Not my cruise troubles. 🙂 Troubles much bigger than mine.

The Troubles is the name given to an era in Northern Ireland’s history marked by violent conflict between two groups: British Protestant vs Irish Catholic. Both sides had enormous losses, with some 3,500 people killed and 50,000 wounded, the majority of them civilians.

I vaguely remember in the 1970s and 1980s seeing headlines that made it seem like Belfast was the most dangerous place on earth. I’m embarrassed to admit how lacking my knowledge of Ireland was before I came here. I always thought Northern Ireland was just the northern part of Ireland. I never clearly understood that there were two separate entities: The Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is part of The United Kingdom, uses British pounds for their currency and is not part of the European Union. Ireland is an independent country with euros as its currency and is part of the European Union. The strife goes back over a century, all the way to the Irish partition in 1921.

Hundreds of memorials scattered around Belfast bear witness to the war. The topic is still contentious and sensitive, and the version you hear depends on who you ask. The Conflicting Stories tour in Belfast addresses the history in a novel way. A taxi takes you to the memorials and historical sites of one group, with a guide who was personally involved with that group. Halfway through the tour, you switch taxis and a guide involved in the opposite side takes over. My niece Chrissy and I took the sobering tour. We started out with Frank, who was on the Protestant side, and then swapped out with Mickey for the Catholic side.

I loved this approach and found their personal stories compelling. Both men had lost friends and family during The Troubles. I walked away with an appreciation for the complexity of the conflict, but also an acknowledgement that for a casual observer like me, it’s virtually impossible to unravel who did what to whom, and why. What was clear to me was how one group’s martyrs can be another group’s terrorists.

Both men had witnessed friends and family murdered by the opposing side. The most astonishing thing about all this is that the two men are now friends and bear no animosity toward each other. And Belfast is a beautiful, vibrant city, instead of the most dangerous place on earth. Somehow, that alone gives hope.