One Man's Hero is Another Man's Terrorist

1/29/2018

Belfast, Northern Ireland

We took a 7:35a train to Belfast on Monday morning. After checking into the Belfast International Youth Hostel, we took a black cab “Troubles” tour with a Belfast native. He took us all over the city to see the murals, walls, and bonfire sites which all play their own role in the story of the Catholic/Protestant conflict in the area. Driving through the massive gates of the 45-foot wall that divides the Catholic and Protestant sides of town, we saw the extreme rift this conflict has caused on the island. Both sides use murals as a way to express their struggles and pain, some glorifying activists that the other side vilifies. As our driver told us, “one man’s hero is another man’s terrorist.” The dividing walls are not a perfect solution, but seem to be a decent stopgap measure to keep the lid on a centuries-old feud (for now, anyways). While our driver said that he didn’t think the walls would last forever, he also didn’t think they would come down any time soon. Given the violent history of the conflict in recent years, our driver told us that 70% of the city’s residents support keeping the walls in place.

The layers of materials show how the walls have grown over the years, now standing 45 feet tall in many parts of the city. You can see in this picture that the walls are still actively maintained and repaired by the local government.

The gates that close every night, effectively segregating the Protestant and Catholic sides of town.

Continuing with the day’s theme of sadness and the loss of human life, we had our cab driver drop us off at the Titanic museum, which is adjacent to the docks where the Titanic was actually built. We arrived expecting a rehashing of the dramatized Hollywood version of the Titanic story, but soon found there was much more to tell with regards to the history of Belfast and moreover, industrialization as a whole. Shipbuilding was one of the major reasons Belfast earned its nickname as the “workshop of the Empire.” The museum included a replica of the 220-foot cranes that workers climbed daily without any safety restraints. The shipbuilders spent over two years building just the tools and infrastructure that were necessary to build ships the size of the Titanic. The building of the Titanic was a testament to human ingenuity, but ultimately a casualty of the same hubristic thought that led to her creation. 

After we had our fill of somber history lessons, we headed over to the local “chippy,” John Long’s Fish Shop, for a traditional fish and chips supper, complete with mushy peas. Stuffed to the gills, we returned to our hostel to rest up for our flight the next morning to Alex’s ancestral homeland, Scotland.