Dark day. Despite the black and white pic, this wasn't quite 40 years ago.Now, the rest of the trip features meetings with numerous groups on either side of the divide of what has become known as "the Troubles", conflict that is largely assumed to be between Catholics and Protestants of Northern Ireland, though like any major conflict, it gets a little more complicated than that. The AOH of the United States supports groups who work to extend a hand across what has traditionally been a gaping divide. Last year, I had a chance to meet a number of people whose work is truly in God's favor. This year, I decided I'd better take a more assertive step in documenting the trip. Without further adeiu, here's day one of the trip....
Snow made travel complicated. After a 14-person group last year, the enthusiasm for the trip has been more vocal, resulting in a group of about 50 people, give or take. This would be great, IF snow hadn't battered the entire Eastern seaboard of the U.S. While a few people arrived a day early for the tour and missed the weather altogether, my flight from JFK to Dublin seemed to be the only one that got out of the northeast on Wednesday. Three of us on the tour were on the same flight, and also had been bumped from a different flight (due to Aer Lingus labor disputes); it was a blessing in disguise. Scrambling for a response from passengers stuck in Newark, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, etc. became difficult, particularly due to the 5-hour time difference and the lack of wireless connection.
Some were forced to enjoy the luxurious airport lodging...We arrived at about 6:30 a.m. local time. I met Chris and Bud, a father-son duo of Hibernians who had shared my good fortune heading out of New York. We toiled around for the bus that didn't come until about noon. Needless to say, we were pretty beat. After what seemed like a two minute ride (actually 2 hours or so), we arrived at the Balmoral hotel in Belfast. We had stayed here last year, and I recall it being quite nice. We had managed to get a hold of our social director, so we were able to check in, meet up with the folks who arrived earlier, and get our things settled. While we had a nice itinerary written up, weather had really thrown us for a loop.
The 7 of us settled in and met our tour guide, Seamus Kelly. Seamus is our liasion from Coiste tours, whose business is providing interested parties with Irish Political Tours. Rather than glide over the issue of the Troubles, Coiste builds their tours AROUND groups and sites that are intricate parts of the long history of struggles. It's the most informative tour I've ever been a part of. The first step of the tour was a bus tour of Belfast, in particular the areas of town most affected by the Troubles: Ballymurphy, Shankill Road, and The Crumlin Road prison. We checked out where the "Peace walls" were, dividing the city along religious lines in an attempt to quell the intense heat stemming from both sides of the divide. Irish Republicans- whose ideal is based in the idea that all of Ireland should be united and independent- offer their own idea of how effective the "peace walls" were (think divide and conquer), however, making it clear that some wounds don't heal so easily.
The peace walls contained a lot of artwork and graffiti, which largely display ideas of a new generation's ideals of hope and peace. We also stopped for a quick bit of history (audio file) as we parked outside of Divis Tower, which the British army built in response to IRA attacks in the 1960s. It stands as an imposing beacon and reminder of the way things once were, as if a lookout post in the middle of a city-wide prison yard. It has since been disbanded for surveillance and military use, though- like the peace walls- it remains a somber reminder of a darker time. All in all, we saw quite a bit, though of course it is a LOT to take in on the go. Somewhere along the way, I took a brief, but much deserved, nap.
Divis Tower: great view. Advantageous view. Oppressive view?After a burger and Magner's at the restaurant bar, we went to a local AOH chapter where we met with family members of the people killed at Ballymurphy. The family members told the story of what happened to their loved ones between August 9th and August 11th in 1971, just months before Bloody Sunday. The stories that we read about in textbooks take on new meaning when it is a first-person account, when it has that touch of personal impact attached to it. It was a VERY moving series of stories, and as my fellow Hibernians and I discussed with these people how to raise awareness (I hadn't ever heard of Ballymurphy before last year's trip to N. Ireland, and I'm sure that I'm not alone), I felt a strong sense of anger and camaraderie all at once. Here's a link to the work that these people do: http://www.ballymurphymassacre.com/
Essentially, the public attention given to Bloody Sunday is vastly greater than that given to Ballymurphy. In a world where we've grown to hold our soldiers accountable for every single action they perform (both in combat and away from it), there is an egregious injustice being done in a part of the world where such behavior is reprehensible. Public awareness must take hold if the powers that be are ever to admit to a wrongdoing which has cost over 50 children a parent.
Coming soon: day two, and hopefully the arrival of more tourists.
Washed a long day down with some delicious cider.
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