Hi everyone! I am a rising junior majoring in International Comparative Studies and French, and have spent the last eight weeks in Belfast interning at Healing Through Remembering in Belfast’s city centre. HTR works to address the legacy of the past as it relates to the conflict in and about Northern Ireland, and my responsibilities there included monitoring the Everyday Objects Transformed by the Conflict exhibition on Queen Street, compiling a report on the public response to the exhibition throughout its time in the city centre and working in HTR’s newspaper archive.
After finishing up with our internships this week, the group was eager to attend the Eleventh Night bonfires and the Twelfth of July parades, also known as Orangefest, on Friday night and Saturday morning. These celebrations take place in Loyalist and Unionist communities to commemorate both the Glorious Revolution and the victory of Protestant king William of Orange over Catholic king James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, events leading to the rise of Protestant supremacy in Ireland. The events are met each year with protest from Nationalist/Republican communities across Northern Ireland, so we planned to attend with Dr. Dominc Bryan, the Director of the Institute of Irish Studies at Queens University in Belfast.
Around 10 p.m. on Friday night our group met up with Dr. Bryan at a pub in the city centre before heading out to see the bonfires. We made a quick stop at a bonfire associated with the UVF in Donegall Pass before heading over to see the bonfire associated with the UDA in Sandy Row. Both were covered in symbols of Irish nationalism (political posters, flags and effigies) and topped off with the Irish tri-coulour flag. Locals in the crowd wore red, white and blue, and waved British flags throughout the air. Around midnight, those lighting the bonfire at Sandy Row began to throw petrol bombs at it from all directions, and in a surprisingly short amount of time, it turned into a raging fire expelling an unbearable amount of heat into the surrounding area.
Early the next morning, we walked across town to see the Orange Order’s Twelfth of July parade on Lisburn Road in South Belfast. We watched for a span of two hours as several members of the Orange Order, loyalist flute bands and members of other Unionist/Loyalist organizations marched pridefully through the streets. Despite our awareness of Northern Irish politics, the political implications of the event were not as obvious as they had been the night before at the bonfires, and could easily be overlooked by tourists. In many ways, the parade seemed reminiscent of those we had attended back in the US or elsewhere.
At the end of the parade, we began our walk back through the city towards Farset International, the hostel we have been staying at in West Belfast for the past two months. We could see many of the bonfires from the night before still burning in the streets, providing us with much to reflect on in our last few days here in Belfast!
Laura Brody
Trinity ‘16
After finishing up with our internships this week, the group was eager to attend the Eleventh Night bonfires and the Twelfth of July parades, also known as Orangefest, on Friday night and Saturday morning. These celebrations take place in Loyalist and Unionist communities to commemorate both the Glorious Revolution and the victory of Protestant king William of Orange over Catholic king James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, events leading to the rise of Protestant supremacy in Ireland. The events are met each year with protest from Nationalist/Republican communities across Northern Ireland, so we planned to attend with Dr. Dominc Bryan, the Director of the Institute of Irish Studies at Queens University in Belfast.
Around 10 p.m. on Friday night our group met up with Dr. Bryan at a pub in the city centre before heading out to see the bonfires. We made a quick stop at a bonfire associated with the UVF in Donegall Pass before heading over to see the bonfire associated with the UDA in Sandy Row. Both were covered in symbols of Irish nationalism (political posters, flags and effigies) and topped off with the Irish tri-coulour flag. Locals in the crowd wore red, white and blue, and waved British flags throughout the air. Around midnight, those lighting the bonfire at Sandy Row began to throw petrol bombs at it from all directions, and in a surprisingly short amount of time, it turned into a raging fire expelling an unbearable amount of heat into the surrounding area.
Early the next morning, we walked across town to see the Orange Order’s Twelfth of July parade on Lisburn Road in South Belfast. We watched for a span of two hours as several members of the Orange Order, loyalist flute bands and members of other Unionist/Loyalist organizations marched pridefully through the streets. Despite our awareness of Northern Irish politics, the political implications of the event were not as obvious as they had been the night before at the bonfires, and could easily be overlooked by tourists. In many ways, the parade seemed reminiscent of those we had attended back in the US or elsewhere.
At the end of the parade, we began our walk back through the city towards Farset International, the hostel we have been staying at in West Belfast for the past two months. We could see many of the bonfires from the night before still burning in the streets, providing us with much to reflect on in our last few days here in Belfast!
Laura Brody
Trinity ‘16