(Arruebarrena) Eerie Belfast

Passing through quaint villages and weaving around hills and mountains, the Coast Road guided our bus from Giant's Causeway down south towards Belfast.  Each town seemed like a desirable place to live, and each person looked quite content.  But these images of complacency were fading as our coach swiftly passed these villas.

The city center of Belfast was not, as I expected, outright frightening or threatening, but only hints towards an unspoken tension.  A young couple passing by on the streets looked like Slipknot fans, with their long metallic hair covering their pale faces.  Few rowdy men, who poked fun at a cock-eyed lady, quickly straightened their lean for the fully equipped policemen.  While waiting outside of Spars, I felt out of place, but the other idle people seemed just as strange as me.  That friday night on the other side of the globe in Colorado, a mad man went on a killing spree outside of the movie theaters before the showing of Batman: Dark Night Rises, and, how intersting, I had a slight fear of the same situation in the Belfast theater when I watched the premier of Batman.


As I walked around the Botanic Garden right off Malone Road, young teenage lovers were lying in the field and hiding around bushes and in pathways.  A strange girl with bright red hair gave me a high five as I passed her in the garden.  While walking back to her friends, equally rebellious looking, she had a strange uncontrollable nervous giggle.  All the outlandish kids around made the park seem like a scene from a dystopian movie, and, as I passed an elderly man, he looked at me with a cold face.  I felt estranged from the people in this park, and got no heartfelt expressions, just distant ackowledgment. 

The day earlier, our passing tour bus did not seem to unsettle the locals, and, in fact, there has been a tourist boom in recent years. "There has been peace in Belfast since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998," the monotone tour guide explained as we stopped in front of the peace wall.


"A black and white mural of Marian Price is at about 7 o'clock to our bus.  If you just gaze your eyes," he continued, "She was a key part of the hunger strike movement."  Her efforts are greatly revered by the nationalists, who strive to create a unified Ireland.  As we went over to the loyalist side of the wall, the flags changed from Irish to British.  The tour guide pointed to the British flags saying, "Most of these flags will be taken down at the end of the month.  The month of July commemorates William of Orange's victory over James II of England."  The protestants show true dedication to the British, making it clear, to an outside point of view, that these troubles between the two sides are rooted deep in the person's upbringing.  A prejudice resides deep within the parents' unconscious, passes down to the children, and continues down the generation lines. 

Nevertheless, the conflict is being handled.  As of a couple of years, the government is making an effort to remove some parts of the wall.  To me, the wall needs to go down, for it is only a reminder now of the troubles, but, of course, there are still loyalists and unionists who want to keep it up.  Sadly, however much change Belfast undertakes, a sense of pain might always linger, which shows itself through the murals and the people.  It was not that long ago that there were hundreds of innocent people dying.