Belfast

It’s a haunting sensation, seeing a country that you’ve never been within a thousand miles of and having it look just like you expected. That’s how I felt as our plane landed at Belfast International—green hills dotted with sheep and cows, isolated brick houses, etc. Media representations of the British Isles have given most Americans a fair idea of what it looks like, but that’s not to say they do it justice. Northern Ireland is beautiful. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries this morning as we left, but looking out from the stands on a Gaelic football match framed by the red-clad crowds of the stadium and the hills in the background was spectacular. It was a cocktail of weathered culture, modern mass-entertainment amenities, and natural grandeur. And speaking of cocktails, the beer here is excellent.

Our days so far have been mostly programmed for us. The first evening we headed out to a beach to meet the first of the many young Northern Irish that we will be working with over the next few weeks. The beach was gorgeous, and the kids were fairly shy. We managed to reach them through a little effort, though, and I came away with the choice quote “I’m not boxing nobody,” courtesy of a lad who liked to kick soccer balls at people, said in response to Mark (a member of our group) inviting him to play a game called back-head boxing. The interaction there was limited, though. We followed up the beach with a trip to a traditional Irish pub, of the Nationalist/Republican/Catholic persuasion, complete with Irish writing and images of Bobby Sands. Irish immersion began in earnest when I was grabbed by a woman and led in traditional dancing—to the tune of an accordion, no less—for over twenty minutes. I’m positive that I’ll never be told to “glide” so many times in one night ever again. It was a satisfying first taste of the city, characterized by its modern downtown, more traditional residential areas, and rural outskirts. At this point we lacked the proper historical background to begin contextualizing the city itself, but that was to come soon.