Highlights: July 2013

Friday, July 19, 2013

Violence in Belfast...Again

On Thursday July 11^th, we were looking forward to a fun cultural experience to occur over the course of the next day. However, due to choices made by members of a sectarian group, violence and sadness became the theme instead. But first, a little backstory: on the 12^th of July in 1690 Protestant King William of Orange from the Netherlands defeated the last stronghold of Catholic King James II from England in the Battle of the Boyne in Northern Ireland. In order for King William to know how to find the route to King James’ camp in the middle of the night, his Protestant supporters built giant bonfires to guide his army. Today, the giant bonfires are still lit on the 11^th of July near midnight, and on the 12^th of July the Order of Orange march throughout Northern Ireland. We tried to stay up to watch the bonfire near us get lit, but 11:15 came and it still was not aflame so we headed for bed. The next day, we were awaken at 8:00 as one of the marching bands paraded past our house. We walked over to the Ormeau Road, a five minute stroll from our house and watched, along with a miniature army of police, the multitude of neatly-dressed marching bands from South Belfast head towards city hall to join with the bands from the other areas of Belfast. The rest of the day we went about our business, which included welcoming an old friend of Dave’s to our house for the weekend. Shortly before 8:00 p.m., we made our way back to the Ormeau Road and watched the bands march back down the street. However, at this point they had had all day to soak in liquor and heighten their rage against anyone not in the Orange Order. The morning’s miniature army of police had grown to include a group of police in SWAT gear. This is when our fun cultural experience started to morph into a scary sectarian riot. The formerly orderly Order of Orange groups were now a bawdy group of drunkards with un-tucked shirts and members wandering in and out of the crowded sidewalks. When earlier in the day the police had provided just a presence along the parade route, mostly standing on the sidelines and a few patrolling alongside the marchers, at this point there was now a barricade of police officers dressed in riot gear blocking off access to a Catholic neighborhood along the parade route. We found out that the buffed-up police presence, including over 600 additional forces imported that day from Scotland, England, & Wales, was due to rioting that had started earlier on Friday. The North Irish police had banned the Protestant Orange Order marchers from marching through a Catholic area in North Belfast, and so the Protestant Orange Order members responded with chucking bricks, hurling petrol bombs, and firing missiles at police, prompting police to respond with water cannons and rubber bullets to hold back the rioters. To illustrate the local opinion of the Orange Order, one member of our church described them as the North Irish version of the Ku Klux Klan. The rioting went on to last into the night on Friday, and go through Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday leaving 71 police officers injured in the hospital. This past Tuesday night, a petrol bomb was thrown directly at a police officer and knocked him down (which led to cheers from the rioters), and so the prosecutors are now looking to file attempted murder charges against the responsible party. So many people were arrested that courthouses were opened for special sessions on Sunday to allow for arraignments. This latest round of Belfast violence and rioting has led to a real sense of disappointment within the city, disappointment with not only the members of certain groups but also a disappointment with the leaders of these groups who put out a call for rioting. And this coming Saturday, more protests are planned by the Orangemen. I have never felt so much hatred and violence so close to home, so woven into the fibers of my community. Many in Belfast are holding out one last hope for Richard Haas, a former U.S. senior diplomat and special envoy to Northern Ireland who served in Belfast from 2001-2003, who arrived on Wednesday. He is a seasoned negotiator and has respect from all sides of this problem. One thing is clear, that Belfast still has a ways to go towards its perpetual struggle for reconciliation since the 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement was first signed. Only the future history books know how Belfast will be able to become the stable society for which it has potential. Until then, Dave and I pray that our community leaders can find a way to quell the most recent rioters and that those spreading violence and hate can be drowned out by the leaders of peace.

Notice the Republic of Ireland flag to be burned on top. The Republic flag is a symbol of Catholicism to many Orangemen.

A march next to our house.

Policemen near the parade in the morning.

One of the Orange bands.

One of the SWAT vehicles in the evening.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

A Due Date

A few pregnant belly pictures with hope for the future beaming through, a couple of ultrasounds showing the baby at 7 and 9 weeks, a letter to our baby telling it how excited we were when we found out we were expecting it, and a baptismal candle presented to us by my loving God-Mother. Those are what we have in a special box to remember our first baby. Today was to be its expected due date. Finding out that a pregnancy had actually taken place inside of me after what felt like an eternity of trying immediately shot me up to cloud nine. Knowing that I would have a baby born in the summer made me even more excited, and I started thinking about how we would probably have to bring in cupcakes to its school on its half birthday so that it could still have a birthday celebration at school. I started thinking and planning everything about this child’s life. July 17, 2013 became seared in my brain, and my entire life began to revolve around the impending due date which felt like a lifetime away. It’s hard to believe that that day is here already; a day which was supposed to be the first of yearly celebrations is now the day I have come to dread because of how much anticipation was built up around it, only to be let down when we found out we lost the baby. So today we mourn what should have been the birth of our first child, while we also celebrate its sibling whom I currently carry to help mend the wounds of our devastation and loss. We remember today, and we look forward to the future that we will share with all of our children, those we have living with us and those we will meet one day in Heaven.

Friday, July 12, 2013

A Family Visit

This past week my mom and sister came to visit us. It was lots of fun and we saw so much in the seven and a half days they were here. They arrived on a typical rainy Tuesday, and somehow managed to quickly acclimate to the five hour time change without too much jet lag. Bright and early on Wednesday, we caught the 8:00 train down to Dublin, a city I had only crossed through on my way to change train stations with Dave on our way to Galway, and a city my mom and sister had never set foot upon. Two hours later we found ourselves walking out of Connolly Station towards the visitor’s center to hop on one of the double-decker tour busses to see the city. After an hour and a half of whizzing by over two dozen attractions including Trinity College Dublin, the Guinness factory and the Jameson factory, and the president’s house to name a few, we listened to our growling stomachs and headed towards some traditional Irish food (this marked meal one of my sister’s 5 fish and chips baskets over the course of 7 ½ days). Finding ourselves revived, we each picked a location we wanted to return for an up close visit. I chose Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, and my sister picked Dublin castle. We found out both required an admission fee, so we instead took pictures around the building. My mom picked the Church of Ireland’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, only to discover that it too had an entrance fee. However, we decided to bite the bullet and pay our admission to tour the historic building. We walked into a building paying homage to its patron saint, and providing an architectural feast for our eyes. The structure of the building was more a piece of art than the mortar and stone holding it together. Stained glass windows with millions of precisely cut pieces formed biblical stories while also letting in the colorful rays of the midday sun. As spectacular as it all was, we had to comment on the oddity that while this church continues as an active worship place on Sundays, it also holds a gift shop feet from the alter and tours of the building as though one is walking through a museum rather than a house of God. That peculiarity aside, we spent much time walking about and gawking at the flags hung for the knights of the Order of St. Patrick (still in existence) and got to touch the reserved pew seats for members of the Guinness family and the pew seats for the president of the Republic of Ireland. Time started getting away from us, and before we knew it, we were back at the train station to catch the 4:50 train back north to Belfast. The next day, Thursday, Dave took the day off and we rented a car and drove up to tour the Bushmills Distillery and walk around Giant’s Causeway. Dave was a champ driving on the wrong side of the road with a stick shift in his left hand and following all of the mildly confusing road signs as though he had grown up driving that way. The Bushmills tour was fascinating. We learned about them starting the distillery in 1608 after King James I granted land and a distillery license to a wealthy landowner, and how they have grown through the years to become one of the most popular whiskeys in the world. After lunch at their bar, we parked in the park ‘n ride lot and commuted the less than ten minutes to Giant’s Causeway. 60 million years ago, the north coast of Northern Ireland was an active volcanic region. The cooling basalt spewed from the mouths of the volcanoes formed columns that cooled and hardened into hexagonal shapes, creating a honeycombed effect. Today Giant’s Causeway is also home to the windiest point in the whole island of Ireland (and we felt the winds to prove it!) and lots of God’s majesty on display for visitors. Our way home was quite scenic as we took the coastal route which provided up-close views of the rolling hills and the steep cliffs along the coast falling into the sea. Up again the next morning with the sun, we headed to the Titanic Experience, a memorial/educational museum about the building of Titanic and its eventual demise into the deep. It was incredibly moving to read some of the stories and look at some of the letters written by survivors. We lunched there, and then headed to city hall for a tour of the Victorian hub of the city. My sister got to sit in the Lord Mayor’s chair, and we watched a fellow tour participant try on some of the council member’s robes. Saturday was another early day, as we hopped on a tour bus of Belfast to see the sights of the city. Highlights included the beautiful Belfast Castle open for tourists & weddings; a now-decrepit courthouse that has not been used since the 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement; and the Peace Walls which are still standing and in use. An interesting note that I learned on the bus ride was that the scales held by Lady Justice outside the decrepit courthouse were stolen in the midst of The Troubles in an effort to symbolize that people felt like justice was missing during those turbulent times. The afternoon found us trekking up a green hill on a nature hike before we made our way to the historic Crown Bar, still maintained by the Northern Ireland National Trust (similar to the America’s National Parks). Sunday brought with it church and a visit to St. George’s Market, where we enjoyed scrumptious lunches and entertaining music. Monday was a bit low-key, with the only major event consisting of our dear friend Bruce taking myself and my mom and sister on a personal tour of the city, capped by a visit to Clonard Monastery which was used as a bomb shelter during the Belfast Blitz in WWII (the monastery was also where Bruce & his wife, Janet, took Dave & I for Good Friday). My mom and sister got a proper Belfast send off in Bruce & Janet’s backyard with a rare North Irish sunny day and barbecue with some locally raised beef and rhubarb picked only a few hours before we ate dinner. Saying goodbye Tuesday morning was rough (I blame the tears on the pregnancy hormones), but thankfully the internet provides means to Skype or FaceTime, and in six short months we will be back in the U.S. to see them again. The visit was so special with my mom and sister getting to see where Dave works, the parks we walk through, the church in which we worship, and the city in which we live. I will miss my Euchre partner sister (we won 6-3 against my mom and Dave) and my fairy godmother mom (I’ve never seen someone get dishes so cleanly washed so fast). Now we look forward to more guests as this Friday a friend of Dave’s from Calvin will visit for four days, and then at the end of August Dave’s parents get to spend some time with us, too. The week with my mom and sister was truly an opportunity to laugh, to love, and to realize that we truly live blessed lives.