Day One at Intercomm

Today I went to Intercomm for the first day of community service. Conor had told Rob and I to arrive between 9:30 and 10, we got there at 9:25 and the only person in the office called Conor who's reaction was "They're there already!" We talked for a while at the reception, then when Conor got there we were given desks and went to the Kitchen for tea and coffee where we talked a while longer. Then we went in to talk to the director, Liam and talked for a long time. Liam insisted Conor buy us lunch. I had the best food I've eaten in Ireland and 2 Guinness. This lunch was maybe two hours. In the afternoon we were taken on a long walking tour of the interface areas of Northern Belfast. We saw how the smallest part of a Catholic house being exposed to the a Protestant street would subject it to being attacked, and surly vice versa. We briefly walked through a gate, to a Protestant street, where the curb stones where painted red white and blue. And the houses meeting the wall were abandoned.

While last time we had just been taken around the New Lodge area, this time we were taken all around North Belfast. We also saw the walls that were from when the city center was closed up at night. At a certain hour the gates were closed and anyone in of out was staying that way for the night.

Some interesting things we saw were memorials to people who had died. One in particular was a garden type memorial with kids playing in it, and names of people killed listed, names of people in the IRA in the middle. From here there was an apartment building in view, interesting b/c most people live in brick houses. The British army had been stationed an top of that apartment building.

There are many walls in North Belfast and the Catholic and Protestant areas change as quickly as you turn a corner. Some of these interfaces have moved, as the Catholic population is growing faster, sometimes the lines can't be moved because no catholic wants to move across a Peace Wall. Because of the over population on one side, there is a under population on the other side of the walls. Protestant houses are left abandoned near the walls, where stones are thrown back and forth, while 3 generations will live together in a Catholic house. After being bombed in the second world was houses were rebuild on both sides exactly the same, the value on the Catholic side of these houses is twice as high because there is such greater demand.

At the end were back at the center. Making me more aware of how close North Belfast, which still is putting up Peace Walls, is to the Center, where I am everyday. Taking a bus the two seemed more disconnected.

http://www.nisra.gov.uk/

http://www.intercommireland.org/