Travel

The Troubles Begin

Jul 7, 2024

I did plenty of research before setting out on this leg of my travels. The plan was to reach Vietnam overland from Ireland with the occasional ferry. Catching a flight was strictly a last resort. This was motivated largely by environmental concerns, but posed an interesting challenge in its own right. The trickiest part would be navigating across the Middle East. When I was planning the journey, the region was in a particularly fractured state. Iran had closed to western travellers as the Israel-Palestine conflict escalated (Iran was backing Islamist terrorist groups involved in the conflict), Azerbaijan was closed to land entry due to it’s conflict with Armenia, Russia was best avoided since the invasion of Ukraine began, and the train that once connected Kazakhstan to to Beijing was only carrying people out of China, not in - a hangover from the Covid 19 pandemic. Reading the UK gov travel advice for these countries painted a depressing, mostly red picture of World affairs, and even countries that were deemed accessible (such as Egypt and Pakistan) carried the warning, ‘avoid large organised gatherings, such as public protests, religious gatherings and processions, and political rallies’. As such, there wasn’t much hope of reaching Vietnam without flying, but I set out to see how far I could get.

The first stop was Dublin. Ireland has a distinctive culture, complete with characteristic institutions (the pub), native cuisine (Guinness), music (folk), and religious ties (catholicism). They even share a French-like dislike of the English. All-in-all, Dublin felt like the capital of a country proud of its heritage and optimistic about its future. Since I was on the landmass, I decided to check out Belfast, the Northern Irish capital, so took my bike on the train and headed North between the two cities.

Belfast was an altogether different vibe. I arrived around the fifth of July, which turned out to be the worst possible time - it was the build up to the Orange Order Parades on the twelfth. The parades commemorated the Battle of the Boyne, during which Prince William of Orange invaded Britain and defeated King James in 1690. Though popular, the parades are considered controversial due to their religious insensitivity; William was a protestant and James was a catholic. Recent history added further layers to the controversy. Starting during the sixties, conflict and unrest broke out between unionists (mostly Northern Irish protestants) and republicans (mostly Irish catholics). The republicans believed that Northern Ireland should be part of Ireland, but the Unionists disagreed. This was the primary reason for the conflict, but it was exacerbated by the religious differences. Football even became symbolic of the divide, with Rangers FC being supported primarily by Protestants and Celtics FC by catholics. Neither of these teams are Irish; they were both founded in Glasgow. Tensions between these factions grew violent, and the British army was eventually brought in to try and maintain peace, resulting in the infamous ‘Bloody Sunday’, during which several unarmed catholics were shot dead by British army soldiers. Irish militants responding with car bombings, and only as recently as 1998 was the Good Friday Agreement signed, ending the worst of the violence. These events were collectively known as ‘the Troubles’. Though the ceasefire held, relations are still sour and, as I was to discover, the Protestant Unionists had become increasingly hostile towards the English as well. Parade-season wasn’t a good time to be in Belfast.

In the communal area of my hostel I met two Irish guys who were in the city for work as extras in the Netflix show ‘Vikings’. I joined them for a trip to a pub called Filthy McNasties, where we ordered a couple of Guinnesses & whiskies and sat down in the garden area. The topic of conversation was largely the Troubles, about which I was woefully ignorant. After a few minutes of this, a fourth man came into the garden. He was a skinhead, wearing the vertical blue and white stripes of a rangers jersey. Despite the background music, he was within earshot and could definitely hear our accents. He started pacing back and forth whilst staring at us, occasionally stretching out his neck and shoulders. At this point we picked up on the newcomer, and quickly left without making it obvious that we’d noticed him. It was whilst we were leaving that my new friends informed me that being English wasn’t a good defence in Northern Ireland; Unionists don’t see England as an ally anymore. They feel that Westminster has left them behind, has different values, and no longer cares about the union.

One of the traditions on July twelfth is to light enormous bonfires made from pallets. Walking through the dimly lit streets of Belfast, we passed a several abandoned lots and car parks, each with a pile of pallets stacked at least four stories high ready for lighting, unionist flags hanging ominously from lampposts. One of my companions informed me that every year a couple of people died building the pallet stacks due to poor health and safety. This was the backdrop as we made our way up the street towards the hostel. On the way, a bar across the road looked inviting. We turned to cross, and in doing so looked behind to see the skinhead marching up the road only a few meters behind. He was far enough behind that we got into the bar (he didn’t follow) but he slowed down and turned down a street next to the bar.

We settled into another round of Guinness, and assumed the danger had passed, until a few minuted later the skinhead walked past the window with a friend. At this point we decided to call a taxi (even though the hostel was a ten minute walk away), as it was rapidly approaching midnight when we would be booted out of the bar and into the hands of the skinhead and his friend. Fortunately, the taxi arrived at 11:58 so I checked if the coast was clear, dived into the taxi and fled to the safety of the hostel. On the way back, I couldn’t help but think back to the UK gov travel advice for other countries and wondered if, as an English person with a distinct accent, would I do well to avoid public protests and religious processions in the UK?