Ok, so I’ve nearly done on my comments about travels this year, but here’s one from a work trip that was back in January.
Part of the way these particular meetings are done is to give the participants a chance to learn about each other’s cultures first-hand. Â And this time, it was Belfast’s turn to host – and to give an insight into the famous murals representing images from the two sides of the political spectrum.
To help us put things in context, the hosts kindly laid on a slide show on the first night. We were able to see pictures that we’d then see for real the next day, as well as others that have now vanished, either under new murals or have been cleared. The guide and deviser of the slide show was scrupulously fair in portraying both sides, switching from Republican to Loyalist pictures and back.
I think few of the teachers who’d come from mainland UK had realised just how detailed the imagery is – I certainly didn’t realise there were so many symbols for each side to draw on. It was very powerful to be going in a coach along a local street, with little shops, and suddenly to hear that this was the Falls Road,and that buses didn’t serve at all at some points in the Troubles.
I hadn’t realised how close the different neighbourhoods are to each other at points. Perhaps one of the most impacting sights was going along the side of a fairly normal looking estate, and see murals covering the whole side of a house on the end of a row. Our guide also told us that at times, some people tried to cover over the mural…and might be visited in the night to be told, in no uncertain terms, that the mural was to stay.
On a happier note, it was also a trip which included a Northern Irish ceilidh. It was a little confusing where some dances were the same as Scottish ones, but with different names; others had the same name but slightly different steps in between. The Scottish contingent acquitted themselves well, however. In proper ceilidh fashion, there wasn’t just dancing but also some singing, including from two Welsh participants determined to keep the side up…