One Police Officer’s Experience

There was an evening were I got hungry after most of the local restaurants are closed in Belfast except a Chinese place right near our hostel. Once inside after ordering, a local Northern Ireland cop came in and placed an order. We had only been in Belfast a few days at this point and had heard a lot about the cops and how much they are disliked by everyone. Since I was still waiting for my order I decided to go over and talk to him. I went up and asked him if I could ask him a question. He responded saying that I could. I asked, “why would you want to become a cop since everyone hates them?” His response was “well I wanted to have a job of authority without becoming a para military. In becoming a cop I was then also disowned by my family.”  His response was rather interesting and from that I could even tell that he was a Catholic because he said that his family disowned him for joining the police force. I thought that his response was an excellent answer. After thanking him for answering my question we headed home and had some delicious food.

Economics in Belfast

When we visit neighborhoods to see conflict we always go to the lower class neighborhoods.  The conflict really doesn’t exist in higher middle class and upper class neighborhoods.  Most of the students here at Derryvolgie hall are from the high middle to upper class, and most of them don’t really know much or concern themselves with the conflict too much.  By going into some neighborhoods and talking with people there is the general consensus that the more violent parts of this conflict occur in lower class areas.
Lower class areas are where all the murals are and where the paramilitaries are located.  People in these lower class areas have a greater tendency to violence and to joining a paramilitary group for a number of reasons.  There is an extremely large lower class here in Belfast because it has lost all of its heavy industry.  Parts of Belfast have become somewhat of a welfare state due to the unemployment of families that used to work in the shipyards and linen industry have been without jobs for two or three generations.  Males from unemployed families will have a tendency to join a paramilitary group because they are not able to fulfill their commission as the primary wage earner in the family.  Because each side, Protestants and Catholics, are both poor they feel like they are oppressed victims.
This conflict and instability only hurts both sides, Catholic and Protestant, by hurting local economy and bringing everyone down.  Businesses will not invest in the local economy because it is not profitable in an area of conflict and instability.  The businesses would lose profit due to the fact that they would have to pay the local paramilitary group for proper “protection.”  The business also runs the risk of losing potential customers or loss of capital through paramilitary activity.
The stability in Belfast right now is good because more businesses are starting to invest in the area due to the increased stability and ready workforce.  If this stability increases it will bring all the economic classes up.  This will create less tension and ill feeling in many neighborhoods as people will be doing better economically and will not feel victimized and oppressed.  With this lowered tensioned and the fact that everyone will be doing better economically the conflict will decrease and violent conflict will be nonexistent.  At that point once everyone is doing better people will be more willing to work things out and compromise.

Out to Lunch Artist Series

This past Saturday we decided to participate in an event in the Out to Lunch artist series.  This series involves hour long performances by different artists from various parts of Ireland.  Performances are held inside the “Theater Truck,” which is a semi-truck transformed into a stage/theater/lunch venue that holds 40 people.  Saturday’s performance featured vocalist Hilary Bow from Cork in the Republic of Ireland.  Bow covers popular songs that have been translated from their original language into traditional Irish.  Her genre is considered bella nova, which is similar to a sultry feeling jazz.  She had a great stage presence and was a heartfelt performer. 

The traditional Irish language is rarely spoken, especially in Northern Ireland, due to the presence of the British.  We have only encountered the Irish language on signs and in reading material.  Irish language is used on signs in the Catholic areas because their Irish roots are a significant aspect to their sense of identity.  For us to hear her use traditional Irish language seemed to give hope for unification of Ireland in a constructive way.  We think it was really neat to hear this singer who has taken music we may or may not have heard of, and sing it in the Irish language. It was amazing, and a wonderful way to spend our Saturday afternoon!

Film in the Troubles

This past Tuesday, Gareth Higgins spoke to us on the Role of Film in our studies. I was personally quite excited about this, being a Mass Media major. His talk was quite personal, with plenty of room for questions that we have. He emphasized the work of Neil Jordan as a great Irish screenwriter. His credits include Michael Collins, The Butcher Boy, Angel, and Breakfast on Pluto. He also works with Zero28, a group of people who “believe that faith, life and work need to connect with each other.” Higgins has often put himself out on the line in terms of his opinions, running against the flow of mainstream Protestantism in Northern Ireland to make a stand for peace, equality, and support for the arts. As many of the people that we have talked to, he laments the fact that, in terms of visual arts, the Protestants lag sorely behind the Catholics, with most of the filmmakers coming from a Catholic background, meaning that the representation of this conflict in the media is mostly one-sided. Unfortunately, it seems to me that this will remain the standard, as many Protestants resist participation in the media arts, seeing them as a primarily Catholic institution that they want no part of.

Movies suggested:
The Field
Michael Collins
Omagh
Angel
Breakfast on Pluto
The Butcher Boy
The Boxer
In America

For more information search for these titles at:
http://www.zero28.org

Pictures

The Group at Clonard Church/Monastary

Protestant Mural

Group Walking the Street at Night

Scenic View of the Streets of Belfast

The Gate of a Closed Factory

A Church in West Belfast

Gordon Ashbridge: Photographer/Fire Fighter

A highlight for me thus far has been the lecture by photographer/fire fighter Gordon Ashbridge.  His work emanates his love for the medium of photography.  It is evident that he is drawn to the simple beauty of life, from the mystery of a mid-morning landscape to the quiet beauty of a child. Being a photographer myself, I was intrigued by the advice that he had to offer for our own photographic work here in Ireland. His advice was applicable both to the novice and the experienced. Tips like finding a creative angle, or understanding that it is not the equipment but the person behind the equipment that makes the photo are vital to be constantly reminded of. 
Aside from photographic tips, Gordon made obvious the lack of confidence that many Northern Irish are guilty of.  Even though he gave us a marvelous lecture and backed it up by allowing us to view his brilliant photographs, he described himself as an uneducated man of low confidence.  I would definitely vouch against that, but his lecture offered me insight into the general attitude of the Northern Irish due to the conflict that has saturated their history.

Seeing Reconciliation

Wow, it has been a little while since someone has posted one here so I’ll catch you up quickly. For the past couple classes we have had speakers from reconciliation sites and a movie critic. Our afternoons are filled with cooking, homework, and mostly going into downtown Belfast to walk and shop around without really buying anything. At night we go out to a variety of different places, sometimes pubs, sometimes places to dance and sometimes just back to our youth hostile where we stay. The interaction with the students at the residence hall where we cook are going great. They are really some great people. We usually just eat together and watch their amazing satellite T.V. with them for about a half hour or so. The past couple of nights, the ones without exams, they have been going out with groups of us to wherever we are headed for the night. Also, I am thankful that they have been very accomodating to us during the American Football playoffs.

But what I really want to highlight is our trip to Clonard Church/Monastery two nights ago. The reasons we went there were many. One, we thought it nessessary to experience a good Catholic mass. It was on a Thursday night so it was not a normal mass. It was calleda Perpetual Novena and was dedicated to Mary. A very new experience not only because it was Catholic (as some of us ARE Catholic) but also because it was distinctly European. Another reason for our going to the monastery was to meet Father Gerry Reynolds and Pastor Ken Newell. That is right. Pastor.  Rev. Ken Newell is a Presbyterian minister in Belfast and recently completed his term as the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Northern Ireland.  Father Gerry and Rev. Ken are two leaders of major churches in Northern Ireland and they became friends about 18 years ago and have been working to bring peace and reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants ever since.  They gave us a personal interview for about an hour on their lives, friendship, views on issues and hopes for the future. It was a privilege.

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