Cameron, Alex and Sasunnach the English Springer Spaniel - all of us Australian by birth - have moved, first to England, and now more recently to Northern Ireland! Cameron works at All Saints Church, Belfast, Alex is a skilled artisan, most recently using her skills as a Fine Art Printmaker (any excuse to play with dangerous chemicals!). Sasunnach, ('Englishman' in Scots Gaelic) likes being wet, chasing things, and being chased.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Belfast Christmas Past
From the BBC news website today comes this archive film of Christmas in Belfast in 1978.
Thankfully much has changed in the thirty years since this report, and the wish for peace did come—even if it did take more than 20 years from the time this question was asked of the poor frisked folk in the city streets.
Northern Ireland has been so much luckier than all the areas of the world that still waits for peace.
Grace and peace to you, our friends. Happy Christmas.
I feel that I should be able to write something more interesting than "it's cold and wet in Belfast", but this thought seems to take up way too much of our brain space at the moment. Even the spaniel (who wears a thick double-coat of fur) is feeling the icy dampness which IS Northern Ireland, as evidenced by his very sorry look and eternal hope to clamber up next to us on the couch.
I am also aware that, even though there has only been a couple of posts from Belfast, I don't want to give a false impression of what it's like only writing lighthearted quips and by linking attractive photos of beaches and hills (although these scenes really do exist just 10 minutes drive away from the city centre).
And so I am posting an article archived from 2007 which described Belfast from a political perspective:
"Compared to the decades of sectarian violence known as "The Troubles," when Catholic and Protestant militias fought it out with bullets and bombs, knee-cappings and reprisal killings, there is now relative peace on the streets of Belfast and elsewhere in the British province.
[However] it is a deeply scarred place, where violence left 3,624 people dead and 40,000 injured — scars that may take generations to heal. Although it's been 13 years since the first ceasefire was agreed upon by the opposing militias, on the ground there remains a heavily-segregated society, where Catholics and Protestants generally don't mix or live together... there are 20 walls in Belfast built by the British government to separate Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods ...and no one is knocking down with picks and hammers."
Here some of the 'Peace Murals' which are found in parts of the city and often on the Peace Walls:
When I was a teenager and listening to Simple Minds in Australia, I had no concept of the meaning of the words to 'Belfast Child'-the hit of 1987. I could never have guessed that I would be thinking about the society, history and culture which provoked the writing of this song, that we would be learning to love the people of the city, of this song— and that the lyrics would come to mean something more personal; some of those 'empty, cold streets' are just around the corner. Belfast is now our home.
We can truly hope that Billy and Mary (of the song) have come home-or will soon—but realistically, such a complete reconciliation will only be possible when Jesus, the Prince of Peace, returns to make all things new. Until then, we will do our best to make him known and loved, so that Billy and Mary will be reconciled to Him who is more important than any other.
