Northern Ireland ~ Moving Forward to a Shared Future while Shackled to the Past

Northern Ireland ~ Moving Forward to a Shared Future 

May 31- June 2nd

I was invited to Belfast by the National Children’s Bureau to deliver a keynote address at a conference whose aim is to launch quality delivery of the Incredible Years programs in order to promote children’s social and emotional competence. I am excited about my first visit to Northern Ireland and pleased to be met at the airport by my psychologist colleague and IY mentor, Maria McAleese. She had spent two years using the IY parent program to promote reconciliation between the Protestants and Catholics.  Link to the following You Tube for an amazing video about her reconciliation work. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6eZb8WCX48&list=PLTQ3LIdfj72GGx9rWQlx1cPt3AvxpA2E3

After checking in the Fitzwilliam Hotel we walk to the beautiful 4 star Europa Hotel nearby for lunch. We sit in the lounge overlooking the famous Crown Bar, restored by the National Trust and featured in a BBC documentary entitled, Jewel in the Crown.  Maria tells me the Europa hotel is where her wedding reception will be held in October and is known for being the most bombed hotel in the world.

International Wall on Catholic Side 

Moving Forward while Shackled to the Past

Maria has made a reservation for us to take a Black Taxi mural tour. Belfast has almost two thousand political murals located mostly in the working class areas of the city painted to tell stories depicting the region’s past and present cultural, political and religious divisions. 

We join her finance, Paul, for this tour and meet our energetic guide Brandon, who talks at such a rapid pace with an Irish accent that I’m sure I only understand a small portion of what he is saying. In our taxi that is white not black we begin the tour by passing the magnificent City Hall built in 1906.  Brandon tells me now it is only permitted to put up the Union flag 18 times a year. 

Because it is considered a neutral place, Maria who is Catholic and Paul a Protestant, have decided they will be married here. I ask why the City Hall couldn’t put up both an Irish and Union flag and they laugh saying this would be too logical. Within an hour of arriving in Belfast I am drawn into the struggle of the Unionists/Loyalists/British ideology (UVF & UDA) versus the opposing ideology of the Nationalists/Republicans/Irish (IRA). Or is this simply Protestants versus Catholics?

Three decades of violence and conflict has occurred because of discrimination against the Catholic minority by the Unionist Protestants. The Troubles began with the Civil Rights movement in the 60’s and 70’s and ended with the Belfast Good Friday Agreement in 1998 after 4,000 people were killed.  The British Army was forced to withdraw and agreed to let people solve issues by mutual consent and power sharing. Today in Northern Ireland 49% of the people are Catholic while 51% are Protestant. Our guide tells me this Peace Agreement rests on very shaky grounds. 

We start our tour on the Catholic side on Falls Road. 

I am surprised to see that the huge walls put up in the 70’s to

separate the Catholic and Protestant communities are still present.  The guide tells me that the gates on these walls are still closed on weekends and nights with the exception of one open gate in order to control movement back and forth.  This segregation of Catholic and Protestant communities means that children go to segregated schools and families rarely interact with other families from schools on the other side of the wall. Maria tells me that she and Paul would not have met except for the help of the Internet. I am reminded of our visit last year to Jerusalem and the walls separating the Israelis and Palestinians.  How can one believe that walls are a productive solution?

We stop to view our first murals, which are a collection of Irish Republic and International themed walls known as the International Wall. 

First Blanket Strike Man 

These murals on the Catholic side depict themes of hunger strikes, massacres, bombs, solidarity with revolutionary groups with Irish, British or International points of view and a particular emphasis on the Troubles. Brandon, our guide tells us how political Catholic freedom fighters were criminalized and put in prisons (H blocks) where they were required to wear British uniforms outside their cells. These fighters protested by going out of their cells naked wearing blankets ~ the blanket protest. 

One of the most famous murals of Bobby Sands is located on the sidewall of Sinn Fein’s office. 
He is known for going on a 38-day hunger strike to protest the criminalization of Catholic political fighters. 

Catholic freedom fighter died in the hunger strike

Sinn Fein Catholic Woman Assassinated by Loyalists

We cross the one open gate in the wall to the working class Unionist Protestant communities.  Here the pictures promote Loyalist paramilitary groups or commemorate deceased members. Themes of the “Troubles” seem to be everywhere. We stop by the Peace Wall and I ask about the possibility of taking down the wall but am told people are not ready for this yet. 

All of us write our names on the Peace Wall where thousands of other signatures occupy the wall.

Martyr Wall 

We stop at a monument Garden of Reflection,

which is a typical part of each small community where there are walls with names of those who died as martyrs for the cause as well as names of the innocent civilians. 

Protestant Memorial Garden 

Our guide tells us that 5 years ago he couldn’t have come to this Protestant side to do a tour because he is Catholic. He comments that there has been substantial progress in the past 5 years.  We pass by a huge grounds where there is wood piled high brought in by families including children. I am told this is the wood for the July 12^th Loyalist Bonfire (celebrating Battle of Boyan of King James time) where the Protestants beat the Catholics.  In a few weeks these Protestants will have a huge bonfire and burn the Irish flag. 
Next I am shown a school that still has bullet holes in its walls. 


Then in we go into the Protestant low-income community housing where there were murals on the sides of houses throughout. 

We go down Shankle Road where there are murals of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in their black uniforms and baklavas. Our guide comments, “one man’s hero is another man’s terrorist”.

This tour has impacted me profoundly. I wonder about the impact of this approach where children are growing up in segregated communities and schools and are not being able to rub shoulders and get to know children of different religious backgrounds.  I wonder about the impact of daily viewing by children of monument gardens with martyrs’ names on them and of violent murals of men fighting with guns on walls outside their homes and schools. 



I am told about one girl who dresses in her closet because the video cameras in her community shine into her bedroom and her room faces a mural of fighters dressed in black baklavas. I suggest to the guide that they should be required to put up one positive mural depicting a positive and peaceful future for every negative image ~ perhaps even two of them. How can parents help the next generation to become unshackled from the past to move toward tolerance and understanding of differences? Then I look at Maria and Paul from two different religious communities who are lovingly looking forward to their life together and understand how a non-sectarian approach can make that happen. 

I hope that IY parent groups can be delivered with integrated Catholic and Protestant groups. I believe this will lead to nurturing parenting, integrated community support groups and will teach children about shared problem solving and visions of a positive future.