It never rains but it pours

The weather here has gotten steadily worse. Yet, despite the practicality and availability of woollen goods, nobody seems to wear Irish sweaters or show much concern about staying warm. A "Minimalist Fashion-Maximum Exposure" photo gallery is up and coming...

In the short time since my last entry, leads for my research have kept pouring in. One of my classmates approached me to say she had grown up in West Belfast and personally knew many involved in the Irish language movement there. Also, since simple introductions always include why I'm here at Queen's and where my research interests lie, within minutes of meeting both Fr. Gary (the campus chaplain) and Sr. Dymphna, I was swamped with information: street names, school names, people's names.

On that note, I should have put two-and-two together sooner and realized that Catholic religious would almost inevitably have contacts within West Belfast and/or the Irish-language community. Despite the fact that the division in Northern Ireland is founded on political differences, the religious divide ultimately holds true; even professors fall into the habit of referring to "the Catholics" versus "the Protestants." And, since the Irish language is most often associated with the Catholic/Nationalist/Republican community--in fact, the Irish language was/is taught in Catholic schools in Northern Ireland, I should have thought of approaching the chaplaincy sooner! (Nothing to do with exploiting the Church for academic purposes)!

Following from my previous post, I have indeed become a volunteer for Mediation Northern Ireland. I will be doing monitoring in Annalong, a coastal village southeast of Belfast. As the new volunteers were told yesterday during our short training period, Halloween has become known in Northern Ireland as an appropriate time to light things on fire and/or blow things up. Three years ago in Annalong, the Catholic/Nationalist/Republican youth and the Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist youth shot off 2 tonnes of fireworks at eachother, beginning at around 3pm in the afternoon and continuing for another 12 hours. Mediation Northern Ireland has been working with the community since then to ensure the safety of youth in Annalong, and last year no fireworks were lit off at all! What I will be doing is simply being present in the village on the night before Halloween and the night of Halloween, taking down notes of what, if anything, happens. This way, through the monitors, an unbiased and full report will be on record. I will always be with at least one other person and am not responsible for confronting any of the youth since Annalong community members (even those associated with the UVF and the IRA) have been working with MNI in order to control their own youth. For instance, last year when a group was seen with fireworks, they were approached by participating members of their own community, who told them, "I know your Ma. Go home." And they actually did go home.

I have yet to get out of Belfast to see much of the countryside, but I can see the hills beyond West Belfast when I walk from the university into the city center. I walk that path quite a lot actually. Last Saturday I made it to St. George's Market--a huge farmer's market/arts and crafts fair/baked goods sale that is enclosed and roofed to keep out the persistent Irish weather. It's a lively city, loads to do, but what really reminds me that I'm in Ireland is seeing those hills and then smelling the turf smoke when I walk home from university. I never really thought I'd smell that smell again, and God knows it won't be around much longer.

Finally, just to prove that I am still alive, here's some photographic evidence:


Erin, Fiona, Pete, and myself at the Spaniard


Myself, Erin, and Frances at the John Hewitt. We all take class together--Politics of N.I. Erin is also from the States, and Frances is from Donegal.