Christophe Gin

In 1921, as a result of a British Bill, Northen Ireland was separated from the rest of the island and maintained within the United Kingdom. With Protestant Unionists making up 60% of the population and Catholic Nationalists 40%, Northern Ireland is a divided society. Differences inherited from the time of British colonization have been exacerbated by the partition of the island. Catholics and Protestants live in two separate worlds. The majority Official Unionists, hostile to any reunification of the north and south, rapidly gained control of the state machinery in Ulster and instituted white apartheid, dismissing the Catholic minority as second-class citizens.

Against the backdrop of religious, cultural and political conflict, a form of class struggle then emerged: living under the yoke of the Protestants’ economic power, Catholics were subjected to many kinds of social discrimination. Ulster became the land of religious extremism and, until 1969, proclaimed itself “a Protestant province for a Protestant people”. Belfast, capital of Northern Ireland, bears the marks of the war between its inhabitants·

Despite the intermixing of population after the industrial revolution, the Irish live behind mental and physical barricades, immured in the ghetto of their own religious community. Catholics, hit twice as hard by unemployment, feel oppressed by the Protestant state; Protestants, especially in workers’ neighbourhoods, think that the Catholics have despoiled them of their property.

Ardoyne, Falls Road, Ballymurphy, Ormeau Road, Sandy Row, Shankill: same fears, same suffering. Whether Protestant or Catholic, these areas have clear political boundaries, within which any risk of associating with a member of the rival community is eliminated. The walls proclaim the inhabitants’ identity: they are painted with Union Jacks in Unionist neighbourhoods, and with anti-British slogans in Nationalist areas. Schools, shops, pubs, everything is segregated. People live their faith behind their fortifications, under the protection of vigilantes. Any exception to this rule has tragic consequences·

Since 1969, armed clashes between the I.R.A., the Loyalist paramilitary groups, the police or the British army have never ceased. The 1996-’97 transition period is the real sign of a desire for change. With the new political situation, there is a glimmer of hope, as in 1993, that the conflict will be resolved, if Belfast, London and Dublin cooperate· Political change has come with the election of Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose party is in favour of unification and is being encouraged by the United States to put an end to the Irish problem. The rules are different now. The cease-fire announced by the I.R.A. on July 19th, 1997, allowed Sinn Fein to take part in the September 1997 peace negotiations. At 5:30 p.m. on April 10th, 1998, after a marathon year, a peace accord was signed in Belfast.

Over 3,000 people have died in this war. The first casualty was Francis McCruskey, who was shot by the royal police on July 14th, 1969. On April 17th, 1998, one week after the peace accord was signed, a man was shot in front of the offices of a taxi company, a traditional target for paramilitary groups. In Belfast again, and again in April 1998, a new wall was put up in White City, a new peaceline dividing Catholics and Protestants.

Some feelings of hatred and resentment cannot be dispelled by signing a piece of paper.

Christophe Gin, June 1998