"The Troubles" with a guide

I am not going to try to recount the history of "The Troubles" in Ireland which were basically from the late '60's to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. We learned the history dating back to 1607 when the political issues arose.

We visited Ireland in 1972 during some of the worst fighting and can remember coming out of the Dublin airport and seeing the sign "Belfast 95 miles". It seemed so close. It has been great to return to a more peaceful Ireland but not nearly as peaceful as I had thought.

We toured the area of Belfast known as the Shankill where most of the bombings took place and the 40' "peace wall" was erected to keep loyalists (English) and Republicans (Irish) apart. There are huge gates such as we saw in the Warsaw Ghetto and other places that are STILL closed at night.

These gates are closed at night and monitored by cameras. Some are MUCH larger

A house on the Catholic side with barriers against stones thrown from the other side.

Murals have become an art form of political expression of both sides. The picture above is a copy of the original picture below showing how some of the more violent ones have been altered.

This house has been called the Gold Rush because it was owned by an elderly Jewish couple. The man died and then his wife had alzheimers and the large amount of gold buried in their home was not found until it was rebuilt.

Typical houses in the Catholic section.

One of many murals

Large sections of the wall are filled with signatures of people who visit. They are painted over every year. I had trouble finding a place to sign. The Dalai Lama visited and signed. Above is what he wrote: "Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values" There is als the quote from kahlil gibran "Your neighbor is your other self dwelling behind a wall."

Some of the names in the memorial garden near the wall. Note the 4 and 5 year old girls.

We noticed that Catholic cemeteries are full of Celtic crosses. Protestants have mostly very plain slabs

May this little girl grow up without bombs and stray bullets.

Catholic Church on border of protestant neighborhood. There was an attempt to bomb it recently

Door of the church

Inside the church

Streets are divided also

May it be so

During July is what they call "The Marching Season" for protestants. Orangeman's day is July 12 but they take a season and parade regularly and sometimes they go into the Catholic neighborhoods and sometimes the Catholic's follow the parade and it can get dicey. They each sing the songs they made up during "The Troubles" This one was when a whole battalion was incarcerated and refused to wear prison uniforms - choosing to wrap naked in a blanket in their cells.

"I'll wear no convicts uniform, nor meekly serve my time that Britain might make Ireland's fight 800 years of crime"