Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, UK

I really enjoyed my time in Northern Ireland where I learned a lot about a divided society among many historical sights and some great scenery. Derry/Londonderry is Northern Ireland’s second largest city next to Belfast and perhaps the most historical city in all of Ireland. Derry, as referred to by the Irish, or Londonderry, as referred to by the Northern Irish is not actually apart of the Republic of Ireland but rather a kingdom within the United Kingdom, which consists of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. To understand Northern Ireland it is first important to know a little history. In the past Ireland was once a colony of England just like the U.S. was but in 1921 Ireland gained independence from the British and formed there own country. However, six counties in the North of Ireland consisted mainly of Protestants who associated themselves with the British and desired to remain apart of Great Britain. So after the Belfast Agreement Northern Ireland succeeded from the Republic of Ireland and joined the UK. But of course since the Irish were the original inhabitants of the emerald isle and a minority resided in the North a divided society quickly erupted among the British Protestant majority and the Irish Catholic minority. From the establishment of the Northern Ireland in the 1920s until the early 1990’s there has been large amounts of violence in the north including car bombings, shootings, and British attack on the Irish minority. Seeing as how Derry/Londonderry is quite a divided society it was a perfect place to hold a conference on conflict resolution, and divided societies, which I attended while in the North. The conference brought in many several academics from around the world to talk about many of the world’s divided societies including Northern Ireland, Israel and Palestine, and Pakistan and India to name a few. One of the main reasons I went was because USD paid for me to attend the conference along with $150 for transportation, and we got FREE FOOD. The conference was really interesting and I feel as though I learned a lot, while I got to meet people from all over the world. Some of the students that attended the conference had very liberal ideals compared to my own thoughts so I found it kind of comical to listen to some of there ideas that they thought would solve world peace. For instance one girl felt that art was the key in solving world conflict and argued that art made people aware of conflicts in turn causing a desire to change world politics.

Belfast and Derry tend to be the two cities where most of the conflict and fighting took place and within each of these cities are areas that are specific to the Protestants and areas that are specific to the Catholics. Within each area are murals showing different scenes or pictures of the conflicts that erupted. This is a protestant mural of the dove depicting peace.

All of these murals are found in the Bogside, which is where the Catholic community resides. Within the Bogside is a wall that encloses the Catholic community, which was to help protect against the Protestant community. This mural is suppose to be of Jesus.

Two murals depicting difference events and attacks that occurred between the Protestant and Catholic communities

This large wall is at the entrance to the Bogside of Derry and the Catholic community. The wall is probably the most iconic monument in Derry.

The British flag on top of a Presbyterian Church on the Protestant side

The only two Protestant murals supporting the British crown.

A picture of the bogside from the top of the walls that enclose it

After the conference ended I had a full day before I had to leave Derry and most of the other participants left as well but there was one girl that was staying the extra day as well so we took a train Castlerock, a small Northern Irish beach town. The owner of our hostel told us to visit this area and said the scenery was among the best in the North. This is a picture of the small town in Castlerock.

A gap that overlooked the ocean

The Irish forest

This area is known as downhill and at the end of this grassy area is an old library although we didn't see any books inside.

Irish Grass. The grass is Ireland is really different from the grass back in California in that it is thicker, greener, and kind of wild.