9/21: The Troubles in Belfast: A Tenuous Peace

Steven and I felt a visit to Belfast wouldn't be complete without learning firsthand about The Troubles and walking through both the Catholic and Protestant sectarian neighborhoods. The Troubles has been described as "an euphemistic folk name that had also been applied to earlier bouts of political violence in Ireland." The name had the advantage that it didn't attach blame to any of the participants and therefore could be used neutrally. Republicans, particularly supporters of the Provisional IRA, referred to the conflict as ‘the war’ and portrayed it as a guerrilla war of national liberation. Unionists and the British government referred to the long running political violence as a law and order problem of ‘terrorism’. The British government in London portrayed the role of state forces as being primarily of peace-keeping between the ‘two communities.'

I remember growing up back in Ottawa, Canada and hearing daily news reports for years about events that transpired on the Catholic Falls Road or the Protestant Shankill Road when there was so much strife between the two groups. Rather than simply walking down both streets, we felt it necessary to take a long walking tour of both areas where the guides were from each religious group and area, and therefore intimately familiar with what we'd see. 

Our first guide was Paul, a former IRA prisoner who spoke from his republican perspective. Right off the bat, he stated the first casualty of The Troubles was the truth and he stressed that what we'd be exposed to was his version of the truth. It was so ironical that during WW I, England was off fighting for small nations and yet here they were occupying a small nation, i.e Ireland! The last time all of the country voted together in an election to elect representatives to Westminster in London was in 1919 prior to the nation's War of Independence. 

Northern Ireland was created in 1920 under the Government of Ireland Act and comprised six northeastern counties of Ireland in the province of Ulster. Importantly, it left out three Ulster counties with large Catholic and nationalist majorities. Northern Ireland’s existence was confirmed under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, that ended the Irish War of Independence. From 1922 until 1972, Northern Ireland functioned as a self-governing region of the United Kingdom based in London. 

The number '32' reflected the number of counties in all of Ireland, with 26 in the Republic of Ireland or what is generally considered 'southern' Ireland, except for the three that are physically located in the north of the country but are not part of Northern Ireland. Confusing, right?!

Significant issues arose when Catholics complained of systematic discrimination in Northern Ireland due to voting irregularities, reduced access to social housing, and that their community was the main target of the Special Powers Act which allowed for detention without trial. In addition, the armed police forces were almost wholly Protestant.

There was also a lack of official recognition of Irish nationality in Northern Ireland because the Irish language and history weren't taught in state schools. The tricolor flag of the Irish Republic was illegal, as was the Irish Republican party, Sinn Fein (from 1956 until 1974), though it organized in Northern Ireland under the names ‘Republican’ or ‘Republican clubs.' 

Paul told us that following the civil rights movement in the US, Catholic student leaders in Northern Ireland wanted equality and an end to discrimination against Catholics. Civil rights agitation from 1968 brought a violent response from the state and loyalists, culminating in severe rioting in August, 1969. On August 14th, 1969, the police fired heavy machine gun rounds at the mainly Catholic Divis Towers flat complex killing a young boy. Paul described the action as "police came into people's homes and shot residents, killing one boy here at Divis Tower." The British Army was deployed to restore order and was initially welcomed by Catholics. Paul stated that soon there were 30,000 British soldiers and 15,000 police in what became a heavily militarized area with many gun battles just 200-300 meters from the city center. People felt, he said, as if they were imprisoned in their own homes. 

By far the worst year of The Troubles was 1972, when 480 people lost their lives beginning with ‘Bloody Sunday’ in Derry in which 14 marchers against internment were shot dead by the British Army. This massacre gave massive impetus to the IRA's militant wing known as republicans. The IRA subsequently conducted military attacks in England, Germany, and southern Ireland where British forces were located. Paul admitted that homemade bombs sometimes defused prematurely which killed locals and innocent people. 

As we walked along Falls Road, the main Catholic street in Belfast, Paul pointed out the murals on the international wall. 

One of the murals referred to the husband of former British Prime Minister Theresa May who was on the Board of a company selling arms to Saudi Arabia. 

Long Kesh was a prisoner-of-war camp outside of Belfast where methods of torture were employed such as white noise and waterboarding. Police regularly went into schools to arrest kids, according to Paul. CR gas was an incapacitating agent used for riot control by the British but its use later stopped because of the severe side effects. Paul commented that all those suffering the effects of the gas will all have died when the truth comes out because of the 100-year secrecy rules concerning the use of the CR gas. 

Inmates at the Maze Prison next to Long Kesh considered themselves prisoners-of-war and not criminals and protested when they were to be afforded no special treatment compared to ordinary criminals. They refused to wash out their cells or to wear prison garb, wearing blankets instead. The protest culminated in the Hunger Strikes of 1981 in which 10 republican prisoners, led by Bobby Sands, starved themselves to death for political status.

Never did Steven or I have a clue that peace was still so tenuous in Belfast that gates close nightly at 7 just off Fall Road, and only re-open each morning. That was a huge 'aha moment' for us as we naively thought that at least some form of peace had been achieved about twenty years ago. The city, Paul explained, was still so divided that the schools, work and even recreation centers were still segregated along religious lines. I was shocked and dumbfounded learning about 80% of Belfast is still segregated to this day. Paul noted that the city never had to deal with tourists and immigrants before fairly recently but didn't explain further what sections of Belfast the latter have chosen to live in, i.e. Catholic or Protestant. 

This was one of the two leisure or recreation centers just 200 meters apart from another one.

The Falls Garden of Remembrance was maintained by the Falls Cultural Society and was built on what Paul described as "stolen land" that hadn't been authorized by the authorities. Maintained by volunteers, the small area of green space was nevertheless never taken down by the same authorities. Paul commented here that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."

Nearby, at the headquarters of the Sinn Fein political party, was the huge mural of Bobby Sands, the famous hunger striker and student activist who gave his life for his beliefs. Paul stated it was one of the ten most photographed murals in the world and that Sands died after 66 days. Family members of Sands and other hunger strikers had to make the terrible decision to follow the strikers' wishes and not allow forced feeding. Ten strikers starved themselves to death for political status. 

The hunger strikes ended up reviving the IRA’s flagging support in the nationalist community and across Ireland. The deaths of the hunger strikers proved their willingness to die and undermined the government's strategy of painting them as apolitical criminals.

There were concrete bollards in front of the Sinn Fein offices because the building had been attacked numerous times. 

As we walked through more of the Catholic community, Paul talked about the 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement which had been secretly negotiated at St. Clonard Monastery. This deal returned self-government to Northern Ireland but stipulated that government must be formed by equal numbers of nationalist and unionist ministers in proportion to their vote. 

The formerly partisan police force was disbanded and replaced by the Police Service of Northern Ireland which had quotas for the proportion of Catholic officers. Under the agreement, unionist and nationalists had to share power and police and state services were reformed. But it was 2007 before the parties could agree on a stable program for self-government. Many of the agreement's provisions have never been enforced, according to Paul.

Paul stated that unionists and loyalists publicly say they want the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to remain. I hadn't realized the border actually ran through city lines and people's homes and that some driveways are divided between the two countries. Where I grew up in Ottawa, there were always two school systems: the public and the Catholic or 'separate school' board. In Belfast, Paul let us know there are four different school systems, with one being 'integrated' for parents who want their children to grow up differently than they had been. 

The people in the lower right were the first to get keys to their new home when this area was rebuilt. 

One of the barricades we saw on our walk with Paul through the Catholic community: 

We stopped for a long while at the Clonard Martyrs Memorial Garden which included names and photos of those Catholics who died during The Troubles. Paul had grown up with some of them and was in the IRA with others. He talked about how he would always identify with the IRA and other oppressed peoples in Palestine, Spain, and elsewhere. 

Paul told how the British used plastic bullets to shoot people in the head and not below the waist as they were intended. He related how his brother-in-law's sister, Norah McCabe, was shot as she came out of a store but the British police said in the inquest she was involved in a raid. However, a Canadian camera crew had seen what had happened so the inquest was cancelled. 

In Paul's opinion, there are underlying tensions and that the peace in Northern Ireland was an imperfect peace. He believed the wall separating the Catholic and Protestant communities should remain up as a reminder of what has happened. 

Paul commented that people of both faiths might meet in Belfast city center but would never gather in each other's homes. He talked briefly how his daughter had Protestant friends, or possibly acquaintances, but it was evident that he clearly didn't. The emotional battle scars from his time in the IRA fighting the Protestants obviously ran very deep still for him, so there was no reason to socialize with those who had been his sworn enemies. 

Our two or so hours with Paul had been engrossing, sad and illuminating, if not necessarily uplifting and hopeful for reconciliation between the Catholics and Protestants in Belfast. I was left to wonder how many more generations it might take before there is greater integration among the people in Belfast.

Paul then walked us a couple of blocks over to meet his Protestant counterpart on our political walking tour of Belfast. To get there, we needed to walk through the gates that would close later that day. The gates forcefully brought home to us how vastly 'apart' the two religious groups still were.

Gary, our Protestant guide, was on the left and Paul was in the middle. Gary told us he, too, had been an ex-prisoner but didn't go into details. He said he had a different interpretation of what transpired in The Troubles and that he would he relay information from the Loyalist perspective and that it wouldn't be a propaganda exercise. It was important to realize no one had a monopoly on pain and suffering in what had transpired. 

Not five minutes earlier we'd just been on the opposite side of this mammoth wall. At the bottom was a solid concrete wall but projectiles could still be lobbed over, so a second corrugated fence was added and finally that was topped with even higher fencing so nothing could be tossed over from either side. Gary said 69% of the people when surveyed didn't want the fence to come down and they weren't yet willing for peace. 

Gary mentioned he was here in August of 1969 and witnessed an insurrection, just days after the Londonderry riots in which 14 protesters were killed by the British. The first IRA 'man' to be killed here by the Loyalists was just 15 years old, Gary said, and had joined the junior wing of the republican community. The boy had been toting what looked like a gun from this side, Gary said, and he was therefore seen as a combatant.

There was one door in the wall which was only opened when the Dalai Lama came to Belfast ten years ago. It has since been welded shut never to be opened again, according to Gary. 

This lower fence was seen as a buffer zone for the residents, Gary indicated. How absolutely 'normal' and attractive the neighborhood looked from what we could see. Never would we have thought it was mere feet from a barricade separating two religious groups. 

The Shankill Road, from Irish meaning "old church," was one of the main roads leading through west Belfast and ran through the working-class, predominantly loyalist, area known as the Shankill. As we began walking along it, the sight of the British Union Jacks everywhere was startling at first. There was no doubt that we were in Loyalist territory. 

I found the following words on a sign very moving and certainly apropos for one on either side of the conflict: 

With courage and vision you will dare to take risks, 
Have the strength to be compassionate, 
And the wisdom to be humble. 
Courage is the foundation of integrity. 

Gary told us the Red Hand Commandos was a paramilitary organization and the smallest from the Loyalist perspective. The three men pictured were the most prominent in the ceasefire deliberations with the Catholics. 

The red hand symbol represented the ancient province of Ulster and, for the loyalists or unionists, was a potent sign of the political entity of Northern Ireland, the Ulster Volunteer Force. 

Noted author Rudyard Kipling, a big supporter of the Loyalists, wrote the following poem. Click on the photo to make it easier to read. 

Gary pointed out the site of the first no-warning bomb by the IRA on Shankill Road. The attack took place at a bar full to capacity where people because of a football (i.e. North American soccer) match nearby. When two men were killed, the working class community sought retribution, according to Gary.  

The poppy cross and plaque marked the spot of the bombing. 

Just down the street was the Shankill Graveyard where the first Christian church in what was to become Belfast was built. In the 1880s, the main gates of Shankill Graveyard became the end point for horse trams traveling up the Shankill and Woodvale roads. With typical Belfast humor, it was called 'the end of the line' although now known as the Shankhill Garden of Rest. Tradition has it that St. Patrick founded a church here some time around the 5th century. An 8th century Bishop's Crozier or staff found was evidence of the site's long ecclesiastical connections.

St. Matthew's Church was quite unique as it was built in the shape of a shamrock with its spire built like a Round Tower like we'd viewed so often in the Republic. The mounting stone, discovered in 1911, came from the site of the old church that dated to 500 AD and had been used to get onto a horse. 

Further along Shankill was the site of another bombing that took place on Grand National Day, where many people had gathered to watch the big horse race in pubs. Gary said a car arrived, the gunmen opened fire and a bomb was also planted at the exit where many people ran to. Note another poppy cross on the building. He emphasized that neither side had a monopoly on sectarianism - it wasn't a one-way street. 

The Shankill Somme Association was dedicated to those Protestant Irishmen who died in the Battle of the Somme in France during WW I. The association was for the Ulster Volunteer Force and members of the 36th Ulster Division 'who fought valiantly in the First World War." 

I wish I had thought of asking Gary the meaning of this particularly disturbing mural when we saw it.

Gary mentioned this was the only mural along Shankhill Road that portrayed men carrying arms. He pointed out one of the guns was an AK-47 even though that weapon wasn't even present them. None of these were killed by Republicans but by premature explosions or killed by different sections of the army. 

The sign on an otherwise innocuous looking bank indicated the poppy cross "was in memory of the nine victims murdered at the spot by a no-warning sectarian IRA bomb attack on Frizzell's Fish Shop on October 23, 1993."  A plaque said "nine innocent souls" lost their lives and many more were injured when "a terrorist bomb exploded." 

Gary said the bombing was the most infamous one and that it it happened on a busy Saturday morning when men dressed as deliverymen in white coats placed the bomb on the counter and lit the short fuse. People furiously began digging amid the burning debris looking for survivors. The man who found one man alive only to discover later it was one of the two bombers was so distraught, he couldn't live with himself and never returned to Belfast.

Just down the street and through was the attractive gate was Shankhill Memorial Park. The park was laid to honor and pay tribute to the men and women of the Shankhill who died during the First and Second World wars and subsequent conflicts. The central grassy area had two seasonal flower beds. 

It was so sad to learn that 658 people died within just five kilometers of this spot, an indication of how concentrated the area of violence was. 

Gary explained locals believe that if the park's peace lamp ever goes out, peace in Belfast is over. 

A new mural had recently been unveiled on Shankill Road, in memory of three well respected members of the Greater Shankill community, one of whom was murdered in April of 1987. 

Still more people died at the site of the next pub or as the sign said, "five innocent Protestants were murdered."

Another sign at the same location said a "Sinn Fein/IRA sectarian killer was responsible for the murder and mutilation of the innocent civilians where we were standing. I am accustomed to their being a prayer chain at my local church for those in need but the Bayardo Somme Association went a huge step further requesting that "If you know of someone or have had a relative murdered by Sinn Fein/IRA, put your name and contact details in the box below." The word 'murdered' seemed highly inflammatory to me, even given the circumstances.

The second half of our political tour of Belfast ended here. Both Steven and I were disappointed by our guide in that the second half of the walking tour was largely a stroll past the sites that had been bombed by the IRA and was therefore something we could have done ourselves. Gary did little to add to our knowledge and understanding of The Troubles, and gave no sense of where his Protestant community might be in the years ahead. For me, there was too much recitation of the horrific deeds perpetrated by the IRA and I had hoped for more than that. Furthermore, there was no mention of the British participation in the conflict by Gary which Steven and I both was critical to having a complete understanding of The Troubles. However, the three plus hour tour was utterly absorbing and essential, in our minds, on any trip to Belfast. 

Unlike any of the many, many walking tours we've been on all around the world, Gary left us 'high and dry' having to make our own way back to the city center without any directions as he ran out of time, he said, to finish the tour. It was all rather bizarre. As it was lunchtime, we had a bite to eat at the very heavily barricaded KFC on Shankill Road. Neither of us felt comfortable hanging around there as you might imagine. We remarked later that walking around both Falls and Shankill roads made us think of our time exploring Sarajevo several years ago and the tragic events that befell that city.

Next post: Discovering a very,very charming side to Belfast later that day.

Posted on November 5th, 2019, from what looked like another gorgeous fall day through our study window while I was glued to the computer!