Peace Wall

The next day we were in for a complete turn in scenery. After having a brief orientation including ice breakers and meeting with our leaders from Corrymeela for the week we were given a tour of the residential areas of Belfast. Out tour guide, Ivan Cross, showed us the murals and messages painted on the sides of all available walls in both Protestant and Catholic communities.

Above is a photograph of one of many extensive peace walls that separate Northern Ireland in every city. These walls are the one thing the Protestants and Catholics agree about. The green metal  panels and the wire fence on top are additions to the concrete wall below. These additions were built to ensure the safety of each side from the other.

On the green section of the wall you can make out the letters KAT. This stands for Kill All Taigs. Taig and Fenian are derogatory names for a Catholics while Huns were for Protestants. In addition we were able to see the graffiti which mostly consisted of well wishers from foreign tourists. This brought forward a question which we considered for the rest of the week, why are other countries encouraging one side of a foreign conflict when their countries have their own problems? It also raised the question, what are our walls internally and inter-personally?

"We build too many walls and not enough bridges"-Isaac Newton.