Northern Ireland, Belfast

Northern Ireland, Belfast

The summer that I was 10 years old my family participated in an Irish exchange program.

Louise grew up in Shankill Road in Belfast, where her family still lives today. Until that summer she had never met a Catholic but she had been taught that they were the cause of the troubles.  Just a few blocks from her house, a fish market was bombed killing four of her neighbors.  Louise lived a life that I could not imagine as a child growing up in the United States.

After 20 years peace has come to Northern Ireland. I was able recently to walk the streets of Shankill Road with Louise and her family without fear.  As we walked along the peace wall that separates the all Protestant neighborhood with the all Catholic neighborhood next door, I could not help but feel that this was a relic of the past. Yet I know that Louise and her family still have no interaction with Catholics on a daily bases.  Her son will soon start kindergarten in a school for only Protestant children.

As an outsider, I can't help but to compare the prejudice in Belfast to what I see in other parts of the world. How is this different from the segregation of blacks and whites in the United States?  Every place has a history, it is this history that influences our view of the world. I am more and more convinced that the only way for us to have peace is through learning to interact with people who are different from us.  I have seen first hand how Louise's experience of interacting with Catholics has caused a change in her family's perspective. Teaching one person not to hate can cause a ripple effect that will change the world.