The Troubles - Belfast 2008

On Saturday morning we had a black taxi tour of the troubles of Northern Ireland as they pertained to Belfast. How convenient to be taken around in a black cab! It was a very surreal experience for me and I am not sure that I have fully digested the things that I saw and felt. I have to admit that I come from an English Protestant and Italian Roman Catholic background. It is impossible for me to say who is right. I only know that this is horrible and that it not over yet. Where is the solution? It is going to take some very brilliant and good people to solve what has been going on for centuries in Ulster.

We began our tour on a Protestant Estate. I was astounded to find huge murals painted on the end of just about every block of flats. The murals come and go and our guide wasnt sure who was in charge of the decisions. Some paid tribute to those who died in the troubles, some told the history of the protestants coming to Northern Ireland and one was even hopeful for a solution.

Next we moved onto the gates and the wall. I have to admit I had no idea that there was a wall or that there were gates that separated the two groups! It was a shock! It being Easter weekend and a Saturday many of the gates were closed. We stopped by the Bombay Road wall to have a closer look. It was thirty feet high and had put in a place where the Protestants had burned down the road to make a buffer zone between them and the Catholics. People leave messages on the wall. I didn't know what to say and didn't think it would make a difference anyway.
The Clonard Memorial honours civilian casualties from the Greater Clonard area. Deceased Republican prisoners from the Greater Clonard area 1916-1970. What really struck me here was the metal fencing homeowners put up in their back gardens to protect themselves from the petrol bombs still being thrown over the fence.

The Catholics were not without their own murals. We stopped by to look at one to the men who died while on hunger strike in prison.

The offices of Sinn Fein was one of the last places I thought I would ever be standing in my life time but I was shopping inside! Something seemed very wrong about this. I did buy some literature for an Irish-American catholic friend back home in Buffalo. I had been in many a pub in Buffalo with her that had a jar on the bar for Belfast Summer Relief on it!The last stop on the tour was the International Wall. It almost seemed like an afterthought! Here were murals of struggles going on in other parts of the world. The one of George Bush sucking oil through a straw was striking.

The ironic thing about this day was that right after the tour we headed to the Bushmill Distillery. I know I needed a drink! How easy it is for me to leave it all behind! This will be with me for a bit while I sort out my own troubles about The Troubles.