted narrowly in 2016 to leave the 27-nation bloc.
An open Irish border, over which people and goods flow freely, underpins the peace process, allowing people in Northern Ireland to feel at home in both Ireland and the U.K.
The insistence of Britain’s Conservative government on a “hard Brexit” that took the country out of the EU’s economic order meant the creation of new barriers and checks on trade. Both Britain and the EU agreed that border could not be in Ireland because of the risk that would pose to the peace process. The alternative was to put it, metaphorically, in the Irish Sea — between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K.
That arrangement has alarmed British unionists, who say it weakens Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom and could bolster calls for Irish reunification.
Early trade glitches, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, led to some empty supermarket shelves, fueling alarm. Border staff were temporarily withdrawn from Northern Ireland ports in February after threatening graffiti appeared to target port workers.
There was anger that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who long insisted there would be no new checks on trade as a result of Brexit, had downplayed the scale of the changes wrought by leaving the EU. [Remember - the majority of Northern Irish voted to stay in the EU.]
Unionists are also angry at a police decision not to prosecute politicians from the IRA-linked Sinn Féin party who attended the funeral of a former Irish Republican Army commander in June, despite coronavirus restrictions.
Bobby Storey's funeral drew 2,000 mourners - including Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill - at a time when strict Covid restrictions were still in place, limiting the number of people who could gather in public.
Many people expressed anger at Ms O'Neill for failing to follow the guidance she insisted the public should follow - guidance which had led to loyalist band parades being cancelled last summer.
This shows that despite the Good Friday Agreement being in place since 1998, the peace is still very delicate and tenuous. I wonder whether that house did remove it's back garden cage and whether it prompted any neighbors to do the same. I wonder how far this recent outbreak of tension will set back the very small steps towards progress the generation that came into existence after The Troubles had started to make.
I'm pretty sure this is the longest post I've ever written. I didn't write half of the thoughts I have about this. I feel like it bounced around a lot and doesn't do a good job of explaining anything really. There's just too much. It is truly fascinating to me. How many times have I used the word 'fascinating?' I'm not sure I can fully explain why. But if it intrigues you and you want to learn more, here are a few starters:
- Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
- The Wind That Shakes the Barkey and The Miami Show Band are available on Netflix (depending on where you live)
- I, Dolours is available on Amazon video
