Belfast

Two weeks and I'll be jumping back over that big pond called the Atlantic. My time in Ireland is coming to an end quickly. Sometimes it's hard to comprehend that I have only known these people for a few short months, and that soon I will not be spending everyday with them. I know after the program is over that we will all keep in touch, but it still won't be the same as the time we have spent together here in Ireland. I know that sometimes they drive me completely insane and I want to be alone for awhile. But I can honestly say that I will miss them and I'm sad that it's almost over.
Now I'm done with the sappy stuff. This past weekend we went on a field trip to Northern Ireland. This was my favorite field trip by far. Everything that we have learned about in history we actually got to see where it took place. Belfast is the only part of Northern Ireland that I'm going to spend talking about in this blog post. Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland. And In Belfast there is murals all over the city that depict things that have happened through the history of Northern Ireland. And 30 years ago it was in the middle of a civil war. And to this day you can drive through the city and see the divide between Protestants (unionists-want to be apart of the United Kingdom) and Catholics (nationalists-who want a reunited Ireland), and I took a Black Taxi Tour, which specializes in showing people about what is now called "The Troubles." The Troubles were mainly between a group called the UVF Ulster Volunteer Force and the IRA Irish Republican Army.

Bobby Sands 

We drove thru Protestant neighborhoods that flew the British flags flying everywhere, and as we drove thru Catholic neighborhoods we saw the Ireland flag flying. It was so bad that the city has to have walls between each neighborhood and that they lock the gates into the neighborhoods and that there is only one way in and out after 9 at night. And houses that are near the wall have anti-grenades cages over the houses, because in the 70's-80's people would throw grenades over the wall and it would kill people. This was such an eye opening experience to me. Even though there hasn't been any major violence since 1994 they still keep the wall and gates in place, because all it would take is one bomb or one attack and it could all break out again.

While on the tour we saw a lot of murals. A lot of them were political themed, some were memorials to people who have killed, and some to the people who did the killing of those people. One of the major murals that stood out to me was one of Bobby Sands. Bobby Sands was an activist who was in prison and went on a hunger strike, eventually got elected to the United Kingdom parliament while in prison, and finally passed away while on hunger strike. There is more to it that even I don't know. But it was had a very strong message. One mural that we saw on our tour was of Stevie "TopGun" McKeag. On his mural he has 17 red poppies because he was given a task of killing 17 Catholics that were employed by the government. He is idolized by Protestants and they celebrate him every year on the day that he died, even though he killed all those people in cold blood.It honestly made my stomach turn that people would see him as a hero. Belfast has a complex history and I enjoyed it, but it is a very sad city.