Continuing on from the last post…

Carrying on along the wall, I reached the gates between the two neighbourhoods. These gates close right across the street, and although most are open during the day, many of the gates and closed and locked at night. Again, by accident I found my way through to the Catholic side of the same wall (I really don’t know how anyone expects to see anything of a city by taking a pre-arranged tour, I always find the most interesting things by accident). I came out on Falls Road, the sister road to the Shankill, next to the Solidarity Wall. This is a set of murals depicting other countries around the world experiencing segregation and civil fighting: Israel, Palestine, Basque Country, Cuba.

Following Falls Road led me through the Catholic area, looking much as you’d expect any neighbourhood to. It was a Sunday, so most things were closed, but I sat and had coffee and cake in a cafe where two guys were playing music at one of the tables. The murals on this side were in memorial of the 1981 hunger strikers, Bobby Sands, who was elected as an MP shortly before he died in those hunger strikes, and others whose lives were lost during the fighting. Eventually I ended up at the Milltown Cemetery, where the bodies of the hunger strikers lie (I didn’t see their graves though; I doubt they would be well advertised given the circumstances surrounding their deaths).

Overall, the Protestant murals struck me as being so much about glorifying the contribution made to WWI, while the Catholic murals were an attempt to remember those who died fighting in their own country. I don’t know if one is better than the other, I would say both sides lost out horrendously, but it was the first time I’d seen such a divide in front of me.

I felt lucky to be able to see this for myself, fortunate to have made it to Belfast so soon after the fighting had died down to still see the burnt out buildings, the walls, the division. In some ways Belfast is inspiring. Here is a city that a mere decade ago people were giving up on. No one thought the Troubles would be over. Without belittling the ongoing problems, it does appear to be a city with hope. Although the more I read, the more I consider whether there have been actual inroads made towards integration, or if Northern Ireland is just a pot waiting to boil over.

A few nights before I arrived, there was a big event outside the City Hall for the turning on of the Christmas lights. Some youths got frisky and there was a “riot” on the streets. Check out this Belfast Telegraph article for more. On first read I thought “sectarian violence, of course!” Then on successive reads I found the bit where they say the three people arrested were 14, 17, and 19 years of age. Hang on, surely at that age you don’t know a thing about religion, whether you’re a loyalist or republican, or what “sectarian tension” is. Reading through the comments on the article, I believe I found my answer. They’re teenagers! They’re being unruly “thugs”, out to crash a family event (who hasn’t seen that at Christmas in the Park or similar?) for the pure thrill of it. Not everything can be boiled down to theological or political reasons. Yet because it was Northern Ireland, because it was Belfast, it was reported as such. It seems unfair, doesn’t it?

One of the comments I read really struck a chord, it talked about segregating children from the age of five by sending them to Catholic or Protestant schools. Someone else mentioned having Leisure Centres mere blocks from each other (I confirmed this seeing as I walked past both of them, the Shankill Rd and Falls Rd Leisure Centres are a mere 0.8 km walk from each other, so says google maps, aka Lord of the Internet).

Tonight I found this article from the Guardian, published back in 2002. It claims that not only is segregation still present in Northern Ireland, it is actually worse since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement (or at least, it was in 2002, I’m too tired to look for new numbers tonight). Lots of stats in the article, but one got to me: “68% of 18- to 25-year-olds living in Belfast have never had a meaningful conversation with anyone from the other community.” How’s that for segregation? No wonder teens are getting angry with each other in the street and spoiling a Christmas celebration. How can you expect anything to be different if you are still raising children with the notion of “us” and “them”? It could be enough to make me despair, but it’s still a step forward from the all out fighting of so recently. Belfast, to me, is still an inspiring city; it still gives me hope that other areas of imbalance may yet find peace. And strange as it may seem, I felt oddly patriotic during my time in Belfast.

Here’s the photo of me on the Shankill side of the Peace Wall. Midget.

Beno, hemen dago gure Belfasteko egonaldiaren azken posta.

Gauza asko ikasi ditugu, baina batez ere,  Science Shop mugimendua bai Europan eta baita Munduan barna oso zabaldua dagoela. Honetaz gain, azpimarratzeakoa da duten filantrofismo kutsua, hau da, proiektuak aurrera eramateko jartzen duten baldintza komunitatearentzat edota ingurugiroarentzako mesedegarria izatea da.

Are gehiago, GAZEk detektatu zuen ikasleen behar bat asetzen dute: ikasleek ezagutzak modu praktikoan aplikatzea eta gainera mundu errealean.

Azkenik, kontaktu-sarea hedatzeko aitzaki ederra izan da, izan ere, Malasiarako gonbidatuta gaude, Bonnerako, Shangairako, 20 urtez Herbehereetako Science Shop bat koordinatzen duen batek gure berri du orain, Kanadako beste batek bezala eta abar.

Bitxikeriak: Gela noiz utzi behar genuen ez zigutenez esan (10:30tan zela esan ziguten gero) eta G Vren gelara joan zenez ea zein ordutan hartuko genun taxia galdetzera, gero ezin izan zuen gelara sartu eta V aterarazi zuen eta honi berdina gertatu zitzaion, baina 10 minutu gehiago eman zizkizuten gelara berriro sartu ahal izateko.

Taxista Falls Road-ekoa zen (mural katoliko gehienak dauden tokikoa, hots, egon ginen kalekoa) eta Gk euskaldunak ginela esan zionean, emozionatu egin zen eta Michael Collinsi buruzko 450 orrialdeko liburu bat oparitu zion nahiz eta Gk ingelesez gehiegi ez jakin

Londreseko aireportuan 3 ordu egon ginen itxaroten eta azken hegazkina 30 minutuko atzerapenarekin hartu genuen eta beste horrenbesteko atzerapenarekin iritsi ginen Bilbora eta oraindik ordu beteko bidaiarekin gure aurrean

Así son las cosas y así se las hemos contado.

Izan GAZE!

G

Continua la battaglia di Denis Bradley per l’erogazione di 12.000 sterline ad ogni vittima dei Troubles, a titolo di risarcimento

Nonostante la Church of Ireland ritenga un errore quanto stabilito dal Eames-Bradley Report, Denis Bradley (vice presidente del Policing Board e co-presidente del Consultative Group on the Past) ha dichiarato che continuerà a battersi per veder riconosciuto l’indennizzo ai familiari delle vittime del conflitto nordirlandese. Il suo intervento è avvenuto in occasione dell’incontro pubblico incentrato sulla relazione da lui controfirmata presso il St. Mary’s University College in Falls Road, come parte degli eventi previsti dal West Belfast Festival .
Il Segretario di Stato Shaun Woodward ha dichiarato che questo non è il momento giusto per stanziare dei pagamenti e pertanto ha escluso una qualsiasi forma di di risarcimento per ogni vita perduta, sia che si tratti di civili, innocenti, soldati, poliziotti o terroristi.
“E’ la voce dei senza voce e non mi stancherò mai di parlare a loro nome”, ha dichiarato Bradley ribadendo che quanto è scaturito dal rapporto è un’esigenza espressa dalla comunità.
“Abbiamo raccomandato l’indennizzo perché abbiamo pensato che fosse la cosa giusta. Lo abbiamo raccomandato, perché il governo irlandese lo ha già previsto per le 333 persone che sono state uccise” e sarebbe quindi un controsenso il fatto di riconoscere solo vittime delle Repubblica e non quelle delle Sei Contee.
L’Eames-Bradley Report è attualmento oggetto di un procedimento di consultazione politica  avviata da Shaun Woodward e proprio per questa ragione  il co-presidente del Consultative Group on the Past ha esortato la comunità a manifestare le proprie opinioni entro la chiusura prevista per il mese di ottobre.
I partiti politici hanno espresso critiche nei confronti delle vittime, in quanto non costituiscono un gruppo omogeneo. C’è infatti chi è solo alla ricerca di giustizia, chi invece è interessato a sapere ‘il perchè’ tutto ciò è successo e c’è chi invece vuole semplicemente essere lasciato in pace.
Le vittime non sono le persone individuali, la vittima è la società ed è lei a dover far fronte alla pesante eredità dei Troubles.

Traduci l’articolo…

Denis Bradley still backs cash for Troubles victims’ relatives (Belfast Telegraph)
One of the proposers of the controversial Eames-Bradley Report payment of £12,000 for every death in the Northern Ireland Troubles has said he would fight on for the payment to be made.
Denis Bradley, co-chair with Lord Eames of the Consultative Group on the Past which made the proposals, is still behind the idea despite the former Church of Ireland primate having since admitted it may have been a mistake to propose the payment.
Secretary of State Shaun Woodward has ruled out such a payment for every life lost — whether innocent civilian, soldier, policeman or terrorist — saying the time was not right for such a recognition payment.
But Mr Bradley, former vice-chairman of the Policing Board, said: “I would still fight very strongly for the recognition payment. We recommended the payment not because it came into our heads but because it came from some of the relatives’ heads.
“It is the voice of the voiceless and I will continue to speak on their behalf.”
He admitted a payment was a “crude instrument” but said 30 or 40 years of violence had also been crude.
“This is some kind of acknowledgement and those who don’t want to take it, don’t have to take it, no-one is going to force it down their throats.”
And Mr Bradley told a public meeting on the Eames-Bradley report, held in St Mary’s University College on the Falls Road as part of the West Belfast Festival yesterday, that there had been many reasons why the payment recommendation had been made.
“We recommended it because we thought it was the right thing to do. We recommended it because the Irish government had already done it for 333 people who were killed.
“If the conflict was inherently a dispute about Britishness and Irishness and the Irish had already done this, it would seem to us to be an injustice for it not to happen to people who happened to live in the six counties,” he said.
They had also recommended it because compensation payment had been “terribly badly mismanaged”.
Political parties are currently engaged in a consultation process on the report set up by Mr Woodward and Mr Bradley urged people to let the parties know their opinions before the closing date of October.
Politicians who spoke out saying they knew what victims wanted needed to be careful, he said, because victims were not a homogeneous group.
Some were looking for one thing, others for something else.
“Some are looking for justice and want to see someone in the dock. Others are not looking for justice, all they are looking for is the truth — what happened and why it happened,” he said. “There are some people who are looking for neither justice or truth and just want it to be left alone.”
Victims were also not just single people, whole communities had been victimised and the whole of society had a legacy it had to deal with, he said.

Un nuovo mural è apparso in Falls Road ,a testimonianza del disgusto della comunità per gli attacchi razzisti ai danni degli immigrati rumeni a South Belfast.
L’opera muraria rappresenta il parellelismo tra gli attacchi odierni con i disordini e la disputa dell’Holy Cross del 2001 , così come con gli attacchi contro gli studenti di colore alla Little Rock High School in Arkansas nel 1957.
Danny Devenny, uno tra gli autori, ha spiegato che l’idea per questo mural è nata dopo che è stato sottolineato il legame tra il razzismo e l’odio settario.
“Abbiamo voluto dire al popolo rumeno, e a coloro che a Belfast si oppongono a ciò che è accaduto la scorsa settimana, che noi siamo totalmente contrari a quanto successo e che il nostro pensiero è rivolto a loro”.
“Altre persone hanno organizzato proteste e altre iniziative, ma come autori di murals abbiamo pensato che questa fosse la cosa più ovvia da fare.”
“Uno dei miei amici è rumeno e così cercherò la traduzione di ‘Stiamo pensando di te’, e lo riporterò sulla parete”.
Devenny ha sottolineato come questi recenti fatti abbiano unito la comunità, soprattutto nel riconoscere come negli attacchi della scorsa settimana siano ben visibili reminescenze di attentati a sfondo razzista e settario del passato. Ed è questa la ragione principale per cui il mural resterà a Falls Road.

New mural reflects disgust at Romanian attacks (Belfast Media)
LAST week’s racist attacks in South Belfast have been included on one of Belfast’s most famous tourist attractions. A mural marking the targeting of the Romanian community has been painted on the International Wall on the Falls Road. It draws parallels between the incidents in South Belfast and the Holy Cross dispute in North Belfast in 2001, as well as attacks on enrolling black students at Little Rock High School in Arkansas in 1957. Artist Danny Devenny was one of those behind the mural and said it came about after the connections between the racist and sectarian hatred were pointed out. “We wanted to say to the Romanian people, and those in Belfast who are opposed to what happened last week, that we are totally against this and we are thinking of them. “Other people organised protests and other things, but we thought as muralists, this was the obvious thing to do.” Danny said the mural would be added to in the coming days and will stay for the foreseeable future on the wall. “One of my friends is Romanian and so I am going to get the translation into her language of ‘We are thinking of you’ and place it on the wall soon. “The attacks were one of those things that has united everybody, because it disgusted and disgraced each one of us,” added the local artist. “That’s why we did the painting – we don’t set the tone of what people are thinking, we just reflect what local communities are saying and they are seeing how reminiscent the attacks are with other racist and sectarian incidents in the past.”

Un pullman di turisti è stato oggi bersaglio di una sassaiola in Divis Street nell’area repubblicana di Falls Road, a West Belfast.
Una pietra a infranto un finestrino, ma fortunatamente nessuno dei passeggeri, provenienti da più parti del mondo, è rimasto ferito. Solo un forte stato di shock e poi il tour è proseguito.
Ben Allen, responsabile della società a cui appartiene il mezzo, ha dichiarato: “Sono arrabbiato, sono disgustato. I turisti vengono quì per divertirsi, per dare uno sguardo in giro ed invece ottengono questo: follia, completa follia”.
I lanci di pietre e sassi sono stati eventi piuttosto consueti durante il periodo dei Troubles, ma non recentemente.
Il PSNI e il conducente del pullman hanno confermato che i responsabili dell’attacco sono stati  5 ragazzi incappucciati, il più giovane dei quali dovrebbe avere circa 13 anni mentre il più vecchio, tra i 18 ed i 19 anni.

Tourist bus stoned in Belfast (Belfast Telegraph)
An open top bus full of tourists had a window smashed when it was stoned by youths in west Belfast today. None of the 40 tourists from around the world were injured, but the operator of Allen’s Tours said they were left in a state of shock. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said a number of youths wearing hooded tops were seen running away after the attack in Divis Street which runs into the nationalist Falls Road. Tour company boss Ben Allen said he was furious about the stoning. “A group of thugs came out of a side entry and started stoning the bus and one of the windows was smashed. Thankfully no one was injured but they were in shock. “I am angry, I am disgusted. Tourists are here to have a good time and have a look around and they get this, its madness, complete madness. “We had people from Canada, Australia and even a couple from Norway on board. “They didn’t want to abandon the trip, they all wanted to go ahead with the tour,” said Mr Allen. Stoning of buses was a daily occurrence during the troubles but less so recently. Mr Allen said: “This was a bit too realistic, a bit too close for comfort. One of the tourists asked me if this was a big deal. I said it used to happen all the time but not now.” He said his driver said there were five in the group of youths who attacked the bus. “He said the youngest looked about 13 and the oldest about 18 or 19.” He said he was going to make a decision about dropping the area from the tour route of his seven buses, but the drivers had told him they were happy to continue. “We are not going to be intimidated”, he said. It was the first time such an attack had been mounted on one of his vehicles. “A few weeks ago someone threw a brick from a building site – the sort of thing kids do – but this was different.” Open top bus tours of Belfast have become ever more popular with the increasing number of tourists visiting the city – taking in the republican and loyalist murals of east and west Belfast as well as the Harland and Wolff shipyard where the Titanic was built and where her tender, the SS Nomadic has recently returned to become a tourist attraction.

L’auto di Bobby Storey, è stata danneggiata dal lancio di vernice nera.
Come affermato da Storey, questo si è trattato dell’ultimo di una serie di attacchi ai membri ed ai simboli del Sinn Fein.  Tra gli obiettivi egli ha ricordato la Connolly House, le sedi di Falls Road e Turf Lodge, Mitchel McLaughlin e la sua famiglia, la targa Roll of Honour, il mural in ricordo di Gibilterra e dei martiri di Milltown.
L’uomo di Andersonstown, ha tenuto a ribadire che questi atti violenti non scoraggeranno i repubblicani nel loro lavoro. I responsabili non hanno  “alcun sostegno popolare, non hanno strategie e programmi che possano garantire il raggiungimento dell’obiettivo repubblicano quale è l’unità d’Irlanda”. Le loro azioni sono attacchi contro il popolo di West Belfast. Le uniche persone che condividono questi obiettivi hanno il desiderio di distruggere il processo di pace e di compromettere la strategia del Sinn Fein per conseguire un’Irlanda Unita. I repubblicani non permetteranno che ciò accada”.

Attacks on Sinn Fein ‘lack popular support’ (Irish News)
A leading Belfast republican has criticised those responsible for throwing black paint over his car, which he claimed was “the latest in a series of attacks on Sinn Fein members”.
Bobby Storey, chairman of Belfast Sinn Fein, said those who attacked the silver Volkswagen in Andersonstown and had taken part in other acts of vandalism against the party had “no popular support”.
The Maze Prison escapee, said the offices of Sinn Fein and republican memorials had been targeted in recent weeks.
“Our Connolly House, Falls Road and Turf Lodge advice centres have been paint bombed in recent weeks and our Falls Road office was targeted in a hoax bomb attack,” he said.
“The home of my party colleague Mitchel McLaughlin and his family was targeted with petrol bombs in an attempted murder and leading members of Sinn Fein have had their lives threatened by these groups.
“A Roll of Honour plaque was smashed to pieces, a sign with the face of Countess Markievicz was destroyed, paint was smeared all over the ground and the flagpole in the Turf Lodge republican memorial garden, and a mural in memory of the Gibraltar and Milltown Martyrs at the top of Monagh Road had the initials RIRA sprayed on it.”
The Andersonstown man said such attacks would not deter republicans from their work.
He said those responsible had “no popular support, no strategies and no programmes which can in any way advance the republican goal of a United Ireland.
“Their actions are attacks on the people of west Belfast,” Mr Storey said.
“The only objectives these people share are a desire to destroy the peace process and undermine the Sinn Fein strategy to achieve a United Ireland.
“Republicans will not allow this to happen.”

‘If Walls Could Talk’ (Se i muri potessero parlare) è il nome con cui è stata inaugurata la prima parte di un  ampio progetto che prevede una rivalutazione artstica dei “Peace Walls” di Belfast (Esistono ancora più di 40 barriere - Peace Line – nelle aree settarie del Nord, nonostante il processo di pace in corso).
Mezzo chilometro di barriera in una delle zone più povere di Belfast, Shankill Road. Il suo confine con la nazionalista Falls Road è stata regolarmente scena di violenze nel corso di 30 anni di conflitto.
Immagini delle tradizionali case in mattone e di vita comunitaria, ritratti di Edward Carson, che ha guidato la resistenza al Irish Home Rule, e l’originale Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Testimonianze di chi è morto al Somme durante la Prima Guerra Mondiale e immagini di orangisti, oltre s scene di guerra da Baghdad e Haifa in Israele. Tutto questo è quanto hanno espresso artisti locali attraverso i loro talento.
L’organizzatrice Roz Small, ha dichiarato: “Si è voluto dare alla gente di Shankill l’opportunità di raccontare la storia al mondo, e se vuole di ascoltarla.
“Si tratta di trasformare l’energia negativa,  in una positiva espressione degli abitanti di Shankill, della comunità e della storia”.
Roz Small, coordinatrice delle arti e del turismo presso il Greater Shankill Partnership, ha aggiunto: “La visione del futuro di questo progetto potrebbe essere quella di cronaca incidenti ed eventi durante tutto il periodo della storia Shankill”.

Artistic makeover for Belfast’s ‘peace walls’ (Breaking News.ie)
Belfast’s “peace walls” are getting an artistic facelift, it was revealed today.
Images from the North’s troubled past have been painted on the loyalist Shankill Road side of the division. More than 40 barriers remain in sectarian areas of the North despite the peace process.
A half-kilometre stretch through the most polarised parts of west Belfast – at times a virtual war zone during the conflict – has been transformed through the initiative by local artists.
Organiser Roz Small said: “This is about giving the Shankill people the opportunity to tell the history to the world if they want to listen to it.
“It is about taking what has been quite a negative energy and transforming that into a positive expression of the Shankill people and community and history.”
The first part of the project, ‘If Walls Could Talk’, is being unveiled today.
Images include traditional brick houses and community life, paintings of Edward Carson, who led resistance to Irish Home Rule, and the original Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
Testimonials to those who died at the Somme during the First World War and pictures of Orangemen are shown.
It also features scenes from Baghdad’s conflict-blighted Sadr City and Haifa in Israel.
Despite the peace process and power-sharing at Stormont, there has been renewed violence with dissident republicans shooting dead two soldiers and a policeman.
In 2007 it was announced that a 25ft-high fence would be built at Hazelwood Integrated Primary School in north Belfast.
It was erected to protect residents from attack.
The Shankill Road is one of the most deprived parts of the North, with diminished education and job prospects, and its boundary with the nationalist Falls Road was the scene of regular violence during the 30-year conflict.
Ms Small, co-ordinator of arts and tourism at the Greater Shankill Partnership, added: “The future vision of this would be to chronicle incidents and event through the period of the Shankill history.
“Within that are more of these artworks.”

Falls Road Animal Hospital

Probabilmente il nome Danny Devenny non vi dice nulla, ma chi ha visitato Belfast ed i suoi murales, non può non essersi soffermato dinnanzi al murale ritraente Bobby Sands, sulla facciata laterale della sede del Sinn Fein in Falls Road.
Danny Devenny si racconta al Financial Times, sottolineando come il suo essere artista abbia avuto radici nel Maze, dove imparò a disegnare su dei fazzoletti di carta, dato che il materiale da disegno non era ammesso in quel periodo, ma oggetto di contrabbando.
Diventò volontario dell’IRA a 15 anni, come la maggior parte dei ragazzi di quell’epoca e venne arrestato tre anni dopo, per una rapina in banca.
Da lì si susseguirono periodi di detenzione (nel 1980 si trovava a Long Kesh, nella stessa baracca in cui era confinato Bobby Sands), periodi di libertà, attentati subiti, attività come sostenitore del Sinn Fein, e ad oggi,  promotore del processo di pace.
Il suo primo murale fu nel 1995, chiamanto “International Wall”, uno dei 41 muri ancora in piedi tra le aree protestanti e cattoliche di Belfast. Con il passare degli anni e degli eventi c’è stato un cambiamento dei temi dei murales. Dai soggetti bellici, a quelli pacifisti.
Oggi i suoi dipinti sui muri richiamano l’attenzione sui conflitti e le ingiustizie nel mondo: l’Iraq, Guantánamo, la Palestina. Danny Devenny oltre a dipingere, è impegnato in progetti progetti per promuovere la pace e la comprensione tra le  due comunità, partendo dalle scuole.

Danny Devenny – “I Learnt To Draw In The Maze Prison, On Handkerchiefs”
I learnt how to draw at Long kesh prison. when the troubles arrived in ireland in 1968, people of my generation joined the ira automatically. That’s how 11 out of 13 people in my football team ended up imprisoned or dead. I volunteered at 15, in 1970, and three years later robbed a bank for the IRA, with two 16-year-old mates. We were just kids – we even forgot to bring a bag to put the money in. But there must have been a tip-off, because the police were waiting for us. A passer-by wrestled me to the ground, and I was shot three times as I tried to escape. It was like a scene from Dog Day Afternoon.
At the hospital, I was guarded by two young British soldiers. Even then, I loved drawing, and I would do pictures of Marc Bolan, Michael Jackson, George Best. The soldiers would ask me to draw Tommy guns for them. In return, they played Pink Floyd outside, loudly, so I could hear.
I was sent from the hospital to Long Kesh [the Maze] prison for four years. It was January 1973. We weren’t allowed drawing materials so we smuggled them in, and drew on handkerchiefs – political subjects – then smuggled them out again. As I’d been shot, I couldn’t play football, so I drew to pass the time, and became like the prison artist. We were kept in Nissan huts inside cages, with about 80 men in each cage. Bobby Sands was in the same cage as me, and one of my fellow-robbers, Seanna Walsh, became his closest friend. In 1981 he wanted to join the hunger strike, but Bobby wouldn’t let him. What no one knows is that Bobby, the first Republican hunger striker to die, was a poet, a guitarist, a man of great humanity who loved life. My painting of him on the wall of the Sinn Fein offices in the Falls Road tries to capture that spirit.
When I was released, I became a political activist for Sinn Fein, doing agitprop. I painted on boards, posters, newspapers. So, in 1978, I was arrested again – with Tom Hartley, who’s now the mayor of Belfast – on charges of sedition, but was released after nine months. That’s when I started painting murals, in a protest at the conditions in H-block after special category status for political prisoners was lifted. People were scared to employ me, so I went to Dublin, to do publicity for Sinn Fein. And I got shot again. I was walking back to the office with Pat Magee, and we ran into a UVF gunman, who was probably targeting someone else. Three years later, Pat bombed The Grand hotel in Brighton during the Conservative party conference. I didn’t have a clue.
My first mural on what’s called the “international wall” in the Falls Road – one of 41 walls still standing between Protestant and Catholic areas in Belfast – was in 1995. It dealt with the issue of deaths from plastic bullets. But the murals reflect the mood and political consciousness of our community, so they have become less bellicose since the Good Friday accord in 1998. I am totally committed to the peace process: there has to be a political solution.
Nowadays, my paintings along the wall draw attention to conflict and injustice all over the world – Iraq, Guantanamo, Palestine. I have teamed up with Mark Ervine, the son of a prominent Loyalist leader, and together we painted a mural of Picasso’s “Guernica”. We are involved in several projects to promote peace and understanding between our two communities, including work with children at schools where, for example, a Protestant school is on the boundary of a Catholic area, or vice versa. Mark and I were also invited to paint a series of Beatles murals in Liverpool, for the European Capital of Culture celebrations this year.
Ironically, the West Belfast murals are a big tourist attraction now. I was invited recently to give a talk at a library about the posters I did in prison. In those days, you could be arrested just for having a poster. I seem to have gone from agitator to establishment figure. It gives me hope for the future of Ireland.

Another World Episode 39

Belfast past midnight

Thriteen years ago, Nervys Young came from a village outside of London to Northern Ireland.  She intended to stay for a three year degree program and has not left since.  Ned talks about how totally naive she was when she first moved here, whether she’s ever considered herself a local, how people react to her accent, and why she hasn’t run for the hills yet.

Il Ministro delle Difesa e il Sinn Fein hanno apportato modifiche alle modalità delle parate in programma domenica 2 novembre.
Il Sinn Fein ha modificato la propria posizione relativamente alla marcia in protesta alla parata in onore delle truppe dell’Irish Royal Regement di ritorno dalla missione in Afghanistan, che si terrà in centro a Belfast.
Il portavoce per la sicurezza, Gerry Kelly, ha dichiarato che la parata avrà inizio a Falls Road e la manifestazione si svolgerà presso lo svincolo di Grosvenor Road e Fisherwick Place.
Oggi (31 ottobre n.d.r) il Ministro della Difesa ha elencato le modifiche che riguarderanno l’Army Parade: le truppe saranno disarmate, non vi sarà alcuna parata aerea ed il repertorio musicale rifletterà la triplice valenza della manifestazione, compresi i brani del reggimento.
Ieri (30 ottobre n.d.r.), sia la Parades Commission che il Community Relations Council hanno invitato alla calma, dato che migliaia di persone sono attese in corteo al centro della città sia per protesta che in sostegno dei soldati.

MOD and Sinn Fein changes to parade and protest
Sinn Fein has altered the location of its protest against the Army`s homecoming parade in Belfast city centre on Sunday.
Security spokesman Gerry Kelly said the parade would begin on the Falls Road and the demonstration would take place at the junction of the Grosvenor Road and Fisherwick Place.
Republicans called a press conference after the Ministry of Defence announced changes to the military march.
On Friday, the MOD decided the Army`s parade would be unarmed, there would be no flypast and the music would be changed to suit the day.
In a statement, the GOC for Northern Ireland Major General Chris Brown said:
“We have taken a number of measures to ensure that our Thanksgiving Parade does not increase the potential for friction.
These measures include the fact that all on the parade will be unarmed and the musical repertoire will reflect the tri-service nature of this event, including regimental tunes, as well as the fact that it is happening on a Sunday.
As a further measure I have decided there will be no flypast. This further underpins our appreciation of the sensitivities surrounding this element of the parade.”
On Thursday, both the Parades Commission and the Community Relations Council called for calm as thousands of people are expected to flock to the city centre both to protest against and support the soldiers.

Per gentile concessione di Italy32CSM

Another World Episode 10

Peace Walls of Belfast

This week, the program goes to the Falls Road for an interview with a black taxi driver about his experiences giving tours and being taken hostage.

In the second half, Claire Hagan discusses her work with people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder at Johns Hopkins medical center in Baltimore.

I just finished reading The Basque History of the World  by Mark Kurlansky, the same author who wrote Salt: A World History (which I’ve heard a lot about but have not read).  It’s the first book I’ve read about Basque history, or Basque anything really.  I’d say it the book makes for a good introduction/overview–a basic political history of the area that’s not too heavy on the politics…even though it is the politics of the situation that I am after.  Hmm.  My friend wrote a book about radical Basque youth movements that I hope to read next, and I’m sure that will satisfy my hunger for a radical perspective on Basque nationalism.  Anyway, Kurlansky does a good job of weaving in Basque language, culture, dress and cuisine as the history of the people and their land unfolds.  Maybe Max will want to try out some of the recipes for us?

I will freely admit that–though I had heard of ETA–I knew nothing about the Basque country or their struggle until I went to Belfast for the first time.  Irish republicans express a lot of solidarity with the Basque struggle, and there is a significant Basque immigrant community in Belfast.  Each year the August Féile in West Belfast has a Basque day (which I managed to miss the past two years) and am still kicking myself about.

This year’s Basque day is Thursday, and Batasuna’s Pernando Barrena will be unveiling the Basque Solidarity mural that is currently in progress on the Falls Road’s international wall.  The mural is a recreation of Picasso’s Guernica, and the project is being led by Danny Devenny and Mark Ervine.  This is the sort of participatory project that Eoin O’Broin talked about when he was in Detroit for the AMC –if you were in West Belfast right now you could just walk right up to the artists and help to create the mural.  Anyone interested in this should check out Máirtín O’Muilleoir’s blog.  Máirtín has been keeping track of the artists’ day-to-day progress, complete with pictures and all.  I’ll try to post a picture here when it’s finished.

Here’s an article from the Andersonstown News about the artists that are collaborating on the project:

A new image for city’s future

By Ciarán Barnes

A former IRA prisoner and the son of recently deceased PUP leader, David Ervine, have spoken of their desire to get involved in an ambitious project to redesign Belfast’s murals.

Danny Devenney and Mark Ervine met for the first time last year at a photography exhibition – despite living less than 200 yards away from each other in East Belfast.
Danny is from the Short Strand, while Mark grew up on the Woodstock Road.
Their mutual love of murals and their desire to see a lasting peace between republicans and loyalists brought them together.
Last month the artists were asked to paint a series of murals throughout Liverpool, highlighting the role the Beatles played in shaping the city.
Danny and Mark now want to embark on a similar project in Belfast.
“I knew Mark’s dad, David, but I didn’t get the opportunity to meet him until last year,” explained Danny.
“We were at a photography exhibition in the City Hall focusing on Belfast’s murals. Being two artists we were in a photograph together and our friendship started from there. We hit it off immediately.”
Despite coming from different cultural backgrounds Danny and Mark have a lot in common.
They both share an intense opposition to sectarianism and the crime that blights working class communities in Belfast.
“There are so many issues that Mark and I care passionately about,” explained Danny.
“Take our opposition to sectarianism for instance, and our hatred of drug-dealing and death-driving.
“It is issues like these which we want to tackle through our murals.
“Issues that both republican and loyalist communities are having to face up to and deal with on a regular basis,” he added.
Danny’s most famous work to date is the Bobby Sands mural at the side of the Sinn Féin centre on Sevastapol Street in West Belfast.
Mark recently finished the ‘New Dawn’ PUP mural in East Belfast. He also worked with kids from West Belfast on anti death-driving and friendship murals that adorn walls on Beechmount Avenue.
Both men say they cannot wait to get to work on the Liverpool project, as they are both huge Beatles fans.
“Now at the age of 53 I am getting a chance to paint my heroes,” said Danny.
“This is positive imagery and it’s about bringing a smile to people’s faces. If you turned a corner and saw, for example, a portrait of John Lennon on a wall, it would definitely make you smile.
“The murals have brought thousands of tourists to Belfast. There is no reason why they can’t do the same for Liverpool.”
Mark echoed Danny’s words, saying it is a “privilege” to be asked to paint the Beatles.
He added, “For us it would be an absolute privilege, it would be a big, big honour to paint them.
“This is the chance of a lifetime – it could become an international tourist attraction.
“We hope that by involving others, that would give the people of a particular area ownership of the mural,” added Mark.
At the beginning of the week Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness announced a £570,000 funding programme to help replace paramilitary-style murals with cultural paintings.
The move was given a cautious welcome by Danny, who wants to see Belfast’s murals turned into an even bigger tourist attraction.
“For years the arts in Belfast have been under-funded, just look at the Féile and the Dubbeljoint theatre group,” he said.
“If the Assembly is serious about promoting Belfast’s murals and transforming the paramilitary ones into cultural murals then we need the full support of local government.
“It is no use just paying lip service to the idea, the funding needs to be there as well.”

From the Ulster Herald: No misty eyes about ‘Banner’

Few tears will be shed for Operation Banner, the British army’s 38-year involvement in the conflict here. Despite nostalgic footage of housewives treating squaddies to cups of tea, this military adventure should be remembered for some of the most destructive events of the Troubles. British military policy fanned the flames of communal strife and brought us to the brink many times.

Ostensibly sent over to help the police “keep the peace,” Britain’s army was soon immersed in a draconian onslaught against those who opposed or even questioned the state. It began with the Falls Road ‘Curfew’ and quickly moved to internment and Bloody Sunday. If anyone had illusions about the “peace” credentials of the troops who poured onto our streets in 1969, they were soon shattered in partisan application of military might.

…the entire military operation rested on the notion that Catholics and Protestants here somehow just fell out. Promulgated around the world, the carefully fostered pretext for thousands of troops even took root here. It meant brushing under the carpet not only decades of misrule in the North, but also Britain’s obdurate refusal to do anything before the dams burst in violent denial of civil rights.

The fact that the army’s initial welcome was short-lived bears out the fact that it was never here to bring peace.

Its role actually turned civil unrest into civil war.