v 5

Belfast murals + "The Troubles"

Throughout the 20th century, Northern Ireland has had a complicated political history. While the region is vibrant and peaceful today, just over 40 years ago, Belfast was a city in civil war. To learn more about this period of history, wander the streets to take in the sights of colourful murals depicting this time.

"The Troubles" refers to the three-decade conflict between nationalists  (Irish or Catholic) and unionists (British or Protestant). The word "troubles" has been used as a synonym for violent conflict for centuries.

Centuries ago Ireland came under the control of England. As part of that process, large numbers of English and Scottish people were encouraged to settle in the north of Ireland. While most of the native Irish were Catholic, most of the settlers were Protestant.

At the start of the twentieth century the Catholics worked hard to break the link with Britain.

However, the protestants wanted to keep the link or union with Great Britain. On both sides people were prepared to use violence to get what they wanted.

In 1920 Britain divided Ireland in two – gave independence to most of it and kept the northern part within the United Kingdom.

40% of the people in Northern Ireland were Irish nationalists – people who wanted independence from Britain. Not a great start...

So, for several decades, the leaders of the Protestant, unionists, discriminated the Catholic, nationalist minority in the country. The laws reflected this discrimination.

By the 1960s, frustration among the Catholics had GREW. They started fighting for civil rights. The state responded with brutal force.

Nationalists (catholics) and unionists (protestants) both used violence to try to get what they wanted.

3,500 were killed. Thousands more were injured. 

In the 1990s they started to realise that violence would not present a solution to the conflict and that any effort to find a political answer would only succeed if nationalists and unionists started talking to each other.

Now, progress has been so profound that it is possible to speak of the end of ‘the Troubles’ – a 30-year period when our conflict was expressed in violence and a generation grew up in the shadow of the gun and the bomb.

Sunday bloody Sunday

There are three Bloody Sundays in Irish history. The first was in 1920 when British troops fired into the crowd at a football match in Dublin (a "revenge" for the killing of British undercover agents). The second was on January 30, 1972, when British paratroopers killed 13 Irish citizens at a civil rights protest in Derry, Northern Ireland. The song is more about the second Bloody Sunday. It is also a condemnation of the historic bloodshed in Ireland 

U2 recorded this in Denver on Sunday November 8, 1987. It was the same day as the Enniskillen massacre, where 13 people in Northern Ireland were killed by a bomb detonated by the Irish Republican Army (the IRA). That was Sunday nr 3. Angered by these events, U2 gave a very emotional performance.

Yeah

I can't believe the news today
Oh, I can't close my eyes
And make it go away
How long?
How long must we sing this song?
How long, how long?
'Cause tonight, we can be as one
Tonight

Broken bottles under children's feet
Bodies strewn across the dead end street
But I won't heed (bry mig i) the battle call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall

Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Sunday, Bloody Sunday, Sunday, Bloody Sunday (alright)

And the battle's just begun
There's many lost, but tell me who has won
The trench (dike) is dug within our hearts
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart

Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Sunday, Bloody Sunday

How long?
How long must we sing this song?
How long, how long?
'Cause tonight, we can be as one
Tonight, tonight

Sunday, Bloody Sunday
(Tonight, tonight) Sunday, Bloody Sunday (let's go)

Wipe the tears from your eyes
Wipe your tears away
Oh, wipe your tears away
I'll, wipe your tears away (Sunday, Bloody Sunday)
I'll, wipe your blood shot eyes (Sunday, Bloody Sunday)

Sunday, Bloody Sunday (Sunday, Bloody Sunday)
Sunday, Bloody Sunday (Sunday, Bloody Sunday)

And it's true we are immune
When fact is fiction and TV reality
And today the millions cry
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die

the real battle just begun
(Sunday, Bloody Sunday) to claim the victory Jesus won

On

Sunday Bloody Sunday, yeah
Sunday Bloody Sunday