Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Belfast's Political Murals

“If a Protestant enters a Catholic bar and kills five people, the solution is to go to a Protestant bar and kill twenty. That way they never do it again.”

On Easter Sunday we all had breakfast in the hostel. It was the first time we’ve eaten breakfast as a group, something that seemed befitting for the holiday. After we disembarked for tours of Belfast’s political murals. We took a Black Cab Tour, which means that most of our guides were Irish Catholic and lived through the Troubles themselves. Some were also former-IRA members during the conflict.






The murals reflected the devastation of the Troubles, in which thousands of Protestants and Catholics were murdered. The effects of this vicious violence are still visible in Belfast today. Not only did our drivers each have individual experiences to contribute, but the partition between Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods remains a stark reminder. 

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