Divided in the mind, united in the stomach

On a wet day in Belfast, the rain briefly calms the tensions that have spilled blood in this old city for years. Northern Ireland remains under British control and will continue to sit under the crown until the majority of the population votes to reunite the north with the rest of Ireland. Northern Ireland is almost split down the middle -- half wants to remain part of the United Kingdom while the other half fights to end British rule. \nAt the height of the conflict in the 1970s and '80s, bombings and shootings were a daily occurrence in Belfast. The city went into lockdown after 6 p.m., the lights turned off and the gates running through the city were closed, sealing off one neighborhood from the next. The communities, for the most part, are divided into Protestants in favor of England and Catholics in favor of Ireland. The violence died down a little after the Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998, but the tension is still very real. While walking through the streets, the conflict is evident in the faces of the people, and in the murals that color the uninviting neighborhoods. \nMurals leave the city's history painted on walls, subjective to the artist and his political and social opinions. One mural in a Protestant neighborhood depicted a graveyard with names on each tombstone. The people whose names appeared on the headstones, however, are still alive. Reality sets in that what looks like a memorial, is in actuality a hit list.\nThe city is still literally separated by brick walls, fences and barbed wire, splitting the Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods. The division is in the minds of the city's people, just as much as it is on the streets. To intermingled education, seen by many as a necessary starting point for peace, almost 400 years of religion, ideology, identity and history have to be put aside.\nSpringtime is the beginning of marching season where the two sides demonstrate in protest of the other, oftentimes ending in riots. When one side sets up a march, the other side will plan a counter-march. As the sides pass or meet en route, violence ensues, turning the demonstrations into chaos. What one side may consider a holiday, the other side may see as an act of terrorism. Consider the Easter Rising in Dublin on April 24, 1916, when the Irish rebelled against English rule. The nationalist half in the north sees this as a day to remember the heroes that ignited the flame of Irish independence, while the loyalist half sees the same people as terrorists who deserted the crown in the middle of World War I. \nOn January 30, 1972, in the Northern Ireland town of Derry, a march protesting discrimination of Catholics in the community ended in the deaths of 13 of the demonstrators, victims of the British military. Almost half of the men killed were under the age of 20. The day would become known as Bloody Sunday, it would be a major spark for the forty years of violence and killing that would follow.\nAs we strolled past 34-year-old bullet holes in the Derry parking lot where the violence began, my Belfast-raised professor made an interesting point concerning the autopsies of those killed. In the stomachs of the Catholics, as well as the Protestants killed on January 24, 1972 -- Bloody Sunday -- were roast beef, potatoes, corn and peas. A normal Sunday lunch for the town of Derry, no matter the religion.