Belfast – July 2000

Ok, so we’re sitting there in the hostel doing pretty much nothing.  The city is shut down, and there’s the constant eerie drone of helicopters high above.  I’m thinking about reading a book. 

The American guy, we’ll call him Tom, is sitting there looking bored.  Stephen, the Spaniard, comes down the stairs and asks in his broken English, “Game of chess?”  I know he’ll beat me again, but I accept, and we start setting up another game.

Tom looks at us, and says, “Hey, let’s go out.  Come on guys, I want to see what’s going on out there.”

We look at him, and I say, “We went out yesterday.  It’s pretty crazy out there.  I think we should just stay in.”

We set up the game.  Tom looks around the hostel, and makes it obvious he’s bored.  He looks at Stephan, and says, “Don’t you want to go out and look around?”

Stephan shakes his head, and says slowly in his broken English, “Iss dangerous.”

I consider my first move.  Pawn in front of king two spaces forward?  Or was it pawn in front of queen two spaces forward?  Finally Tom gets up and says, “Come on guys.  We came to Belfast to see what it’s like here.  Let’s go out and look around.” 

I look at Stephan, and give him a look, which says, “Wanna?”  He nods.  “Ok, let me get my camera.”  I run upstairs, grab my camera, and stuff it into a plastic bag from Tesco.  I think it’s safer to keep it hidden.

The three of us walk out of the hostel, and towards the city.  There’s a helicopter somewhere up there.  It’s been there for three days now. “Oh, there’s smoke that way.”  I point.  “Let’s go down this alley.”  We wind our way through the streets toward the smoke.  BANG!  “I think we’re getting closer.  Let’s go that way.”  BOOM!  “We’re almost there.”

“Ah…  There!”  There’s a burning car in the middle of the street.  “Come on, let’s go.”

Tom asks, “Do you think it’s safe?”

“Oh sure, it’s safe.  The real action is in the city.  This is just a burning car.  Come on, let’s go.”  I look at Tom, and notice he’s pretty nervous.

Tom looks at Stephan, and Stephan says, “Iss safe.”  They follow me.

We get to the burning car, and gawk.  Everyone is just standing there watching it burn.  “I’m going to get a picture.”

“Ah, Jeremy… um, I don’t think you should do that.  These people won’t like you taking pictures.”

“No, no, I can get the picture.  They’re busy watching the car burn.  They won’t even see me.”  Besides, it didn’t look all that dangerous.  It was more like a car bonfire party.  Entertainment you could bring your kids to.

I look around.  No one watching.  In one smooth motion, I walk to the middle of the street, look around, pull the camera from the Tesco bag, aim, let it auto focus, snap click,

[picture goes here, come back later]

put the camera back in the bag, and walk back to the side of the street.  “Phew, perfect.  I think that’s a good shot.  Let’s go closer to the center of the city, and see what’s really happening.”  I start walking, and they start following.

We meander through the back alleys towards the city.  The sound of riots and crowds of people gets louder.  “Well, Jeremy…” Tom is shaking, but he’s trying to be cool about it.  “You got your picture; we saw Belfast; I think we can go back now.”

My response: “We came to Belfast to see what it’s like here.  Let’s go out and look around.”  Stephan starts laughing.  He’s trying his best to hold it in, but he can’t control himself.  I start laughing.  Tom is so worried; he doesn’t even know we’re laughing at him.

Tom looks at Stephan, and asks, “Don’t you think we should go back now?”

Stephan says, “Iss safe.  We go.”

We walk towards the city.  The noise is getting louder and louder.  There are sirens.  There are helicopters.  There is lots of yelling and screaming. 

“Look, Jeremy!  It’s dangerous here.  Come on, let’s go back to the hostel!”

“You can go back if you want.  I’m going in to the city.”  I walk, and they follow.  I know damn well that Tom won’t go anywhere by himself.  He’s petrified.

“Oh my God, we’re going to get killed.  We’re going to be killed.”

Finally Stephan says, “I take him back now.”  Stephan isn’t scared, but I think he feels sorry for Tom.

“Ok, good luck.  See you later!” 

Finally, I’m by myself.  Maybe I can get some good pictures.  I’m closer to the city center, and I hear more noise.  I look down an alley, which is blocked by a huge gang of people.  Behind them there’s more burning cars.  I walk down the street, and see another burning car.

Two men dressed in black, and carrying tripods and cameras with telephoto lenses come running up to where I’m standing.  They set the tripods down, focus the camera, and snap, snap, click, click.  They sling the tripod and cameras back over their shoulder, and run off.

Weird.  But it’s a good picture.  I grab my camera, snap, click.

[picture goes here, come back later]

I walk down the street, and look down another alley.  There’s that same huge crowd of people blocking the street.  They're walking in the same direction as I am, but down a different ally.  Now they’re all carrying sticks and stones, and  they're yelling, screaming, and swearing.

I continue walking down the street and finally come out at a big field.  There’s a bus in the field, surrounded by people holding rocks.  

A single guy dressed in black, and carrying a tripod and camera with telephoto lens come running up to where I’m standing.  I ask him, “Is it dangerous here?”  He sets his tripod down, focuses the camera, and snap, snap, click, click.  I don’t think he heard me.  “Hey, is it dangerous to be here?”  He slings his tripod and camera over his shoulder, looks directly at me, says matter of factly, “yes”, and runs off.

Weird. These guys are all over the place.  They must be in shape. 

Hey, that yelling and screaming crowd carrying sticks and stones is coming right at me.  Maybe I ought to move out of the way.  Yes, I think that would be a good idea.  I look down the street, and see a line of armored police cars, also coming right at me.

Oh…

Shit…

My heart pounds.  Now this, I’m not prepared for.  What to do, what to do.  Ok, no problem, I have an escape route.  I’m ready to run off, when I see the line of armored police cars turn off the street.  The crowd of people start running towards the bus.  Phew, I’m not caught in the middle after all.  Close call.

I get it now.  Those people surrounding the bus are holding it hostage.  The armored police cars are there to reclaim the bus.  And the other crowd of people, marching down the ally, were on their way to help them keep the bus.

The police get there first, and the people holding the bus run to the crowd.  Now there’s a crowd of people on one side of the bus, and a line of armored police cars on the other side of the bus.  They start yelling, swearing, and throwing stones at the police.  I think you've got to be a bit of a numbskull to throw rocks at armored police tanks.  I hear the rocks bounce off the bus and police cars.  Finally, all the rocks are gone, the crowd backs off, and the police take the bus.

Pretty boring actually.  I’m going to the city center.  I get there.  No big deal.  Just lots of people standing around yelling and whooping.  There’s those helicopters.  It doesn’t look like a riot, but I can see how easily it could get out of hand.  I walk up to one guy, and ask, “What’s going on here?”

“Oh,” he says with a thick Irish accent, “it’s just good craic.”  By the way, craic is pronounced like crack, and means fun in Irish.

“Really, so this is all just good craic?”

“Yeah, it’s all good craic.  That’s all.  Last night at two o’clock they set some barrels on fire, and blew ‘em up.  Good craic.”

Ok, so this is all just a lot of good craic.  Now I’ve seen Belfast, and I can go back to the hostel.

I found out later that the mob of people throwing rocks at the police were Protestants.  I found it odd that they would be throwing rocks at the police, since the police are also mainly Protestants, and the government is still dominated by Protestants.

Belfast was only like this for about a week in July, because of a holiday.  I was there for a month, and aside from those few days, it was very peaceful, and a great place to hang out.

When traveling in northern Ireland, you'll want to visit many different historical museums.  Even though they all have the same basic history, you'll see that they highlight and stilt different aspects depending on whether it's run by Protestants or Catholics.

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