New Year Resolutions (Belfast)

More new years resolutions!

In a previous post, I loosely introduced the issue of Catalunya. A lot more could be said, yet unfortunately we all depend on time to tell the righteousness of each one's claim. Along the same lines, Belfast and Northern Ireland (NI) are in a constantly evolving position that never seems to settle. NI's infamous conflict began in 1968 as a result of the unfavourable conditions half of the population objected to. The Troubles - an officially guerilla-war that by all means fits the description of a civil war, plagued the region up until the new millennium, when the Good Friday agreement was signed. Twenty years later, the issue is still a no-go topic in Northern Ireland. The divide is not as tangible as it used to be. Many policies have been put in place to ensure equal treatment regardless of one's religion and ethnicity. However; NI is truly far from achieving an armistice. Life in Northern Ireland still largely depends on the peaceful cooperation of the IRA and the UDA/UVF. Happenings of 2016/2017 have done little to quiet down the contrast.



Brexit. The UK's own elephant in the room. Regardless of where we stand politically, it is a fact that the UK leaving the European Union will affect its most vulnerable. In NI, the political game deeply affects the armistice and post-conflict developments achieved in these last twenty years - both in terms of funding (which were largely provided by the EU) and in economic obstacles (DUP vowing to return to a hard-border with the Republic of Ireland). I am fortunate enough to have a circle of educated friends that are as impartial as you can get on the issue; at the same time, most of them come from areas in Northern Ireland where the conflict never really settled down. Stores from the border, emphasising the important social preeminence members of the IRA and UDA/UVF withhold, draw a clear line on the efficiency of political intervention and of national police forces. The role of these paramilitary groups was minimised once the Good Friday agreement was signed. Nonetheless, if you have the courage to ask for insights on the practical situation, most local will agree that stability and peace was maintained thanks to the willing cooperation of these two forces, whose pact to tolerate each other and defend northern Irish society from crime and anti-social behaviour was the true source of the some-what tranquil circumstances Belfast and Northern Ireland have enjoyed so far.



What happens when the fine balance is threatened? Many consider Brexit to have just done that. NI's parliament hasn't seen a majority government nor a governor for the past year and a half. There's a sense of electric uncertainty that is pushing divides up to the storefront. Many consider Brexit to be the causing factor of the rebirth of NI's independence claim; whether violence will be involved in the process, it's still a debated variable. The reminiscences of two years of international political turmoil are having very tangible effects on the lives and peace of many regions of the world; Northern Ireland being a very easily predictable one. I cannot hide my sympathy towards the republican population of NI; having lived for a long period of time both in England and in Northern Ireland, I can assure you there could not be two more diverse culture coexisting in the same nation-state. Said that, I despise violence. I believe that in the wake of the new millennia guerrilla-like uproars are a dead-ended deal, unable to stir the necessary public support such deeply socio-political action requires. Neither the IRA or the UDA/UVF have a particularly well-documented history of non-violent retaliations. I do hope NI will take upon 2018's resolutions, but history is most definitely not by its side.

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