Belfast

Protestant Mural

Protestant Mural

Our second to last field trip was to Northern Ireland. We spent five days visiting various cities throughout Northern Ireland, but two of those days were in Belfast, which is what I’m going to discuss in this weeks blog. During our time here in Ireland, our history professor has briefly discussed the conflicts that have and still are happening in Belfast. I didn’t quite comprehend how extreme and present the issues still are today, until I was right in the middle of this city and it’s history. Luckily, we were staying in the city center, which was a tame part of Belfast so we didn’t come across any conflicts first hand. On the second day in Belfast, a couple of my group members and I decided to take a taxi tour of the city, just to see all the murals that we’d heard so much about. This was by far one of my favorite experiences in Ireland. The taxi driver took us to both sides of the peace wall that was put in force to split up the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods. We saw the Protestant side and he told us stories of people that they glorify for their time as members of the UDA. Then we were taken to the Catholic side, and shown memorials of all the volunteers and innocent people that were killed during The Troubles. Seeing these murals and memorials first hand, and hearing the stories of what happened in the place I was standing, was truly moving. I’ve never experienced something so surreal. Belfast has been through some really tough times, and although it is progressively getting better, there are still conflicts to this day between the two sides. I’m thankful to have seen Belfast and all the baggage that comes with it, it was truly moving and definitely something I would recommend. But at the same time, I’m also thankful that I’ve never been exposed to such discrimination growing up. It reminded me that there are conflicts and events happening outside my little world of Nebraska, and that’s something I think we all need to keep at the front of our heads.

Catholic Mural

Sending my love!

Regan

Catholic Memorial