Belfast, Northern Ireland

Hey Everyone,
Belfast is a crazy city. I had heard of "The Troubles" of Northern Ireland before, but it was always brief and just a general "oh the Protestants are fighting the Catholics" and the "IRA bombed someone again." But here, even today, the city is completely divided. There are Catholic districts and Protestant districts. The Protestants came from England centuries ago and are still loyal to England, whereas the Catholics lived here before Protestantism and typically do not want to remain part of the UK (as Northern Ireland currently is). Both feel that this is their land, their home, and they want it governed their way. The loyalists, which are the violent, militant Protestants (still loyal to Britain), frequently have British flags flying whereas the Catholic neighborhoods (especially those controlled by the Irish Republican Army) fly Irish flags and are full of orange and green. Although there has been relative peace here since 1999 (with one upset a few years ago), it is still entirely divided and Britain didn't end its direct rule of Northern Ireland until four months ago. There are huge walls separating communities, some much larger than the Berlin Wall, full of writing and graffiti. Gates remain open during the day but they close at night. People live in their own communities, meaning that Protestants live with Protestants and Catholics with Catholics. They never interact with one another, and there are still extreme tensions and hatred between the two. It's crazy to really see it.
Our hotel is right next to a loyalist neighborhood, which welcomes all passing cars with a huge mural of a paramilitary and a British flag letting you know that you are entering a loyalist neighborhood. Within such neighborhoods, the murals are everywhere. Most of them commemorate a victory or grief of the past, and it's very interesting to see murals of the same event in Catholic areas and in Protestant areas, but one group is celebrating the hero or victory while the other is defaming the villain and grieving the defeat.
While the peace seems promising on a political level, the people still live with the hatred and authority is still lacking. Only 5% of schools are integrated. The vast majority of public schools are "Protestant schools" and all the of the Catholics go to Catholic schools. It's just the way it is. And parents still always tell stories of when "that Protestant killed your uncle" or "that Catholic blew up my best friend's car." Our bus driver's best friend growing up ended up in a loyalist organization and is now in prison for killing 5 people. The number of deaths are great enough in this relatively small area that every person has a family member or close friend who has been murdered or severely injured by the conflict.
The police have been almost entirely Protestant up until recently, and thus very few Catholics trust them at all (rightly so, due to past events). The IRA had formerly filled the role of authority in Catholic neighborhoods, but now it is disarmed. Its punishment squads used to prevent local crime, and still do from time to time, but now their authority is lost so teenagers rob houses and stores and have no one to answer to. Last week a former IRA punishment squad kicked a group of kids out of a house they were robbing, and the next night the kids threw bricks into the IRA members' homes with a message of "What are you really going to do to us?" If the IRA members resume their full authority, worse things could happen. But at the same time there is no other authority to call on in that neighborhood. And when the punishment squads do still act, they are intense. Their scale of punishment is this: first offense of stealing, burglary, joy riding, etc, and you get shot in the ankle. Next offense, both kneecaps. Third offense, your elbows. (If worse crimes are committed, far worse things happen, stories I won't share here). And that's the ways it's been for 30-40 years here.
The city of Belfast was the center of this violence in Northern Ireland. There were so many car bombings and paramilitary-commandeerings of vehicles that 10 years ago only 5% of Belfast residents even owned a car. The buses were too easily targeted and "burned big" during riots that the city transportation gave up on buses and went only to their "black cab" system of taxis.
The city now is relatively safe. Where we're staying is in a pretty neutral area right near downtown. There's even a Westfield Shopping Center mall a five minute walk away. But a five minute walk in the other direction is in a strictly Protestant-only loyalist community.
I really wondered in the past when I had heard of The Troubles how Christians could do this to each other. But now it makes more sense. Most of these people, most of the Irish even, don't attend church at all. The Protestants aren't fighting against the authority of the Pope or transubstantiation. The Catholics aren't fighting because they believe that they are the only true church. The political agendas of each group have overrun any difference in religious conviction. On the bus (the UN has put in buses as a means of helping out and as a goal for reconciliation--hopefully Protestants and Catholics will have to interact, even if just seeing each other. Although this kind of integration didn't exactly help things in Sarajevo in the past) yesterday I asked a 17 year old boy in a Catholic school uniform if his school was Catholic. He said, "No. Well it's a catholic school, but it's not Catholic." It's understood that "Catholic" means republican and anti-loyalist, just as Protestant means unionist (union with the UK) and anti-republican.
Well, that's what I wanted to share about Belfast and Northern Ireland for now. It's a place in need of much reconciliation and right now the hope outweighs the hatred and despair, but it's not clear how long, or if, that will last. Pray for Northern Ireland.
-Joe

P.S. I am fine and am having a great time learning about all of this. It is very eye-opening and makes me realize how real struggles are and how easily I shrug them off. A 30 second clip on the news between sports and Paris Hilton is about hundreds of thousands of people who hate, and often still want to kill, each other. And often I don't even listen, and if I do, I don't seem to care.