"Too many churches and not enough Christianity."

Arcadia took us on another trip, this time for a whole weekend. All the Arcadia students studying on the island got to go to Belfast from Friday to Sunday. I kind of feel like I spent half of the weekend on the bus, especially after getting caught in Dublin traffic getting there, but it was really worth it.

On Friday, we only got to the city around 7, so after checking into the hostel we headed off to dinner with about half the group. Between walking to dinner and then around the city centre later, it was really easy to tell that Belfast has a totally different feeling than any of the cities I've visited in Ireland. I didn't realize that I'd gotten so used to seeing everything repeated in both English and Irish, and since Northern Ireland is part of the UK, Belfast doesn't have that. It lacked the quaintness that even bigger cities in Ireland, like Dublin and Cork, have; Belfast also felt much more gritty, urban, and industrialised (which makes sense since it was the only big city on the whole island to go through the Industrial Revolution).

On Saturday, all 150 of us headed an hour and a half away to visit the Giant's Causeway, which is Northern Ireland's only World Heritage Site. It reminded me a little bit of Dingle since it was on the coast and had these great cliffs, but the big draw is the natural rock formations that were made after a volcanic eruption millions of years ago. There was also an amazing trail that we walked up that had a great view of the causeway from above when you got to the top. When you looked out to your left, you could see Donegal, the most northern point of Ireland (although it is controlled by the republic), and you could also look out to your right and see Scotland. The mythology behind the causeway is that the Irish giant Finn McCool built it as a bridge so that he could go fight his counterpart in Scotland, who he discovered was much larger. So Finn's wife disguised him as a baby and put him in a carriage. When the Scottish giant came looking for him, he said, "If that's how big the baby is, I don't want to see the father," and went back to his country.

When we went back to Belfast, we found a pub where we could watch the Ireland-Scotland game before going to meet the group again for dinner. Everyone on the island, no matter the country, plays and cheers for Ireland, so we were in good company. There was one guy in there who was wearing a kilt with an Irish rugby jersey, which was a little confusing...but he was cheering for Scotland, so we just ignored him. Ireland won 34-13, which was awesome!! Great game! I also randomly met someone there who had done an exchange program to Massillon, OH, where I have family--small world! He said that people in Ohio were so friendly and he made lifelong friends, that since he's a barrister (lawyer), if I ever get into any trouble in Ireland, just to let him know and he'd help me out. So no fear, Mom and Dad, I'm all set for the rest of my trip!

The best part of the weekend, by far, was Sunday. In the morning we had a presentation on the Troubles in Belfast and Northern Ireland. This really smart and funny professor from University of Ulster, Bill Rolston, gave the presentation, which really cleared up a lot of the confusion that I had.
Key terms:

• Unionist: A supporter of Northern Ireland's political union with Britain; Protestant.
  
• Loyalist: Someone who is opposed to a united Ireland and supports the Union with Britain; the militant wing of the Unionists; Protestant.
  
• Nationalist: Generally one who seeks (greater) independence of Ireland from Great Britain, including since 1921 the goal of a United Ireland; Catholic.
  
• Republican: A supporter of a united Irish Republic, incorporating Northern Ireland; the militant wing of the Nationalists; Catholic.
  

He's an expert on the murals, too, so I got this great book he wrote about them because it has pictures of some of the best murals from the last few years here. I really liked him because he didn't pretend to be unbiased, which he told us himself; he didn't say which side he was on, but it was obvious was that he's on the side of the Catholics. But what's great is that he's built up trust with people on both sides of the disagreement, and so after years of trying, he can call up people on both sides to get information for his books. He's also been locked down in prisons every so often for a day so that he can speak with prisoners. So BA!

We also took a bus tour of the whole city and got to see some of the murals and the segregation for ourselves. We saw the Falls Road (Catholic) and Shankill Road (Protestant) and the murals on each of them. I have to say, the Loyalist murals are way more disturbing...a good chunk of the time they like to feature men in black masks pointing and using their guns, and it's seriously disturbing. They've gotten a little less militant since the Good Friday agreement in 1998, but they're still pretty scary. The Republican murals tend to memorialize those who have died and they also try to equate themselves with other groups around the world that they feel are marginalized: Palestinians, those in the Basque country, etc.

The two sides are separated by a "peace" wall...putting that in quotes because they make it feel like the least peaceful places ever. As good old Wikipedia puts it, "The barriers themselves consist of iron, brick, and steel walls up to 25 feet high, topped with metal netting, or simply a white line painted on the ground similar to a road marking. Some have gates in them occasionally manned by police, which allow passage by day, and which are closed at night." Certain areas of the city, like around the main roads, are still highly segregated--100% Catholic on one side, 100% Protestant on the other. Our tour guide even pointed out a school on the Catholic side that's going to be closing this year because it's for Protestants and its losing more and more children each year. That's not to say that things aren't a lot better--a lot of the paramilitary groups are disbanded, they have the peace agreement, etc., but it seems like most of the differences and tensions between the two groups are there, just without the outright violence. The guide pointed out a couple different Protestant churches on one intersections, and made the great comment, "Too many churches, and not enough Christianity." As he was pointing out all of the universities and their hospitals, he also said, "As you can see, we're well equipped with hospitals. Then again, we've had great need for them." I think those are really telling statements.

We also saw some great architecture in the city on the tour. Queen's University Belfast was really gorgeous, as was a lot of the buildings in the city centre. It's part of what makes Belfast feel more like it's in Britain than in Ireland--it's all in the really pretty Victorian style architecture. The only city that has more of the architecture like that is Glasgow, Scotland.

I know I got a little long-winded on the whole Belfast tour and murals thing, but as someone who is an Irish-American Catholic, I found the whole thing super interesting, and important to know (also since I'm studying in Ireland). It's just surreal to see these fences and know that this stuff isn't just happening in the past, there is still tension and discrimination going on today. The paper I just wrote for one of my Turning Points in History class was also on the similarities and differences between the civil rights movement in the US and Northern Ireland, so it fit in really well. I loved the tour so much that you all will get twice as many pictures as usual- a set from the causeway, and some from the tour of the city! Enjoy!

Next up: weekend trip to Scotland!