On the 40th Day of Protest

                                 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making an Olympic Truce

 

Olympic Rings at Belfast City Hall and Tower Bridge, London 2012

We're sitting here watching event after event on the dozens of free channels BBC added for the Olympics. Belfast has been abuzz since the torch passed through town nearly 2 months ago. On the odd sunny day the lawn in front of the City Hall is covered with spectators and sunbathers watching the games on the big screen. The games have been so exciting and it's particularly enjoyable to watch live in the right time-zone.

 

There have been a few larger scale events with spectacular light shows and fire works, such as the Land of Giant's at the Titanic slipways at the end of June, which featured acrobatics to tell stories from Belfast. The atmosphere was absolutely electric and added nicely to the series of free events taking place across Northern Ireland for 2012 'Our Time Our Place.'

What has been particularly interesting during the London 2012 Festival has been the dedication to the 'Olympic Truce,' a tradition revived from ancient Greece by the International Olympic Committee in 1992 and ratified by the UN in 1993. The integral spirit of friendship and peace during Olympic times has been actualised this year in a number of projects, a few of which I was able to take part in. 

On 21 July at Trafalger Square a series of musicians from Europe played a concert as part of the BT River of Music. Amira from Sarajevo and the 10 man band of musicians from different countries across the Balkans called REKA reflected this idea of the Olympic Truce through the musical mixing of individual musicians and styles from different parts of a deeply divided region. Amira spoke herself about the importance of this band, but it wasn’t until they started to play that I was able to understand how truly beautiful a moment it was. 

 

It was the second time REKA had played together, and it was an absolute delight to experience. The songs were extremely emotive love ballads ranging from joyous wedding tunes to lamentations of loss. It was the universality of these emotions that brought their styles and traditions together across the region and indeed among all those listening to the concert from different parts of the world. It was a concert of transcendence, beyond language and beyond conflict.

On a similar trend, back in Belfast an art installation called 'Ambulatorio' opened at a contentious interface barrier in North Belfast. Colombian artist, Oscar Muñoz, internationalised a local issue of segregation and division by designing a piece of work to highlight 'the commonality of loss and remembrance.' This art piece is part of the larger 'Drawing Down the Walls' project where community groups and artists work together to 'imagine a city without barriers.' 

The exhibit was made up of a jumbled aerial view of North Belfast, laid out under cracked glass and another strong layer of glass for visitors to walk over. This location just off the Crumlin Road was an area which experienced high levels of violence in the 70s and 80s beside the Flax Street Mills, which led to the construction of secured gates and high fences in 1994. 

For over 3 weeks these gates were opened each day for 4 hours to allow residents and visitors to walk through the exhibit. This piece of art transformed a buffer zone of wasted space into a safe and shared cultural space, which connected the experiences from Belfast to other conflicts around the world including the drug-related violence of Colombia that inspired Muñoz's first ever 'Ambulatorio' exhibit. People travelled from different parts of the city to experience this piece of art, drawing attention to the reality of interface division in Belfast for many people who have turned a blind eye to the legacy of segregation in Belfast and to others who are very familiar with interfaces across the city and who are happy to see one more positive story receiving international attention.

The concert at Trafalger Square and the 'Ambulatorio' art exhibit were great successes in the name of the Olympic Truce in that they made real efforts to bring people together in peaceful and constructive ways. In addition to the great competitions, the cultural events, and the general excitement of the 2012 Olympic Games, these special events are a testament to the ongoing efforts to promote change and internationalise important issues of conflict.

 

Keep 'er lit

'Architectural Feat'

Just back in from watching the bonfires burning brightly across the city from a high look out point in East Belfast. When we first arrived the sky was a beautiful blue and pink colour. The first thing we noticed were the fireworks, which seemed to be coming from South Belfast. This year we arrived in the perfect time to watch the bonfires light, one after the other, glowing as far as the eye could see, with. huge cheers of 'YEOOOO' with each new flame. The fires lit one by one until the light blue of the sky was blacked out by smoke and smog.The sky smelled so wonderful, as comforting as a fresh fire in the chimney on a crisp wintry day. 

Some of the other spectators were very impressed by the structural engineering and colour coordinated design of the pallets, ohhing and ahhing that 'tha people tha built this shud be architects!' I'm not sure I'm as dedicated a believer, but  the atmosphere was intoxicating in a way.


I was so excited each time a new bonfire was lit that I almost forgot what was burning and why.

In tradition the bonfires were lit to help guide the Williamite troops into battle. A battle which in today's memory was fought between the Catholics under King James II and the Protestants under King William III, or more endearingly, King Billy. The 12th is the celebration of the Protestant victory. Oftentimes bonfires are placed in contentious areas as a marking of territory and an affirmation of Protestant-Unionist-Loyalist (PUL) presence.

Just as the historical details of these battles have become simplified and re-created to support the important stories and myths perpetuated by both communities, it is very possible to transform the significance of a holiday or memory. While many bonfires are exclusive and can be somewhat intimidating, there are cross-community bonfires where they play Irish music side by side with the familiar flute tunes and all are welcome.

 It's very easy for me to imagine a time when these celebrations will be for everyone. Each event that becomes less politically charged and passes by with less difficulty is a small victory for all people of Northern Ireland.

As we drove back we passed some of the fires, still burning brightly, I couldn't help but think to myself that over time this idea of 'Orangefest' may actual be possible...

View of bonfires burning across East Belfast, 11 July 2012 close to midnight

Happy Orangefest

The bonfires are all neatly stacked and now it's just a waiting game for the sun to go down!

Olympic Rings adorning City Hall and the Orangefest Banner 'Open for shopping and celebration'! 2012 NI Our Time Our Place. 10 July 2012.

 'Sectarianism It hasn't gone away' electoral posters ready to burn on the Cluan Place bonfire in East Belfast. 11 July 2012.

 Titanic Yardmen and the Pitt Park bonfire, Lower Newtownards Road. 5 July 2012.

Titanic Town

This is an amazing time to live in Belfast. The energy brought to this city from the buzz around the Titanic Experience has impacted tourism, community development, and the quality of life for residents. 

It's been a controversial opening. The new centre was £90 million, an extreme budget for an overtaxed economy. The view of many is why celebrate the greatest maritime disaster known to man? Hardland and Wolff operated in a time of high sectarian tension and ingrained and sustained division is synonomous with the shipyards (See plays 'Over the Bridge' and 'Dockers'). The anniversary of the Titanic we all celebrate, 2012, is the same year the Ulster Covenant was signed, a year of torment in the face of Home Rule. But this rhetoric should not define the way Belfast views this great new opportunity for the city. 


 On Sunday the 1st of April we walked alongside 1,000 men, women and children dressed as shipworkers and headed to the docks. Aside from the fact I was ignorantly wearing bright yellow, it was such an amazing feeling to see a Bowel Cancer Awareness campaign generate such civic pride. The celebrations beside Titanic with local musicians, Titanic flavoured Tayto and Titanic branded tea, and a thousand of Belfast's children and grandchildren of shipbuilding created such a force of positive energy for the city.

While waiting for the walk to begin we congregated in Pitt Park on the Lower Newtownards Roads, an interface community with one of the highest levels of social deprivation in all of Belfast. Last June this was a site of some of the most contentious rioting for years and it is the location of the most recent violence of the Troubles in 2002. The backdrop most media outlets chose for the fighting was a re-imaged mural of the Titanic- 'Ship of Dreams,' which always seemed so ironic and potentially damaging to the year of Titanic to come. It has not deterred the thousands of visitors from around the world flocking to Belfast for the opening and centennary. A new installation of Yardmen has been built in this area, attracting dozens of busses and taxis down the Newtownards Road each day.


These types of installations are promoting tourism into new interfaces, not just the Peace Wall at Shankill/Falls. They are opening up opportunities for local businesses, such as the newly renamed 'Titanic Fish and Chips' shop. The Newtownards Road, like the Shankill, was historically a bustling road with thriving businesses. It will take continued regeneration and development of this area for East Belfast to market from its new found Titanic fame, but the cultural legacy of ship-building gives it a framework by which Inner-East Belfast and the Lower Newtownards Road may promote itself.


 Last night there was a Titanic Lightshow. Through light technology the different processes of shipbuilding were projected onto the building telling a story of the life, death, and rebirth of the Titanic. As a free event supported by Belfast City Council, this was a perfect night out for the families of Belfast. If 10 years ago you told someone the docks were going to be a massive tourist attraction and thousands would flock to Albert Quay for an event, I'd like to hear the response. Today, the city is opening up more sections of itself and regenerating the cultural identity of Belfast.

This year, 'Our Time, Our Place' as the marketing campaign goes, has done more than attract tourists. It's taken another step closer to Belfast realising its fullest potentials for cultural, economic, and political regeneration. I moved to this city to study a post-conflict society. What I'm getting is a lesson in building any society. The same buzz that attracted me to Belfast on my first visit 4 years ago still gets me everytime I leave the house and look at Cave Hill or the H&W cranes. Now, I have one more iconic symbol of this city I love so much, and that's the Titanic Belfast.

The Price of Peace

In 2008 New York Mayor Bloomberg spoke at a Northern Ireland Investment Conference discussing upcoming potentials for US investment into the 'new Belfast' saying, 

The fact is, the best and brightest don‘t want to live in a city defined by division. They don‘t want to live behind walls….The historic cultural barriers between the two communities are slowly coming down, and the sooner they do—and the sooner the physical barriers come down too—the sooner the floodgates of private investment will open.

In the same year Tony MaCaulay, Belfast born writer, consultant and community worker wrote a position paper outlining a process for bringing down the walls in Northern Ireland, identifying community-engagement approaches and specific to this discussion here, a 'tipping-point' by which the walls coming down would be of more benefit to the residents living beside the walls than the walls standing tall (http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/segregat/docs/macaulay200708.pdf).

So I wonder, what comes first? Foreign investment to catalyse the 'tipping point' or bringing down the walls to promote foreign investment?

Just a couple hours drive from Belfast lies Derry/Londonderry, or 'the stroke city,' home to different demographic dynamics than Belfast but rife with many similar issues- peace lines, historic walls, and deep seated divisions. This year a £13.4 million 'peace bridge' was built across the River Foyle connecting the divided water-side to the city-side, two parts of the city divided not only by water but also by ethno-religious identities.

The old site of the Ebrington barracks lie across the river on the historically Protestant side of the river. The protected buildings are undergoing extensive renovation and plans are in place for a massive development made up of open space for concerts and events, a shopping centre, dining facilities ect; funded and inspired in part by the investment from the city's 2013 City of Culture award.

'Peace bridge' Derry/Londonderry with view of the old Ebrington barracks (2011)

A city councillor explained to us that the bridge, curved in such a way to symbolise two hands reaching across the divide, was built not only to make communication and mobility easier for the two communities but to encourage investment and provide access to the new Ebrington development.

Here we can clearly see the relationship between peace and investment. The tipping-point for the stroke city to build bridges in place of walls has come at the cost of hundreds of millions of pounds of investment. This has transformed the city-centre, developed new opportunities for the city to become a cultural hub for the island, and promoted tourism for the city to encourage even more revenue.

Well happy days, there you have it! Foreign investment and bridges that symbolise and actualise cross-community (in this case cross-river) connections. There are cases of this from Victoria Square to Castle Court to the Odyssey Complex in Belfast and now to Ebrington in Derry/Londonderry.

But before we end the story, it's important we don't forget the poorest parts of these cities, suffering from the highest levels of deprivation and coping with the most violent legacies of the Troubles. Out of the spotlight of these investment triumphs and victories of peace, there are new walls. A short walk from the new 'peace bridge' plans have been approved for a new peace-line at the Lisnagelvin recreational fields. Although the peace-lines are downplayed on walking tours and these new walls are described as related more to 'anti-social behaviour' than sectarian conflict, a blind eye is turned on enduring legacies of conflict and money is pumped into a new image for the future.

Peace-line on hill above Bogside  (2011)

Security Gates Derry/Londonderry (2011)

What do the people in these interface areas and conflict zones have to say about the potentials of investment?

In the same year of MacCaulay's discussion paper and Mayor Bloomberg's speech (2008), the US-Ireland Alliance and Millward Brown Ulster group conducted an interface poll on attitudes towards the peace lines. In some areas, 50% of people felt tourism and investment would not change if the walls were to come down and 14% felt tourism and investment would decrease (http://www.us- irelandalliance.org/user-assets/Documents/Graphs.pdf).

Taking this into consideration we can see how investment is disproportionately benefiting the people and places of Northern Ireland. The billions of (insert any currency here) may promote regeneration and peace, but not for everyone affected by the conflict.

It is important to view any and all investments as having great potential to promote tourism and regeneration for Northern Ireland; however, it's essential too that the image of peace sold to the world does not overshadow the many divisions, disadvantages, and disparities outlasting the peace-treaty and displacing investment.

Peace is expensive to buy and will be extremely costly to maintain if the many long-standing peace initiatives across Northern Ireland continue to lose funding over the next few years while division is downplayed and shopping centres and romantic symbols of peace act as the bandages of conflict.

Development site, Belfast (2009)

Time for a new Ulster Covenant (on the 99th anniversary of its signing)

ULSTER, or in Irish- Cúige Uladh or in Ulster Scots- Ulstèr but understood in English- Ulster (the anglicization of the Irish mixed with the Old Norse staðr meaning something along the lines of 'land') is a dynamic and multi-dimensional term for an ever-changing place and people. It's sometimes hard to see it this way when the word 'Ulster' is so often hijacked for one sided politics and bigoted rhetoric. But I'd like to redefine the term if I can to emphasize what it means to me.

The Red Hand of Ulster is a brilliant myth with relevance in both Catholic and Protestant communities. The symbol of the Red Hand flying on flags (whether on gold fabric for the Ulster Province of Ireland or white fabric for the place Ulster has in the United Kingdom), represents this northern territory of the island and rejoices in its myths and history and progress. Whether you define it as 6 counties or 9, the culture of this space does not change and the self-definition of an individual or a place is not infringed upon.

I guess what I love about Ulster is that you can see it and define it however you like! You want to be British? OK! Are you Irish, that's OK too! And now a days, you can be both (or neither).

The Ulster Covenant certainly stands for something strongly loyalist. Signed 28 September 1912 by nearly 1/2 a million people, it reads

we, whose names are underwritten, men of Ulster, loyal subjects of His Gracious Majesty King George V, humbly relying on the God whom our fathers in days of stress and trial confidently trusted, hereby pledge ourselves in solemn Covenant, throughout this our time of threatened calamity, to stand by one another in defending, for ourselves and our children, our cherished position of equal citizenship in the United Kingdom, and in using all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule Parliament in Ireland.

The women's covenant is slightly different but encompasses the same sentiment (the disparity in covenants for men and women is an issue for another time...).

This is powerful language, it inspired marches and riots and hateful feelings and activity. It encompasses a lot of things associated with loyalism- the Crown, the United Kingdom, God. However, even further so it diminishes the Home Rule Movement into a subversive 'conspiracy'. It negates any potential for democracy. It threatens 'using all means' to defend that very right.

Next year, on the centenary of the signing of this covenant, I wonder if there can be a movement where the people who feel themselves to belong to Ulster in any form and capacity, sign a new covenant and celebrate a new Ulster Day that will reflect the positive elements of this part of the world. A covenant that breaks down the myths that the Titanic was built by only Protestant shipbuilders. A covenant that is proud of the military sacrifices Ulstermen and Ulsterwomen have made--coming from Protestant, Catholic, and other communities. I wonder if we can all sign a statement that says we are loyal to one another, that we will defend one another and the rights of our children to chose their own identity. That we will benefit from employment opportunities that value skill and education. That our education system will provide equal learning and opportunities for every student, regardless of background! That we will do whatever it takes to have a healthy, happy and successful Ulster that promotes tolerance, welcomes diversity, and sees the true benefits of cooperation. An Ulster that will not ignore sectarianism, that will not empower bigoted politicians, that will not go backwards--but only forwards.

There will be marches and bands and speeches and music, but it will not be of the variety you may well know and remember. Ulster Day 2012 will be neither Orange nor Green. It will not chose to define itself in the limited confines of past memories.

Ulster has the potential to clarify its definition to encompass whatever it sees for itself in the future. From the earliest peoples to Neolithic farmers to Celtic Kingdoms to Vikings to Normans to Ulster Plantation to partition to consociationalism. From invasions and battles to civil war and peace. From myth to history to present. This land has seen many different people, been ruled by many different types of authority.

Change will not stop. It is only right that Ulster embraces these changes and defines itself in a language we can all speak. We, all of us who live here in this wonderful part of the island, are people of Ulster and we deserve a covenant that reflects us all.

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.

A Wall Memorial: Berlin

Visiting Berlin in August 2011, exactly 50 years after the construction of the Berlin Wall began, was something incredibly moving for a girl who has a strange love for walls. We had to seek out the fragments of the wall that remained, and in the end we missed seeing the most famous section with the most popular artwork (as it was that much off the tourist trail..well for the directionless anyway).

We happened upon a fascinating photo exhibit with very detailed views and descriptions of the Wall taken from the perspective of the East. They had made up documentation by guards in East Berlin, marking the scope of the wall, escape attempts, and normal activity. The detail of the photos, the quotes used to describe each one, and the absolute expanse of the wall left me a bit shocked. I stood staring at one particular panorama and I felt like I stood in front of the Wall itself, running as far as the eye could see in each direction.

While there are drastic differences between the Berlin Wall and the peacelines of Belfast, there is something about division that feels so universal. I thought about the mapping and detailing processes occuring at the minute in Belfast to better define and identify the scope of the peacelines here. It helped me to see how important those projects are.

The next day we traveled to Bernauer Strasse to the Wall Memorial. I couldn't help but look forward to the day when Belfast is made up on wall memorials rather than walls. I looked from the cement slabs to the watchtower to the metal slates--all as a tribute to the memory of the walls. It was an excruciatingly hot day but looking around at the buildings and the cement, even with the green of the trees and the blinding sunshine, it felt like the coldest day of the winter.

I was reading a book on the Wall, trying to place it in the very limited European history in my mind. After my trip I finally finished the book, written beautifull by Frederick Taylor (The Berlin Wall: A world divided, 1961-1989, p.449). The closing sentiment shook me hard as he describes present day Berlin with its delightful cafes and carefree cyclists and eccentric culture saying 'sometimes we can believe...that the Berlin Wall was just a figment of somebody's mad imagination.' It gave me the chills to think that in my lifetime people died trying to cross the very short expanse between the two sides of the wall that I passed without even realizing. If you're my age and have very little historical recollection of Europe, Taylor's idea seems eerily spot on.

It makes me think that 20 years from now the landscape of Belfast or Jerusalem could be vastly different. It makes me think that one day, young people like myself can think about walls as unimaginable. As so cold and divisive, that they could not possibly exist in the world we have today.

But for now, I have to think if walls can come down in Berlin, then the work we're doing here and the work ongoing in other parts of the world are not for naught. I laugh to think that one day it may be difficult for a tourist in Belfast to find the peacelines. I sure hope so!

''No More''

On the morning after the first night of rioting I posted this image in support of the many peace efforts that have been on-going in Belfast for decades, and making tremendous strides in the face of a devastating past. It can be found on the Lower Newtownards Road, just beside where the rioting took place.

No more bombing no more murder
No more killing of our sons
No more standing at the grave side
Having to bury our loved ones

No more waiting up every hour
Hoping our children, they come home
No more maimed or wounded people
Who have suffered all alone

No more minutes to leave a building
No more fear of just parked cars
No more looking over our shoulders
No more killing in our bars

No more hatred from our children
No more. No more. No more!