Belfast is a city in Northern Ireland. Belfast is also a movie, directed by Kenneth Branagh. Paula and I watched it Christmas Eve. That night in Belfast choirs sang: Glory to God. Peace on earth. Goodwill to all.
But, alas, in Ireland, peace is always fragile.
Belfast is based on Branagh’s and his family’s experiences one particular summer in a “mixed” working class Belfast neighborhood when he was nine years old. Catholic and Protestant families lived side by side. It was one big (and mostly happy) family. Adults sipped tea together. Children played together and attended a mixed school together.
Nine year-old Buddy had a crush on Catherine. He was Protestant. She was Catholic. He schemed to sit next to her in class and dreamed of marrying her someday.
And then in August 1969 all hell broke loose.
Protestant vigilantes surged into the neighborhood, firebombing Catholics’ homes.
GET OUT CATHOLICS!
The next day Protestants assisted Catholics in repairing their homes. Residents hastily erected a barricade. Volunteers patrolled day and night.
British troops arrived in tanks. Soldiers sported machine guns. Barbed wire crossed streets. Eventually the British Army built “peace walls” to separate one neighborhood from another.
But neither the troops nor the walls could prevent waves of retaliatory violence—bombings, gun smuggling, murders, assassinations, kidnappings, armed defiant marchers—over the next 30 years, killing 3,500, including children.
That era was called “The Troubles.”
The Troubles didn’t spring up overnight. For more than 400 years righteous indignation over land rights, financial inequality, housing, and jobs simmered, erupting in spasms of violence. Often.
The conflict is usually seen as another war of religions. But religion isn’t the primary provocation. The underlying provocations are economic and political.
Still, religious bigotry does aggravate the conflicts.
But it can be overcome.
Daddy, do you think me and that wee girl have a future, asked Buddy?
Well, why the heck not?
You know she’s a Catholic?
That wee girl can be a practicing Hindu, or a Southern Baptist, or a vegetarian antichrist, but if she’s kind, and she’s fair, and you two respect each other, she and her people are welcome in our house any day of the week!
Bishop Tutu died last Sunday. I don’t know whether he got a chance to watch Belfast. But if he did, he would have smiled at that exchange and danced a little jig.
One of many great human tragedies is the drive to separate ourselves by groups from one another. We use religion, race, culture, language, place of birth. Thank you and so many others like you who work for the unity of humanity.
Your house and Desmond Tutu’s house have something in common, as expressed in the Archbishop’s own words: “All are welcome: black, white, red, yellow, rich, poor, educated, not educated, male, female, gay, straight, all, all, all. We all belong to this family, this human family, God’s family.” May 2022 bring greater awareness that we are one. Thank you for getting us started in this new year on the right foot!
Your writing, and especially the dialogue exchange, reminds me of the metaphor spoken by Jesus about sowing seeds on barren ground. While most will wither, some will blossom and grow. So it is with those who choose Hope, Peace, Love, and Respect. There is no choice, the seeds must be sown. Thank you the words of insight, love, hope, and laughter that you bring to us each week. So greatly appreciated.
Here are words of hope for the New Year from Rainer Marie Rilke:
“And now we welcome the new year
and let us believe
in a long year
that is given to us
new, untouched, full
of things that have
never been”.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
Can’t adequately express how refreshing it is to step into this new year in the reassuring company of this wonderful community. I am so grateful for all of you–the collective wisdom and Light buoys me and partners me onward, through whatever comes. Archbishop Desmond Tutu was and will be an Inspirateur for all time. His spirit is ubiquitous. He and Branaugh would have been good mates, if they weren’t already. Blessings be to all in 2022. Thank you.
Claire and I added to the graffiti signatures on the Peace Wall in Belfast and we both felt so small. Nonetheless, it seemed the right thing to do; Sharpie in hand, sending a brief puff of a wish breath into the wind. Give Peace a chance!
GOOD TO START THE YEAR WITH
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
And Archbishop Desmond Tutu!
Thanks, all!
Ed Zahniser
“The Troubles” could be seen as a harbinger of what might happen in 2022 and after, thanks to the unlimited ability of extremists today to market their poison to every voter in our vast country with a computer and their families. But as I draw closer to my own passing I am inspired by those like Bishop Tutu and so many others like him who look to the future with conviction that at the end of the day Love will conquer all. It’s the only thing that matters.