About holding onto history and moving on in post-conflict Northern Ireland.
By Anne Ford, American student at Danish Institute for Study Abroad
Language barriers, cultural practices and the events that make up a country’s history all play a large part in the way that the people within a society function. Upon enrolling in Cross Cultural Communications as my core study course at the Danish Institute of Study Abroad I was very unaware of the many cross cultural divides that impact people’s lives every day, but going to Northern Ireland opened my eyes.
Northern Ireland is one of four territories in the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland was a result of it’s split from the Republic of Ireland in 1921. The country is made up of 6 of the 9 Counties of ulster. Four out of the six counties identified as Unionist counties, and the other two were primarily Nationalist. This immediate divide in the small country of Northern Ireland was the first of many cultural differences.
The most recent violent time of conflict between the Protestants and the Catholics began in 1960 and lasted almost 50 years, a time known as “the Troubles.” During the Troubles properties were destroyed and hundreds of innocent people were killed.
It was not until I went on a study tour to Northern Ireland, that I could see the many factors that play into the way that people move on from a history of conflict. Through our planned visits, walking tours and cultural activities, it was apparent that there was a large societal gap in the way the people of Northern Ireland dealt with their country´s dark past.
Overall the people who were further from the violent events, were much more open to move on from the violent past. Through observing and speaking with several people I came to the conclusion that many young people in Northern Ireland
were much more keen on moving beyond the conflict than the older generations were.
On our first day in Northern Ireland, our class went on a guided walking tour of Falls and Shankill road. These roads were once the sight of several murders, bombings and violence between the Protestants and the Catholics during the Troubles. The two streets were lined with beautifully painted murals, memorials, and hundreds of battered flags.
All of which were an expression of pride and a way to show respect to the many lives that were lost during the war. The street itself was a great representation of conflict, however, our tour guides demonstrated a very real example of the remnants of conflict that still stand in Northern Ireland.
When we arrived at the top of Falls road, we came to a gate that lead to Shankill road. Before we even reached the gate, our tour guide had taken off his microphone headset and was on his way back down Falls road. This is the point in the tour that had the most impact on my understanding of conflict and lack of closure that our tour guide felt. Even after the wars had stopped, he refused to go onto the other road. This left me with the feeling that there was still an enormous amount of tension in Northern Ireland.
We don’t care about that anymore
That night, we went to a comedy club with our class. The club was near the main downtown area of Belfast, and was full of a wide array of people. My friends and I went to the bar and started talking to some young Irish students. We explained that we were studying cross cultural communications and that we had gone on a walking tour of Falls and Shankill road earlier that day.
I asked one of the girls in the group if she had experienced any of the cultural divides that I had witnessed earlier in the tour. Her response puzzled me. She started laughing and said, “ No! I´m Catholic and my boyfriend is a Protestant, nobody pays attention to that anymore, we all get along fine.“ She went on to point out the girls in her group of her friends, “she´s Protestant, she is Catholic, we don´t care, we´re friends.“
This response was so far from what I had expected. Earlier in the day I had such a different view on the divide in Northern Ireland, and after the comedy club I was completely confused by overall standing in the country.
After spending a few more days in Northern Ireland, and speaking to more people about the Protestant/ Catholic conflict, I came to the conclusion that attitudes were very much divided by generation. The young people in Northern Ireland had a much more relaxed and open attitude towards people who were different than them.
The elderly people, who had lived through the violence, were much more hesitant to move on from the divide. The hesitance comes from the identity that they have created for themselves. They have linked the pride and history that they demonstrated during the war, to their individual identities. They had friends and family killed, and some of them, had killed people themselves.
Getting along with one another and moving forward is a concept that is much harder for the older generations of Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. The young people may or may not have had family members affected by the wars, but it is much easier for them to move past the history that they did not emotionally experience first hand.
Cross Cultural Communications in Belfast 