Celts in the City - Part 4
Our visit to Belfast included taking a look at the modern history of the place. So, for clarification, I’m calling the 20th and 21st Centuries “modern,” and this is by no means a complete summation of “The Troubles.”
The underlying history of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland drives back all the way to English attempts to control the island in the 1100s. In those days, Anglo-Norman nobles moved across the Irish Sea and built plantations on the Irish lands, setting up a thousand years worth of friction between the native Irish and the “Old English” descendants of the invaders.
Later, the industrial revolution brought prosperity to the northern counties and Belfast. The linen fabric and ship building industries attracted laborers searching for a way to make a living. The demographic result was two thirds of the population identified themselves as British, and one third that thought of themselves as Irish. The British “Loyalists” suppressed Irish sympathies, and the Irish “Nationalists” complained of oppression and advocated for becoming part of a “Free State.”
The modern “us vs. them” problems originate with the Irish War of Independence from 1919-1921 where the Irish sought to shake off the British domination. At the conclusion of the war, Ireland was divided in two. The larger southern Irish Free State, and Northern Ireland, composed of the economically viable counties around Belfast.
In the middle of the century, the friction turned to demonstrations and marches, and counter-demonstrations and counter-marches. By the 1960s, when the masses of people met, riots ensued. The Royal Ulster Constabulary, and then eventually the British Army, attempted to assert control, adding more parties to the increasingly complicated dispute. During this time, factions and political organizations formed, such as Sinn Fein and the Orange Order. This was followed by paramilitaries like the Irish Republican Army and the Ulster Volunteer Force. Decades of irregular warfare between the various parties ensued and manifest as neighborhood to neighborhood armed violence and terrorism that spread back to England.
Efforts to end the violence took decades. Starting in the 1970s, baricades, and then several “peace walls” were erected between conflicting neighborhoods. Cease-fires were negotiated with some success, but bombings and attacks persisted. In the 1980s, the leaders on both sides agreed that a political solution was the only way out. It wasn’t until 1998 that the Good Friday Agreement set the terms for power-sharing. With some fatal set-backs, the paramilitaies were decommisioned through the early 2000s. In 2007, the counties were finally under the agreed-on local rule. The area has experienced a functional yet fragile peace ever since.
3532 people were killed between 1969 and 2001.
In 2024, our tour of the area was led by a local fellow named Martin. He grew up in Ballymena, a town north of Belfast. About the same age as me, he came of age during the worst of the fighting. He took us into the Falls Road and Shankill neighborhoods to see what “peace” looks like. He said he found the continuing animosity unexplainable and discouraging. Martin also had a thought about America. He said he travels to the states every year, and prays we figure out how to get along with each other better, or our neighborhoods will end up like Belfast.
On the Falls Road side of Belfast's longest wall, the murals depict "Nationalist" causes and issues.
The constant reminders of "The Troubles" means they will never really go away.
To emphasize the complicated nature of the conflict, there are sub-groups with their own agendas. This mural depicts heroes of the INLA that seek to make all of Ireland a "socialist nation."
Crossing through the Howard Street Gate to the Shankill side of the wall, the murals immediately switch to Loyalist themes.
The memories run deep and long. Lord Kitchner, Secretary for War at the outset of WWI was a County Kerry lad.
No Man's Land between the neighborhoods. The 800 meter long "Peace Wall" is imposing. Martin said the Howard Street Gate is still closed every night for security.
If you were uncertain about how fresh the feelings are between the "Loyalist" and "Nationalist," King Charles III took the throne just over a year before this image was captured. I wonder what the king thinks about being a divisive character in the fragile peace?