Happy International Peace Day

Today was an interesting day where a lot of different elements of my life in Belfast came together.

Falls Road Peace Wall

I took the number 10 bus up the Falls and hopped off by the International Peace Wall on the Falls Road, adorned by images of struggles across the world from Basque country to the Palestinian movement to equality movements in the United States. It's one peaceline that I find myself visiting often because of its tourist draw and its proximity to other projects I've been involved with.

Cupar Way Wall

For the Shankill community the Cupar's Way murals reflect similar images of international struggles uniting Belfast to the world. It was in this part of the city where I did a great deal of research during the year of my MA and made a number of memories that make me smile when I walk down the road.

Between the Falls and Shankill, which run parallel to one another, there is a linking route called Northumberland Street that is controlled by two large access gates. It was on this spot in Augut of 1969 where the most violent inter-community violence took place in the streets leading to the emergency erection of barriers. Busses, burning cars, and furniture were used by civilians as make-shift blockades to defend one community from the other. Overtime these types of blockades were fortified creating the normalised use of physical barriers to manage physical violence in Belfast. It was here where the new mural, created in honour of International Peace Day, would be unveiled.

I walked in between the barriers through a pedestrian entrance way and saw a big red hop on hop off bus acting as a cover to the mural (as it would have been £700 to hide the image behind a sheet). Community worker Jackie Redpath introduced journalist Ivan Lyttle who introduced the mural.They spoke of the violence of the Troubles that had led to the creation of the walls. They spoke of the long history of intercommunal strife during which time the place where we stood was a dangerous hotspot.

In order to remember the past in a positive way and promote a peaceful future, this mural was made up of photographs that marked the glory of neighbourhood and connected the two separate traditions of the Falls and the Shankill together. In the middle of the mural in large letters read 'IMAGINE', designed from the images themselves, looking optomistically at what the cooepration of these two legacies and these two groups could produce.

At this event there were 2 interviewees from my dissertation, my first ever mentor in community work, and a girl I worked with at the call centre. They had been brought together, uniting for me so many different elements of my life here, all at the peaceline.

Later that evening I finished the book Trinity by Leon Uris that I re-read for the first time in years. It meant so much more to me after having lived in Belfast and in Northern Ireland for these past years. The book speaks of the communal division, the working class people of Belfast, and the struggle for many different types of equality and justice from 1898 to 1915. It also spoke of a legacy of industrialism, the passion of people, and the potentials for the future. All of these themes, both positive and negative, followed me throughout my day.

The memory of the past, both positive and that slightly darker together with the ongoing efforts for peace define this amazing city I love so much. It is with these different elements of conflict, working class roots, human genius and lasting peace that Belfast will continue forward.