Belfast

Today was the Twelth of July, which is a holiday here in Belfast with a parade to celebrate. Protestants celebrate this day as the defeat of Catholic King James by Protestant King William of Orange. This was a huge Protestant victory back in the 1700s. However, because of the continuing tensions between Catholic nationalists (support a united Ireland, not having Northern Ireland as part of the UK) and Protestant unionists (who are proud to be British) since the troubles in Northern Ireland, this is also a very tense day. Last night there were various bonfires around town, as big as an entire city block. We weren’t allowed to go see these because of the danger, many riots broke out around them because they are usually fueled also by alcohol. Because the economy of both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is so bad right now, there are not very many opportunities to do anything for people my age, and this boredom leads to riots and violence. There was actually a huge riot in the West side of Belfast where some nationalists threw Molotov cocktails and rocks at police officers and firefighters, burned buses, and generally just caused trouble. (Fun fact: Northern Ireland is one of the only places in the world where firefighters and EMTs are not viewed as heros, and are actually attacked). The scary part of this was that was where we were going that afternoon on a mural tour.

Bonfires the day after

Belfast is famous for it’s murals depicting both sides of the struggle, as well as various famous historic events, such as the hunger strikes in the 1980s. The city had been mostly cleaned up by this point, but it was still a very real reminder of the troubles, while officially ended in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement, still continue today. 

Mural of the first hunger striker to die, Bobby Sands