Thoughts of an American on the Walls in Belfast

Thoughts on "the wall" in Belfast by an American:

For those who don't already know, there are walls in Belfast and other Northern Irish cities and towns.

The Interface Walls demarcate the separated housing of the Protestant-Unionist- Loyalist community from the Catholic-Republican-Nationalist community.  The walls grew out of the barriers of debris that were established during the height of the Troubles in 1969 when both sides wanted to keep those from the other side who were bent on violence from entering their communities. These debris walls were originally reinforced by barb wire by the British military units which came into Northern Ireland. The government calls them Peace Walls to emphasize the security the walls impose.

The walls vary in size and construction material. They are all substantial and do block movement. The tallest ones prevent bottles, stones, etc. from being thrown over.

These walls cut off many streets that formerly were complete. There are large metal gates at certain larger streets which are sometimes open during the day and closed at night.  There are other streets where there are both large metal gates and narrower pedestrian gates.  Most days the pedestrian gates are open to foot traffic, but have restricted and crooked paths through the openings which prevent motorcycles and scooters from speeding through so those devices cannot be used for quick getaways from assassinations or other violence.

The large metal gates at certain locations can be opened for parades which celebrate victories of one community over the other, in battles centuries ago.

Where there isn't a physical wall such as out in the rural areas, there are invisible but clearly known lines between the communities.

Approximately 1,300 families or individuals were forced to move in Belfast in 2009 because of threats, intimidation, and violence for living too close or within an area where one side or the other thought they shouldn't live.

Rather than walls being taken down over the decades, more walls were constructed until as late as 2010. Politicians used wall construction to garner good will and votes from the community they support.

Both communities have community safety as their prime concern, but there are empty properties on the Protestant-Unionist-Loyalist side in Belfast and every property is occupied in the Catholic-Republican-Nationalist side.  Many from the Catholic-Republican-Nationalist community are on wait lists for housing.

Some residents we spoke with said many residents don't feel the walls are necessary except during the marching season.  Tensions escalate during marching season, and people feel the walls prevent gangs of one community or the other from venturing into the opposite community bent on intimidation or violence, especially at night.

Our Volunteers In Mission group experienced the aggravating side of the gates and walls when we stayed past 9 PM at a Protestant church. visiting after a service.  The gate we wanted to use to get back to our hotel, which essentially is in a Catholic area, was closed and we had to walk to another gate which was still open.

At the session about the five decades affected by the Troubles, we were told about a family that owned a house which was on the interface early in the development of the walls. They used to let their friends from the opposite community through the "wall" by having them pass through the house. So there have always been those who understood the separation of communities was unnatural.

Thinking about all the aspects of the walls, from the perspecitive of an American and as a practical person with an idealistic bent, it has been easy for me to focus on how the walls need to be removed as part of the reconciliation process.  Still, the walls are also a manifestation of the deeper problems.

One of the youth workers at the Forthspring Community Center said something which put my attitude and the entire problem in a new perspective. He said, "If we could magically remove the physical walls in the city, it likely wouldn't solve anything, until the walls in peoples hearts are dissolved."

Whiterock Parade in Belfast

I've been informed through a personal report, and media coverage, the Whiterock Parade in West Belfast went off peacefully on Saturday, June 26, 2011. This was in contrast to during the 2005 Whiterock Parade when Molotov cocktails and blast bombs were thrown at police.

In the intervening years, the Whiterock parade has remained contentious between the Orangemen marchers and nationalist residents of the Springfield Road. The Parades Commission had placed restrictions on the route. Approximately 50 Orangemen, consisting of Orange Order No. 9 district officers and members of the Whiterock lodge, were allowed to cross the interface wall on Workman Avenue to march on to the mainly nationalist Springfield Road.

The other approximately 850 march participants were re-routed through the former Mackies Factory site to join the Springfield Road at West Circular Road and proceeded back to West Belfast Orange hall.

Reportedly, approximately 80 nationalist residents and protestors held a peaceful protest as the parade passed by on the Springfield Road. Signs saying “Loyalist threats work” and “Nationalists have a right to protest outside their own homes” were held by the nationalists, however there was no violence.

Police praised marchers and protesters for their responsible approach.

Assistant Chief Constable Alistair Finlay said, "The parade passed off without serious incident and that is largely due to a lot of hard work that went on beforehand behind the scenes."

Regarding the overall mood, many of both the republicans and nationists were very upset with the recent violence in Belfast and Derry (or Londonderry) which they felt was brought about by gangs. In general people were not going to allow the gangs to continue. There seems to be a sense of more cooperation from both sides.
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Rory McIlroy Says Northern Ireland Deserves Peace

Indigenous and Settler People in Ireland

On a Monday May 10, 2010 our Volunteer In Missions group met at 3 pm with Reverend Harold Good who is a Winner of the World Methodist Peace Prize and was involved in decommissioning of IRA weapons. This is the fifth in a series relating his talk. In the prior blog posting we learned of the how Reverend Good and his congregation kept their church open for all denominations when there was a serious rumor something bad would happen in the Shankill Road neighborhood. Next we heard about stumbling blocks and stepping stones, in the history of indigenous and settler people in Ireland:

Our lives are filled with stumbling blocks and stepping stones – the stumbling blocks in Ireland are its history . The history of Ireland is a story of two peoples trying to share the same land. At this basic level, it is a fairly familiar story around the world, as well as part of the history in America. There are an indigenous people and a settler people. In the case of Ireland, the settler people coming from Scotland and England, and the indigenous people being the native people of Ireland before the settlers came. Each of these people having their respective distinctive cultures and traditions. The settler people being mainly Protestant, mainly Presbyterian and Episcopal. The indigenous people being Catholic. Those are their distinctive traditions.

It's too simple to say it is Catholic and Protestant. For many of the people involved in the conflict, and for many of the people involved in the violence, Church is far removed from their agenda, let alone their understanding of Christian faith. Someone who might state they are fiercely Protestant, perhaps hasn't been in Church since they were baptized at all. Also, there are Catholics who adhere to their Church nominally who didn't adhere to their Church or to the teachings of their Pastors about violence, and may do quite the opposite of those teachings. So it is too simple to say it is Catholic and Protestant.

What people are saying is that Catholic represents the Nationalist, indigenous, Catholic people of Ireland. And Protestant represents the settler people. When there was conflict over land, there was said to be conflict between Catholic and Protestant, in a shorthand way of referring to the sides.

That is not to say that religion has not been used. He already spoke of the Protestant clergyman who said it was okay to take tea together but not to pray together. Religion has been used by the Church leaders in the past to add to the conflict. Certainly, among the Protestants it was not considered wise to be too close to the Catholics who were so lost in their beliefs. The Catholic Church once had the position that Catholics cannot go the weddings or funerals of Protestants. They weren't to go into a Protestant Church. And it is wrong to marry a Protestant, and if you do, the children must be raised Catholic. All of that contributes to suspicion, division, and fear, and this very quickly can turn into hatred. On the other hand, a Church which has as a statement of belief that the Pope is the anti-Christ or Satan, as the Protestants once did, that doesn't do much for building good relations, does it?

It all gets mixed up. On the one hand we want to say it has much more to do with territory than theology, it has much more to do with culture than with creed. That's true! But on the other hand that religion has been used as a wedge to put suspicion and fear between people. And its gone unchallenged by the Churches, largely, and they allowed it to brew. They allowed people like Mr. Paisley to build their empires upon that kind of fear and suspicion.

Whether it's America or South Africa or Ireland, the settlers tend to have the feeling they are a chosen people. The Protestants in Ireland will tell you they have a responsibility because this is the land that God gave them. You may think that's ignorant. Reverend Good was in Texas recently he noticed on the breakfast table a little carton. It was from the Promised Land Dairy. There was a quotation from Deuteronomy (26:9), “He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey;”

We all have to think about how our religion, our biblical journey has impacted upon our politics. That is what has happened in Ireland. The Irish don't have a dairy called The Promised Land Dairy, but there are people who think this is the land that God gave them and that nobody can challenge that. They feel they have a right to be here and they had a right to take somebody else's land because it was God who gave it to them. (For those who don't know, the northern province of Ireland, called Ulster, was colonized, to use a neutral term, by peoples from Great Britain, mostly from Scotland, where they originally moved mostly into unoccupied areas, after the Flight of the Earls. This colonization took place in the 1600s.)

In 1922 the indigenous people wanted to become independent of Great Britain and came to be called Republicans as they were committed to a new republic. They happened to be mostly (Roman) Catholic. The settlers wanted to stay in union with Great Britain and came to be called Unionists as they wanted to stay in union. They were mostly Protestant. The simple seeming solution in 1922 was to draw a line and say those south of this line would be in an independent republic and those north would stay in a relationship with Great Britain. But the populace wasn't so neatly divided; therein lies the recipe for continued conflict.

This talk is continued at a blog posting entitled "First Stepping Stones to Peace In Ireland".