"Good Guinness, Good Food, Good Craic"

So this past week was St. Patrick's Day (as I'm sure you're well aware) and its a state holiday here which means everyone of all ages was out and about celebrating in their own manner... We passed a bar with a blackboard out front advertising "good Guinness, good food, good craic" which seems to sum up both the day Wednesday and the past few weeks in in the British Isles. Just in case I forgot to mention in a previous post, the term craic is used here like someone in the states would ask what's good? or what's up? For our St. Patty's Day, we went to the city centre, wandered and people watched for a long time before getting some lunch and doing some pub hopping, ending our day with Bishop's Fish and Chips and a drink at the Queen's student union bar. Most of my coworkers seemed to treat the day off like I might treat Veteran's Day or MLK Day- an excuse to catch up on errands and maybe go for a hike or a bike ride. That said, there were definitely plenty of people celebrating with many pints and green enthusiasm.

It's been really hectic at my internship these past two weeks and I've been busy helping my supervisor with a series of projects in specific urban neighborhood renewal areas in Northern Ireland. I've been helping prepare for meetings, gathering images and setting up presentations, as well as compiling notes and images for sketch designs, writing community consultation reports, and learning my way around photoshop. I've also been getting to know my coworkers and indulging in endless cups of tea and scones. My tea and scone intake is definitely becoming an issue, but that's a topic for a different discussion.

On Monday last (as they say), we had our seminar in Belfast and went to Belfast City Council and the Northern Ireland Parliament at Stormont. I think we were all expecting to find the day difficult and frustrating, given preconceived notions of and previous experiences with politicians and political structures. Certain aspects of the day were difficult to accept and process: for example, Stormont is possibly the most inaccessible and uninviting political building I’ve ever seen. The whole place gave off a very controlling vibe and seemed unbelievably disconnected from the rest of the city. On the other hand, we met with 2 Good Relations officers at the BCC who spoke about creating shared spaces, focusing on access and perceptions of safety and ‘cultural value,’ which I found really interesting and physical access and transportation isn’t really something we’ve heard people talk about much here. At Stormont, we were able to speak with 6 representatives or spokespeople from 6 of the 8 (yes 8!) parties in the NI Assembly.

There are 108 MLAs or representatives in the Assembly, which come from 18 districts and represent a total of 1.5 million people. This ratio is pretty high but sort of necessary given the problems in political representation and the fact that NI has a mandated power sharing government. We spoke with reps from the Alliance Party, the Green Party, the DUP, the UUP, Sinn Fein, and the PUP. The Alliance and Green parties are two of the parties that do not have a national leaning or connection while the DUP, UUP, and PUP are Unionist parties and Sinn Fein (along with the SDLP) are Nationalist parties. The role of national identity in politics here is fascinating because in many ways it completely trumps social, economic, and other considerations. The sentiment behind much of the politics, even today, is that people vote along these lines because they don’t want the other guy in power. I could write and write about Stormont and the political system here but this post is already quite long so I’ll spare you. In short, I think we were all pleasantly surprised by the genuine nature and openness of nearly all the politicians we spoke to. While there was certainly a bit of rhetoric being thrown around, many of the individuals actually answered our questions, perhaps a bit surprising. Given how difficult it would be to get a Congress(wo)man or Senator to sit down with 15 foreign students in the States, the opportunity alone was refreshing.

Last weekend, the weather in Belfast was beyond beautiful and while 3 of our flatmates went to Dublin to see (MN hip-hop artist) Brother Ali, the rest of us spent as much time in the sunshine as possible. We went Saturday to the Ulster Museum: a really interesting renovated building, full of exhibits on art, history, and natural history. Always interesting to see how museums talk about local histories, especially when you’re studying that history. Then we ate burritos from our beloved Boojum in the park and had a relaxing evening in the flat. Sunday I went for a long walk by myself along the River Lagan and in some old industrial areas near the City Centre I haven’t explored yet. It was another beautiful day and a very different side of Belfast, which I really enjoyed and look forward to seeing more of. I tried to stop at a pizza place near us that looks potentially promising but it was closed so I went to the Spar and decided to try Sweet Thai Chicken crisps. Exploring another country’s snack foods could be a lifetime occupation in of itself.

Monday we were back in Derry for seminar. This time in the Fountain estate (essentially a tiny, Protestant enclave in the very Catholic, Nationalist Derry) meeting with a man from the community who told us the story of his community and his experience with politics, the police, and the Troubles. The discussion brought together a lot of topics we’ve been floating around including the tension between class and sectarian identities, the role of police, the underdog mentality that both sides seem to hold, and the obstacles to integration and peace in a place like Derry.

The past two days I’ve been helping with a conference for my internship called Grow Our Own, helping local groups think about setting up community farms and gardens. There were some really interesting speakers and it was nice to get out of the office and spend more time in different parts of NI and with my coworkers.