Northern Perspective

We've all spent the last few days working hard in what is now the modern European style city of Belfast. But walking through the Europa Hotel last night, the most bombed hotel in the world thanks to 36 bombings during the Troubles, puts into perspective what it means to call a city in Northern Ireland and the UK "European."

One of our our assigned readings before coming to Ireland was "Peace Meets the Streets" by James Lyons which detail the author's role in the peace process leading up to the Good Friday Agreement. Before reading that book, hearing Jim Lyons speak in Denver, and coming to Ireland, I really did not know much about the history, albeit recent history, of conflict in this area.

I once had the pleasure of attending a panel with Thomas Friedman and I remember a quote of his, "If you don't go, you don't know." We started the morning with a black cab tour through the still segregated neighborhoods of West Belfast. We saw images painting murderers as heroes on both sides (of the walls and learned more about why the walls exist and have yet to come down. The protestant area is already well into preparation for the marches planned in July to celebrate a British Victory won several hundred years ago. These marches include "bon fires" that are at a scale (picture below) that deserve a better name. The final size of these are shown below although we saw the makings of these structures at only a fraction of what they will eventually be. It was particularly interesting to hear of the conflict and violence that occurred even after the Good Friday Agreement was signed (in 1998) as the last murder of a Catholic in these neighborhoods occurred in 2004. I came to understand much more about the underlying influences of the Catholic and Protestant conflict in Northern Ireland. It was a fascinating experience and even more insightful receiving the tour from individuals affected from the conflict of both sides.

Following our tour to Belfast, the team boarded a bus to Giant's Causeway. It was a nice relief to come together again as a group to take in the breathtaking scenery that the area had to offered. We arrived in (London)Derry this afternoon for a much appreciated time to take a step back and have some fun with the group.