Back to Belfast

For our third trip to Belfast Nina and I forged our way from Derry to Belfast on the public bus. We were a bit nervous traveling by ourselves, mostly because we didn’t even have directions to Belfast Exposed after arriving at the bus station. Once we left the bus station we were relieved to see that Belfast Opera house which we had walked by the day before with our group. From there, the capital building can be seen, a landmark that is almost impossible to miss with its large ferris wheel located directly adjacent to it. Fifteen minutes later we arrived at Belfast Exposed because Nina recognized the construction site that we have to pass before getting to Belfast Exposed from afar and exclaimed “I see Patton, I know where we are!!” All in all, we only got confused, but never lost, for a few minutes on our way.

When we walked in the doors a few minutes late we actually had an assignment waiting for us. Pauline, the director of the Gallery is leading and participating in two talks for which she needed some background information and research. Both of the talks relate to the current exhibition of Immigration around the world. The first talk pertains to the new border control regulations and deportation processes for the United Kingdom as well as other countries around the world. For this talk, Pauline needed to give some up to date information on individual deportation campaigns that have been raised. This was an interesting assignment, and one that I was not particularly expecting because it did not pertain only to Northern Ireland, the main theme of our studies. My research lead me to find many accounts of people traveling and immigrating to the United Kingdom as a whole, and two families in the Republic of Ireland.

The topic of immigration is not one that I know much about, even though it is a very hot topic in the United States too in recent years. I enjoyed being able to take the time to learn some more about immigration and deportation issues. I found that there were numerous blog entries from various people about controversial deportation occurrences. Newspapers and other news sources publish stories of individual family situation and then individuals take up issue to bring further awareness to the public and create a support network for the struggling families.

One of the stories in which I noticed this occurrence was the deportation of the Nigerian family of Olivia Agbanlahor and her six year old twins Great and Melissa. They moved Clonakility, a town in the south of the Republic of Ireland in order to escape the dangerous living situations in Nigeria. In 2006, Justice Minister Michael McDowell signed an order to deport the family. Soon after, Great was diagnosed with Autism, a condition that is associated with possession by evil spirits in Nigeria. If forced to move back to Nigeria, Great would both be ostracized and unable to receive the constant support and medical care needed. Olivia stated that she no longer has family in Nigeria and her children have never been there. She also said that it would be a death sentence for Great to be sent back to Nigeria after being diagnosed with Autism.



These kinds of stories are heart wrenching and create a sense of community within people who read about, support or are involved in the process. I understand that governments cannot bend their rules for every single sad case that comes up because almost everyone that immigrates to a new country is leaving some kind of hardship. Each family has it’s own emotional story and it is extremely sad that some people just do not have the opportunity to remain in safety. I wonder how the families that I researched are making out after being deported back to their home countries and I hope they have managed to find safety and security.

Half way through already?

Hello again! I hope you are all excited to read more about my travels!

Nina an I again traveled the two hour journey to Belfast to spend our second and third days working at Belfast Exposed. The dynamic of the workplace is completely different than anything I have seen in the United States. The first day we were there both Nina and I thought the lack of structure and plans were just an component of getting used to and integrated into a new space. However, I have come to see that people here simply don’t have such structured and planed out days, both at work and in everyday life. I am so used to the hustle and bustle of every activity at home that it is almost hard to accept that other cultures are more relaxed and carefree about their time schedules.

A result of this lack of planing lead us to spend a good portion of our second day talking with Melvin, the resident photographer and community workshop leader. He has taken many of the pictures that make up the archive and is able to talk in detail about almost every photo. We talked for a long time about his current project, which he has been working on for years. Every summer for almost 100 years the Protestant communities in several cities and towns in Northern Ireland build huge bonfires out of collected wood. The largest is located in Belfast on Shankill Road. On the night of the11th of July these bonfires are lit in order to celebrate the 12th of July, a very important Unionist holiday celebrating their victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Marvin has been visiting all the cites and photographing the process of building these huge bonfires (the largest are multiple stories high!) and will visit each site again the night they are lit in July. In interesting tid bit about these fires is that they typically were made from old tires, but burning of these tires is now banned because of the environmental harm that burning of rubber causes.

I asked him if I would be able to attend the bonfire celebration (if I were here on that night) and he assured me that they are very safe until a certain point in the night when “you just know when to leave” before the drunken rowdiness and fighting begins. I was interested in hear that tourists would be welcome to this huge celebration of Protestant and Unionist identity. I thought this would be a time when outsiders would not be accepted. I then asked if Marvin had ever attended a bonfire when he was growing up. He replied that he would not have been allowed to, a quite obvious sign of his Catholic, Republican upbringing.

After living in Northern Ireland for over a week now and knowing
a “wee bit” more about the conflict I find myself trying to figure out which side people are on. Some people, mostly the professors who give our lectures, seem more neutral and it is hard to pin point their history. Often they will make a fleeting comment which then shows their orientation. I find these moments very interesting because they try to give unbiased information, but there always seems to be a moment when their personal biases and orientations become evident. On the other hand, others do not wish to hid their backgrounds. For example, a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force led our group through a tour of Unionist Murals in Belfast yesterday. He was wearing a short sleeved shirt revealing a tattoo on his forearm saying U.V.F. POW 76.He wanted everyone to know that he served time in prison because of his involvement in paramilitary activity in 1976. I am also amazed at how this man is still considered a terrorist, yet guided us through Belfast enthusiastically. He seemed to be a very nice person, though one with very strong personal beliefs and important involvement in the U.V.F. to this day. His biases were very evident and it was also obvious that he purposefully tried to avoid making loaded comments about the opposing Catholic community.



Meeting people from both sides helps me to understand better the extremity and seriousness of the conflict. I also find myself developing my own ideas and biases of the conflict, even though I did not even know about the Troubles while they were happening. I hope to continue meeting people and hearing personal accounts of the time. I find it amazing that every person has their own personal stories of how they have been affected by the events of the past thirty years. I am also amazed I have been meeting and talking to people who are regarded as terrorists, paramilitaries and murderers as part of our educational and cultural experiences.

Let's Start at the Beginning...

Hi everyone, my name is Stephanie and this blog is a method of documenting the course of my study abroad program in Northern Ireland. I, with 22 other students from Bucknell University, are staying for three weeks in Londonderry, or simply, Derry. Here we are studying the political Troubles of the past thirty years and the peace process that has begun in the past few years, changing the face of politics for the entire country. While here we are listening to speakers telling both the long term history of British rule in Ireland as well as personal accounts of the recent conflict. Also, in order to supplement our understanding of the sectarianism and the day to day life in Northern Ireland, we each work in a community organization for six days over the length of our stay.

Nina, a good friend of mine and fellow Bucknell in Northern Ireland participant, and I are working at an art gallery and photo archive called Belfast Exposed, approximately a two hour drive from Derry. Belfast Exposed was formed in 1983 as a method of capturing and documenting the events of the troubles. The gallery usually has continuous Photography exhibitions by both local and international artists. At this date however, there is a video exhibition focusing on immigration. This show includes approximately ten video projections, each examining different methods of and reasons for moving to a new country. These reasons and methods range from involuntary military kidnapping and imprisonment to moving from one’s free will to establish a better life for oneself or one’s family. The theme of immigration relates to the conflict in Northern Ireland because of the great number of people who have immigrated from Ireland and Northern Ireland throughout history.

Within the gallery is a small room which holds the computer archive database called The Gateway and are meant to bring a public awareness to the violence and events of the conflict. At this time the records are only available to the public when the gallery is open, but the people developing the archives hope to soon release the entire archive on the Internet. Originally, the photo archive dealt only held photos pertaining directly to the events occurring at the time, but now have been expanded to include photos dating from as far back as the late 1800's. This archive is important today because of the awareness that is brought to the public through these photos.

The Gateway is divided into three basic sections: political landscapes, the community and the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. Political landscapes deals with the divide in the Unionist (those wishing to be part of Britain) and Nationalist (those who want to join with the Republic of Ireland) perspectives. One of the photographs under this section depicts a funeral procession of an Irish Republican Army member. This group is obviously Nationalist because of the placement of an Irish flag on top of the casket. The Unionist group only uses the British flag and will never identify with the Irish flag or colors. Also, in the foreground of the photo, the hearse has the letters IPLO in a flower arrangement, showing the association of the IRA with the Irish People’s Liberation Organization. The community section of The Gateway shows daily life of the Unionist and Nationalist communities in the 1980's, for example sports events and mural art seen throughout both communities. The third section, the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, contains photographs from the late 1800's of historically important places, like the Belfast Harbor and the Albert Clock.

The photo archive at Belfast Exposed is the only of its type in all of the world, making it an important element in documenting the events of the Troubles as well as helping the public to realize and understand the extent of the violence and conflict of Northern Ireland. The gallery also only exhibits work that pertains to the history of Northern Ireland, making Belfast Exposed a very important piece of the complicated history of this country.

Over the course of my stay in Northern Ireland I will be documenting the happenings at Belfast Exposed as well as the many interesting and important people and places that we are experiencing. I hope you check back as I develop this blog and I also encourage you to research a little of the political divisions and sectarianism of life throughout the past thirty years.