Cheesy, right?

Well that may be, but after noticing the plaques, you can bet that I spent an extra hour or so strolling through downtown in the wretched Nebraska heat, stopping to read each one that I passed, because my month in Northern Ireland has ignited my curiosity to look up, consider the history around me, and recognize its significance. I realized today that like Belfast, even though Lincoln looks like it has a short history, its story is longer and more varied than what appears on the surface. This newfound appreciation of history is not the only thing that I brought back with me. I have returned from Queen’s University Belfast with friends that I will never forget, stories that I cannot wait to share, and an obscene amount of knowledge about Irish history/culture that I will most definitely apply to my future.

It is nice to be back in the land of corn and football, but sure I do miss Elms Village, Lisburn Road, Tesco, Clements, Banoffee, Lanyon, Cafe Nerro, Banoffee, lecture halls, absolutely unpredictable weather, the Ulster Museum, soda bread, City Hall, double-decker buses,  the Botanical Gardens, the Student Union, Cavehill, cobblestone roads, castles, banoffee.

I sure do miss home.

It was easy for me to find my home in Belfast among my Fulbright family and the QUB community. In fact, I definitely experienced much more culture shock upon my return to the US than I did upon my arrival in the UK. It was almost alarming to jump right back into reality like nothing had changed (I’ll leave out the part where I’ve been crying on and off). Because Nebraska may have not changed, but I certainly have.

I have emerged from Northern Ireland a little stronger, wiser, and braver. I have a heightened sense of wanderlust and feel incredibly humbled by how much of the world is left to explore and how much there is yet to learn about it. 

Further, this has been the most humanizing experience of my life, and also one that has challenged and transformed notions of my own identity. My conceptualization of what that concept even means has deepened by studying it on national, personal, and emotional levels. I am positive that understanding how to reconcile identity crises on all three will provide valuable insight as I continue my path to becoming a psychologist. I cannot fathom how lucky I am to have experienced this. I mean - 4 whole weeks and I was not bored for a second PLUS I heard so much gender-neutral language in lectures that made my heart sing. In all seriousness, I fell in love with the UK, and I have every intention to visit Northern Ireland again in the future.

That being said I want to extend a huge thank you and all my love to Dominic Bryan, Matt O’Neill, Aline Muff, Stuart Irwin, and everyone at QUB. Thank you to my Fulbright family Jacob Nelson, Meredith Dickerson, Maggie Tucker, Julie Cravotto, and Rachel Schlegel, as well as all the friends I made through the summer school. (Don’t worry - I have already begun conjuring up extravagant plans to see you all again someday.)

Most of all, thank you to the US-UK Fulbright Commission for granting me this amazing opportunity in the first place. It is one I will never take for granted.

So until I find myself in the UK or Ireland again,

During our tour with Dom today, we visited memorials placed where people died during the Troubles. We saw Black Taxi Tour Guides handing pens to their attendants in order to sign the peace walls. We drove through working class neighborhoods and saw the beginnings of massive bonfires that would eventually be burned on the evening of July 11th (which will be examined in more detail in a later entry).

Afterward, I felt as though I got a visceral, behind-the-scenes look at what it is like to live in a divided society. Jacob mentioned that it helped him conceptualize how strange this divisiveness appears from an outsider with no stake in the conflict. I couldn’t agree more.

But the fact of the matter is: a significant percentage of families in Northern Ireland do have a stake in the conflict, which officially ended less than 20 years ago. I cannot help but wonder if the sites we saw today becoming tourist attractions inadvertently pours salt into the wound.

However, I also need to remember that we are in Belfast with the intention to learn about the history of the conflict and the complexity of peacebuilding. This is much more easily done by seeing it firsthand.

In that sense, there is a strong educational merit to what we saw today, despite the ambiguous ethics.

When we asked Dom what his opinion on the matter was, he seemed to agree that dark tourism motivated by a desire to learn is perfectly justifiable, mentioning that the same Black Taxi Tour Guides handing out pens to tourists were likely ex-paramilitary members (as many of them are).

These men have a strong desire to both acknowledge the darker parts of history and educate others about it to lessen the chance that they would one day reemerge.

Dom had spoken with us about the nature of this panel a few weeks ago, and he mentioned that it continues to amaze him every year how profoundly ordinary the paramilitary men seem even as they talk about committing acts of violence.

He’s got a point.

The ex-combatants were open about how there was a time when the men with whom they were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder would have killed them without a second thought, placing a powerful emphasis on the importance of empathy in the peace-building process. Empathy has the power to dismantle ingroup/outgroup or binary thinking. It blurs the boundaries between “us” and “them.” It humanizes the “other.” So I think that’s why as humans, it becomes our obligation to develop a tolerance of all socially-constructed groups and realize that we are all capable of making change happen.

I swear I’ve got a point, too.

Within these last few weeks, we have learned all about the politics and the history of the conflict in Northern Ireland. It is messy stuff.

But one simple idea continues to strike me with each panel and every lecture perfectly summarized by the words of Ellen Degeneres I mentioned in an earlier post:

Be kind to one another.

This message resonated throughout the other two panels we have spoken with since - one with religious leaders and one with members of the Northern Irish Police Service. The religious leaders mentioned the necessity of communication between churches and breaking free from a society “overcome by small differences.” Likewise, the members of the police service offered potential ways to bring together communities - whether that be through integration, increasing the diversity of the policemen/women, or implementing community policing.

One of my favorite quotes (for obvious reasons) is by Bruce Henderson. He said “You study psychology so you won’t be a jerk.”

But after these panels, I am all the more convinced that “you study Ireland so you won’t be a jerk.” There is just so much to be learned from this island’s situation on a very human level.