BELFAST'S CBD is like Switzerland: neutral territory in this city of "them and us".
Parts of Belfast have just had the third night of violence following the July 12 Orangemen March.
On the radio and on the BBC television news all the way up Ireland's west coast to the north, we have heard about the rioting.
It seems that under new rules, Protestant Orangemen, loyal to the British throne, have been prevented by law from marching into Catholic areas and their marching numbers also have been limited.
As we drove north, we began seeing flags flying from lightposts and homes. But apart from the Union Jack of Britain, we had no idea what they meant.
Coupled with the fact that most of what we know about Northern Ireland we have learned from Hollywood and a mostly biased media, we wanted to hear the other side of the story - this uniquely Irish story - to better understand the long and very complex history and present "situation".
So we took one of the renowned Belfast Black Cab Tours. Its website says the cabs have plied the Republican Falls Road and Loyalist Shankill Road for over 40 years and the guides/drivers worked during The Troubles.
Our driver Kevin first stopped the cab outside one of five walls separating the British Protestant side of town from the Catholic Irish areas. It is the Berlin Wall all over again, complete with barbed wire.
But he is quick to point out that while the world may view the unrest along Catholic/Protestant lines, religion is only part of the bigger picture.
He steps into the back of the cab, says he's going to tell us a story, then tries to give us about 400 years of history in a nutshell.
It was clear after only a few minutes' chat that I'd love to sit down with him over a beer or 10 and hear his story. But that is unlikely to ever happen.
What I do learn is that he is passionate and calls himself an Irishman first and foremost. More importantly, he is a proud north Ireland Irishman (he will never call it Northern Ireland) who desperately wants his countrymen to be in charge of their own destiny now and in the future.
Irish history and especially north/Northern Ireland history is not something you can understand in the course of a two-hour cab ride.
I suspect all the people living modern history here on a daily basis may not be able to grasp the details.
Next, Kevin shows us the international wall of murals that commemorates lives lost here and abroad and the struggle the world's current political prisoners face.
Each mural has a two-year "life", replaced by newer messages telling similar stories.
He shows us the memorial gardens dedicated to those military personnel and civilians on the Catholic side who have lost their lives in "the Troubles".
Nearby, where the British have built the wall up to property lines on the Catholic side, families live their lives with caged backyards to better ensure their safety.
On the British side of the same wall, we see the myriad peace messages written by ordinary visitors and VIPs including former US president Bill Clinton and the Dalai Lama. We find a tiny spare patch and add our own humble words of wisdom.
Finally, through one of the gates that allow us access into the British side during the day, we see the pro-royalist murals, the red, white and blue-painted curbs and Union Jacks flying proudly.
Towards the end of the 90-minute trip that has rushed by into two hours, Kevin reveals that among the cab drivers are ex-IRA and former political prisoners who all have great insight and personal stories to tell.
He implores me to use Google and YouTube to verify what he tells me and to make up my own mind.
It's hard for outsiders to take it all in.
I think that having witnessed such tragedy, heartbreak and anger, I would just throw up my hands, walk away and start again.
But I know nothing of family ties to this land over hundreds and possibly thousands of years, of what it's like to have all that I love in a cultural sense taken from me, to be told that the land and home I have worked so hard for is no longer mine, to be advised I am no longer Irish but a British subject, or to lose a loved one fighting to return what they believe to be rightfully theirs.
Both sides have been at fault for one thing or another. Death and destruction have occurred , and innocent lives have been lost in violent circumstances.
For 11 months of the year, each side puts up with each other, keeps to themselves generally and gets on with life.
But July is Marching Season, culminating on July 12 when members of the Orange Order mark Prince William of Orange's victory over King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
Kevin says he has good friends who are Protestants but they have taken a long time to find.
A few good men on both sides have ensured common sense has prevailed and the killing has stopped.
I pray that some time in the future, a few good men once again will set things right for good.
No comments:
Post a Comment