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| Port of Call-Belfast,Northern Ireland -June 28th and 29th |
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| Enjoying our first evening at a cultural festival at the St. George Market |
For all the earth we covered, looking for the story
that would move us, the experience that would show us a genuine side
of conflict-jaded life, it was to be found in a small second-story
room in a Loyalist neighborhood of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Maybe
our image of the conflict in Northern Ireland, because of its relationship
with Great Britain, relative economic wealth, perhaps ingrained racial
or ethnic assumptions or its proximity to the Centerof the Anglo-Saxon
western civility, before we arrived somehow didn't quite measure equally
to the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, the Middle East or in places
outside of the West where an association with poverty or conflict
comes more easily. If so, for the Global University-International
Student tour that went to places off the tourist map for good reason,
this mistaken assumption was surly set straight. |
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| Our host Joy taught us much about why the conflict between people still runs so deep, and how alongside so much desire for an end to violence, there is still a long way to go to solving the fundamental issues
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The second-story room was part of the offices of Prisoners' Aid, located on the infamous Shankill Rd., a staunchly Loyalist and Protestant area in North Belfast where various flags and colors of red, bule and white were everywhere. As our host Joy explained, the organization helps bring Loyalist fighters whose spent time in prison back into society through education, job training and counseling for themselves and their families on the outside. But in the comfortable, well lived-in room decorated with Loyalist fighters and spirit, she told us her side of the story; losing family to the conflict, almost losing her own life and how the people they help do not have to deal with what they did to land in jail, as it was all in the name of defending themselves from the other side. Maybe it was because she didn't discuss her work and feelings about the conflict as we had expected to hear it, from the perspective of an NGO run by people who made progress in transcending the conflict, that it came out much more real, personal, straightforward and slightly shocking. Peace Boat's host and partner Phillip Whyte, working for the Ballynafeigh Community Development Association (www.bcda.net), assured us that what we heard here and in all the places we visited that the same kind of stories and work could be found on both sides. |
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| Listening to four people in the Stormont Building who came a long, long way to sit together at the same table. It made a powerful impression to hear former combatants say that no matter what the goals, means of violence were no longer an option |
Our two-day itinerary began with the Stormont Government building, where a power-sharing government formed by parties from both sides of the conflict is in the early stages of learning to communicate and cooperate with each other. Inside of the ornately decorated building built of Portland Stone by the British Government in 1931 sat four representatives or leaders of political parties from Sinn Fein and the Social Democratic Labor Party on the Republican side and the Ulster Unionist and Progressive Unionist Parties on the Loyalist side. As it was made clear that such a meeting would have been unimaginable only a few years ago, these four people, including our official host in the building, Monica McWilliams of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, represented the larger peace process, where the sides, though openly disagreeing each other, still came together now, sharing the belief that violence was not an option anymore. |
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| A wall symbolizing separation, cutting communities in half |
After lunch of meat, potatoes and Guinness, we headed off to a community center located in a lower-class Catholic neighborhood next to a Peace Wall and interface In the neighborhood of small slightly run-down brick town houses, vacant lots and loitering young people we could see that economics is not absent as a factor in the conflict in Northern Ireland. The community center aimed to help neighborhood families in with babysitting, sports activities for kids, various kinds of education from business to computers and whatever might possibly be provided in a time of need. Conspicuously standing over the community center was a Peace Wall on which in a mural was written Breaking Barriers. The area separated by the Peace Wall was known as an Interface In other words, like we would see throughout Belfast in the following day, the wall was erected to keep separated communities where violence often broke out, thus the term Interface. The ironic and evasive vocabulary gave hint to the depth that violence and conflict has become a part of society and life. |
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| After two days of serious study of the conflict, it was very nice to get into the center of the city where there is little sign of conflict and dance with the local people down the street |
Our first day finished with a festival at St. George Market, featuring dancing and music from Peace Boat Participants and our Northern Irish hosts before the Global University students went off with families that would host them for the night. After visiting another Peace Wall divided interface area the next day, the group joined many other Peace Boat participants to walk in the That Hat parade, the theme being extravagantly-themed costumes and hats of all sorts and sizes along with music, dancing and general merry-making. It was a great way to finish off what was surly one of the most memorable stops on this 37th world cruise, if not in Peace Boat's history. During our time we were able to meet and talk to people and organizations on both sides of the conflict as well as those standing in the middle, trying to bring the two sides together. Much appreciation and thanks goes to the Phillip Whyte and the Ballynafeigh Community Development Association (www.bcda.net) who was responsible for opening our eyes to Belfast and Northern Ireland.
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| Peace Boat's
37th Voyage |
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PEACE BOAT is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. |
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