Land of Hate: Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Belfast is more of a war-torn country than I have seen. Parts remind me of Detroit, or even are what I’d imagine a place like Kosovo would look like. The biggest thing that still remains from all the years of conflict is the hate that still lies in the people’s hearts. The murals that decorate the city are harsh reminders of what happened in the name of religion. It’s a big surprise to me that more Irish people hate the idea of established religion or of faith at all. So many deaths amounted to so little. It’s hard for me to realize the full truths of that place, but I can share a few stories.
On a day off KC, Julia, and I were able to hang out with a couple of local guys (one of them had volunteered on the ship). On a rare day that boasted a clear sky, they drove us to Belfast Castle (again) and then took us to Cannok Castle, which is a real castle. It was closed, but the view of Belfast and the castle was glorious. After that they drove us to a part of town that was obviously torn, and showed us the enormous wall that was erected with the purpose of keeping peace between the Catholics and Protestants. It was huge, and made me wonder if it was larger than the Berlin Wall. After this they showed us to the place with a bunch of murals painted on the walls. One was a memorial to a man who had been killed by the IRA, and had a big picture of him with some crosses and things around it. One of the guys told us a story about how he had brought a group of kids here and one suddenly burst out in tears. The kid was in a blind rage because the huge memorial to this thug hit him to the core. Apparently, this guy had killed this kid’s uncle. The whole group had to go, and the kid never went back.
The next day, a group of us ventured to a nearby basketball/soccer court to play some basketball. As we were playing kids started walking by and looking suspiciously at us. Eventually they started to throw eggs onto the court. Clayton went to confront them and (to make a long story short) we ended up hanging out with them and playing soccer with them. One of the guys said they were just throwing eggs because they didn’t know us and had assumed we were Catholics. They then showed us around their part of town. We walked to another wall nearby, and they told us some stories of their childhood. When one of the guys was young, there was a celebration happening on his side of the wall, and a sniper was perched up on the other side, just shooting at people. Another guy was shot at when he was just playing with his friends when he was 10 or so. We ventured near to the catholic side, and some of the kids came and started taunting the leader we were hanging out with, and if we hadn’t walked away, would have done more probably. The hate has trickled down through the generations.
Belfast was such an awesome port to be in, and was a great blessing. The sail from there to Dublin was short lived, and I don’t recall if anything interesting happened: probably not. Dublin is such a cool city. I been out exploring most days, and tried to find the Red Wings game, but was unsuccessful. There are castles, and cathedrals, and the city is so much older than I am used to. There are also a ton of people from all over. I have a busy week ahead of me, with a volleyball game, basketball game, and a dinner with some local Americans.
One request from my end; one of my friends here is going home on account of medical problems, and if you could please pray for him, so he can return ASAP (his name is John).