Welcome to Belfast, home of the Titanic and the most bombed hotel in the world.
Despite its troubled past, a tour of parliament at the end of the trip indicated the east-west tension between Northern Ireland and the UK was taking the heat off of the internal divisions stemming from the 1600s and prior. A centuries long divide, amongst people who are fairly similar, might seem like a long time to hold a grudge, unless you are Irish.
What was a battle for land in the 1600s, in the era of exploring, taking, and fighting for land, was explained as sectarian division, which also had roots in economic division, which created cultural division, which pitted people against each other in “in groups” and “out groups,” as humans tend to do.
In present day, the school system is coming out of strong divisions, with communities historically split in educating their kids in either Catholic or Protestant schools. The integrated schools emerged as radical in the 1980s and have since grown in size and popularity, with a major academy recently vying for integrated status as recently as last week. Some people are finding that many schools are already informally integrated and questioning whether the newest integrated schools are really serving to integrate or are simply a progressive type of school that highlight the need for children to learn social and life skills, in addition to “maths.”
The older tour guides take you to see the murals on the Catholic and Protestant sides of town that are undeniably violent and aren’t exactly deteriorating from lack of regular fresh paint. Each side attempts to pull on your heart strings with memorials showing the number of those killed by the other side, citing fathers of seven killed and women and children injured in the streets. They also attempt to relate to what they think are your North American values, whether connecting with your desire for social justice (IRA) or explaining how their side just really values bills of rights (Orange Protestants). The narratives can certainly be made to align, since humans are also capable of cognitively justifying anything. The “you, me, same, same,” tactic comes off a little strong, with the IRA be much more strategic by connecting with other global conflicts involving narratives of oppression, which is helpful for gaining legitimacy and support.
The stories of those who are typically labeled as Protestants being really bad at urban terrorism brings home their lack of street smarts and reliance on the crown to maintain their place in the region. However, the fact that many people in that group, who historically deny their Irishness, are, post-Brexit, applying for Irish passports so that their summer travel to Europe is easier, shows their Irish pragmatism, whether they like it or not. In my opinion, their perhaps waning lack of loyalty to the UK in favor of personal gain should have begun in the 1990s, when Windsor attempted to take back the chandeliers they had gifted to the Northern Ireland parliament after Windsor suffered a fire. Or maybe it should have happened in the 1930s when the Northern Ireland parliament “buildings” were being built and the UK pulled the funding before their building could be pluralized (there is only one building, but based on prior plans, they still call it the “parliament buildings”).
Like any society, there are a number of narratives to choose from and you kind of hope that the majority picks the one closest to the truth. I would have to say that from a just quick trip and a few tours, Northern Ireland seems to be moving towards a more agreed upon story and perhaps the US could use some work on coming towards the middle ground and narrative.