A few people ruining for the majority. That's the age-old story of Belfast, Northern Ireland, and that majority has been sick of it for decades.
To the American layperson, the image of Belfast remains stained by the brutal violence of the seventies, eighties, nineties and early 2000s. For many visitors to the island, this means intentionally not visiting the North, and instead ordering another pint in the Republic, while kissing the Blarney Stone and circling the Ring of Kerry.
Belfast was my home for two years, from 2005 to 2007. The city comprises the dearest, most loving and caring people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. Protestant and Catholic alike. 99 percent of them would hate my labeling them that way, with the "P" and "C" words. But here I have to, to announce that there are so, so many residents of that city who think this flag issue is another chapter in the book of stupid local conflicts. And there is another section of the city yet even more perturbed; a section dedicated to peace work and reconciliation. There they sit, head in hands, as the media tells the world just the opposite of the truth: Belfast is the same old Belfast it always has been.
Now come articles implying the recent protests and violence over the flying of flags at City Hall are keeping Belfastians from shopping at City Centre. In a country where the economy is shaky on a good day, this presents a poignant problem for small business owners.
But articles like these present a global problem, as well. They send an incorrect message, read and misinterpreted by so many. Any media publication, for that matter, that covers the small group of people who protest, riot and who make a bigger scene of this matter than necessary is simultaneously doing that great city and its people a disservice.
Yes, these events have to be covered. They are a continuation of a story that at one time encapsulated the world, with its most famous chapter published in 1998 with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. But the story has since had several chapters of a different tone, containing not petrol bombs but smiles, not stone throwing but hands shaking, not division but neighborhood unification.
Go and visit Belfast. Yes, you will see the flags and the murals that provide the backdrop to the negative stories that flood the news. But you will not see enough active disagreement to justify the attention these topical issues receive.
My bet is that you will meet people who live in the future. People who want nothing more than their city to be known for the attitudes of the kind and caring, and not for those living 30 years in past.
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After a month of rioting, after crippling main streets,putting all in danger, the citizens of the stricken community in Belfast begin to pull together. Protestant and Catholic, take responsibility, sharing and distributing blame equally. Several people start saying “They’re both to blame “[Extremists] to news outlets. That’s real change, real growth.
There is another march, A peaceful one this time with monitors and police, not with water cannon , handing out flyers to marchers, informing them that they are breaking the law and to not cover their faces with balaclavas’ as they are accustomed .
The community has empowered itself with belief that no one or one group should put an entire town’s safety and economy at risk. They have taken back the community. This time.
That’s real power.
I am sorry you think I was saying that "that city is filled with hate, and mean, nasty folks who are out for blood?"That is the paradox of Belfast. Kind people
with a very sad history.
We were out on the street half the night chatting with the neighbours - a good bonding exercise (and I knew I still had half a bottle of Powers waiting for me so . . . )
There are nice people here,yes. Do they stick up for themselves? No.
To quote HC, "What difference does it make?". If you think STRANMILLIS is a low rent area then you didn't LIVE in Belfast, you SKIMMED over Belfast.These riots are BAD for all of Belfast, not just the sheltered BT9-er or in a pinch BT8. I live where you can hear the helicopters and police sirens every day there is a riot (laughingly known as peaceful protests). My husband 's work puts out a daily list of scheduled riots ( not including flash mobs).
Belfast has and could have more attractive qualities
if people like you and its own CITIZENS would get your head out of the sand. and stop lying to yourself. You see 8 year throwing stones and encouraged by their guardians
Some of these people have grown so callous about injury that I heard it said, by the people who live here-natives- “There’s mean people out there. They’re so mean they’d put your eye out and tell you- ‘You look better that way’.”
They are no better and no worse than the other actors.
But they have the highest rate of suicide among young men between 18-24 in the WESTERN WORLD.
Try and skim over that.
Respectfully,
Me
http://americaphile.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/amnesty-international-admits-humanitarian-crisis-in-british-ulster/