“Love, Peace
and Happiness
is this Possible
IN Belfast……?”
These words were plastered on a wall during our walk to Queen’s University Belfast. The street art caught my attention just as I was about to pass by. Illegally graffitied on the city building, the words open up new possibilities for those who might share the same ideologies. It also creates a place of contention for others.
The side an Irish person might fall on the divide between nationalist and unionist would determine how that person would respond to that statement. In Northern Ireland, people tend to lean one of two ways: Irish or British. Our tour guide that led us through Falls Road and Shankill Road told us how the real issue undergirding the Irish Troubles is not religious (i.e. Catholic vs. Protestant) but one about identity—identity found in either Britishness or Irishness.
The neighborhoods in west Belfast are divided by physical location—place of identity. While Falls road houses Catholics (those who identify as Irish), Skankill road houses Protestants (those who embrace their own Britishness). In these neighborhoods, the place constructed through desired identity is even complete with flags that either represent Ireland as a nation or give homage to Britain, revealing Unionist sentiments.
One of the best examples explained to us surrounds an Irishman named Stevie McKeag. In the Protestant are of Skankill, Stevie is decorated and commemorated as a war hero. A mural is displayed boldly in his honor. However, in the Catholic area of Falls road, Stevie is remembered as a murderer of not only those directly involved in the Troubles but innocent civilians. A plaque that commemorates the deaths of innocent people contains at least eight people known to be murdered by Stevie. Those names spanning Dominic O’Connor through Philomena Hanna are said to among his victims—same man, different place.
