Belfast Part I

Greetings from lovely Belfast!

Today is officially my third full day in Belfast, although only the first had anything of interest to report, and the third hasn't really started yet. The bus ride up from Dublin was quite beautiful, rather rainy and very green, and I managed to accompany it with the right soundtrack on my ipod. In any case, very atmospheric. I took a cab to my dorm at Queens University, in the south of the city, and have found it so far to be extremely suitable (sink in room, toilet and shower not).

On Friday I had my (drum roll, please) very first interview with Mike Ritchie (not to be confused with Mark Ritchie, Minnesota's Secretary of State). He's the Executive Director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), a human rights advocacy organization that did and has continued to do quite a bit of work concerning the Troubles and in emphasizing the importance of human rights in the governance of Northern Ireland. I learned a bunch of interesting things from him. For example, he believes that a truth commission, or at least an objective, consolidated view of history might be very useful in moving forward in reconcilliation. He also said that the situation in Belfast might be considered a benign apartheid, in which people seem peaceful, but that voilence errupts almost every summer. He also talked about his previous job in which he worked with Republican ex-prisoners and engaged them in face-to-face discussion with Unionist prisoners and other "opposition" parties about important issues in the community. Great first interview, and gave me a lot of confidence that the rest will go well as well.

I then went next door to this cool gallery called Belfast Exposed and browsed through their extensive photo archive. I came across a photo (which I can't find online, but does, I promise, exist on their archive at the gallery), of one of those famous Unionist murals that I hope to tour this week with an Israeli flag waving in front of it. Mr. Ritchie told me that during the Intifada, Palestininian flags started to show up in Republican neighborhoods and Israeli flags popped up in Unionist neighborhoods. Just another interesting point of comparison.

I spent much of the rest of that day wandering through Belfast and buying a cheap lunch (thanks Marks and Spencer!), and then found what I believe will be my day-time watering hole for the rest of my stay here -- The Linen Hall Library. It's a wonderful, rather small public library with cheap wireless, a wonderful cafe, and a great Irish history collection in addition to the Northern Ireland Political Collection, which I'm hoping to dig through, starting this week. It's also right on the main square, practically across the street from my central Belfast bus stop. Seems like a perfect place to spend a lot of my time.

And that's the long news from Lake Woebegone. Not sure what's in store for the rest of today, as most of the city is closed on Sunday, it seems. In any case, please keep those emails coming. I know I sound cheerful, but it is pretty lonely here, and it's beginning to get to me. Also, I have Skype! My username is sturbow, so if any of you would like to talk to me voice-to-voice or face-to-face (engage in dialogue, so to speak, ha ha), I would gladly welcome that.

As usual, thanks for reading, and I promise more pictures for next time!

Until then,
Sarah