Belfast Republican Parade

Last year I had to go to the UK for some family business and found myself with a an entire week free.  I’ve never had much affinity or interest in the UK, so instead of doing a traditional tour, I bought an eight day railway Brit Pass, which allowed me to ride any train in the UK, and rode from London to Holyhead Wales, where I caught a ferry to Dublin, then a train up to Belfast Northern Ireland.  I eventually went up to Thurso Scotland, the farthest north the UK train system goes, but that’s for another posting.

Since my family has deep roots in Northern Ireland, I decided to spend a day in Belfast.  I was really interested the history of what’s known as the ‘troubles’, the conflict between the Catholic Republicans and Protestant Unionists that hit it’s apex during the 70’s and 80’s in West Belfast.  I did the tourist thing and booked onto a hop on/hop off double decker bus.  I took one through London and the guide was pointing out the regular tour guide stuff, on this ride, he was telling us about all the bombings and assassinations.  The Europa Hotel, a block from the Travel lodge I stayed at, had been bombed 33 times, making it the world’s most bombed hotel.  This activist had been shot in his kitchen by British backed paramilitary in front of his wife and daughter.  Some scary stuff.

I wanted to get some pics of the famous murals around Skankill Road, so I hopped off there, despite the bus driver giving me a look and shaking his head.  I spent about half an hour walking around, but the neighbourhood was like a ghost town.  I noticed one of the pubs was busy so I popped in and asked them what was up.  It turns out there was a parade planned to honour the IRA paramilitary soldiers who went on hunger strike in 1981, with ten of them eventually dying from starvation.  Before the hunger strikes, there had been what was called the ‘Blanket Protest’ where the IRA prisoners had refused to wear the prison clothes issued to common criminals, as they viewed themselves as political prisoners, so they had gone naked, except for wrapping themselves in blankets.  The survivors of that were leading the parade, still wrapped in their blankets.

When you think of the classic British Bobby, un-armed walking the beat, that is definitely not what you get in West Belfast.  I walked past the police station and it was like a fortress, with the streets were blocked with these armoured Land Rovers.

I was invited in for a pint at the local Republican Pub.  It must have been the toughest looking bar I’ve ever been in.  They had pictures of IRA guys who had died in the troubles all over the place.

The parade was huge, and took nearly an hour to pass.  Mostly just ordinary citizens.

There are a lot of these memorials around on street corners.  I spent from 1994 to 1997  covering the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and when I go back to South Africa now, I get the feeling that the country has totally moved on from the strife.  Young people don’t even remember the anti-apartheid struggle, and most old people just shake their heads and say that was a bad time.  Belfast on the other hand, looked like it was about to blow at any minute.  It has to be one of the tensest places I’ve ever been to.

After the parade, there wasn’t a bus to be seen, so I ended up walking a couple of miles back to my hotel.  Overall, I really enjoyed Belfast, and it was one of the only places in the UK where I would really like to spend more time in.