{"id":120,"date":"2015-04-06T16:12:26","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T15:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/english.lycee.nl\/?page_id=120"},"modified":"2015-04-06T16:12:26","modified_gmt":"2015-04-06T15:12:26","slug":"belfast","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/?page_id=120","title":{"rendered":"BELFAST"},"content":{"rendered":"

Historically, Belfast has been a centre for the Irish linen<\/a> industry (earning the nickname “Linenopolis<\/a>“), tobacco production, rope-making and shipbuilding: the city’s main shipbuilders, Harland and Wolff<\/a>, which built the well-known RMS Titanic<\/i><\/a>, propelled Belfast on to the global stage in the early 20th century as the biggest and most productive shipyard in the world.[<\/sup>citation needed<\/i><\/a>]<\/sup> Belfast played a key role in the Industrial Revolution<\/a>, establishing its place as a global industrial centre until the latter half of the 20th century. Industrialisation and the inward migration it brought made Belfast, if briefly, the biggest city in Ireland at the beginning of the 20th century, and the city’s industrial and economic success was cited by unionist<\/a> opponents of Home Rule<\/a> as a reason why Ireland should shun devolution and later why Ulster unionists<\/a> in particular would fight to resist it.<\/p>\n

Today, Belfast remains a centre for industry, as well as the arts, higher education, business, and law, and is the economic engine of Northern Ireland. The city suffered greatly during the period of conflict called “the Troubles<\/a>“, but latterly has undergone a sustained period of calm, free from the intense political violence of former years, and substantial economic and commercial growth. Additionally, Belfast city centre<\/a> has undergone considerable expansion and regeneration in recent years, notably around Victoria Square<\/a>.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Troubles<\/p>\n

In 1964, a peaceful civil rights campaign<\/a> began in Northern Ireland. The civil rights movement sought to end discrimination against Catholics (including those of Catholic background) and Irish nationalists by the Protestant- and unionist-dominated government of Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

At about the same time, a group of loyalists calling itself the “Ulster Volunteer Force” (UVF) emerged in the Shankill<\/a> area of Belfast.<\/p>\n

The Shankill Butchers<\/b> was an Ulster loyalist<\/a> gang\u2014many of whom were members of the Ulster Volunteer Force<\/a> (UVF)\u2014that was active between 1975 and 1982 in Belfast<\/a>, Northern Ireland. It was based in the Shankill<\/a> area and was responsible for the deaths of at least 23 people, most of whom were killed in sectarian<\/a> attacks. The gang was notorious for kidnapping<\/a> and murdering random civilians from the Catholic<\/a> community; each was beaten ferociously and had their throat hacked with a butcher’s knife. Some were also tortured and attacked with a hatchet. The gang also killed six Protestants<\/a> over personal disputes, and two other Protestants mistaken for Catholics.<\/p>\n

Most of the gang were eventually caught and, in February 1979, received the longest combined prison sentences in United Kingdom legal history. However, gang leader Lenny Murphy<\/a> and his two chief “lieutenants” escaped prosecution. Murphy was killed in November 1982 by the Provisional IRA<\/a>, likely acting with loyalist paramilitaries who perceived him as a threat.<\/p>\n

The Butchers brought a new level of paramilitary violence to a country already hardened by death and destruction. The judge who oversaw the 1979 trial described their crimes as “a lasting monument to blind sectarian bigotry”.<\/p>\n

Murphy was given a large paramilitary funeral by the UVF with a guard of honour wearing the UVF uniform and balaclavas. A volley of three shots was fired over his coffin as it was brought out of his house and a piper played “Abide With Me”. He was buried in Carnmoney Cemetery; on his tombstone the following words were inscribed: “Here Lies a Soldier”. The tombstone was smashed in 1989. His photograph was displayed inside “The Eagle”, the UVF Brigade Staff’s headquarters over a chip shop in the Shankill Road. According to investigative journalist Paul Larkin, it graced the walls as a “fallen officer” up until the late 1990s.<\/p>\n

In the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike<\/a>, ten republican prisoners (seven from the Provisional IRA and three from the INLA) starved themselves to death. The first hunger striker to die, Bobby Sands<\/a>, was elected to Parliament on an Anti-H-Block<\/a> ticket, as was his election agent Owen Carron<\/a> following Sands’ death. The hunger strikes proved emotional events for the nationalist community\u2014over 100,000 people attended Sands’ funeral mass in West Belfast and thousands attended those of the other hunger strikers. From an Irish republican perspective, the significance of these events was to demonstrate a potential for political and electoral strategy. In the wake of the hunger strikes, Sinn F\u00e9in, seen by some as the Provisional IRA’s political wing, began to contest elections for the first time in both Northern Ireland and the Republic.<\/p>\n

The IRA’s “Long War” was boosted by large donations of arms to them from Libya<\/a> in the 1980s (see Provisional IRA arms importation<\/a>) due to Muammar Gaddafi<\/a>‘s anger at Thatcher<\/a>‘s government for assisting the Reagan<\/a> government’s bombing of Tripoli<\/a>, which had allegedly killed one of Gaddafi’s children.<\/p>\n

One of the IRA’s most high profile actions in this period was the Brighton hotel bombing<\/a> on 12 October 1984, when it set off a 100-pound bomb in the Grand Brighton Hotel<\/a> in Brighton<\/a>, where politicians including Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher<\/a> were staying for the Conservative Party<\/a> conference.<\/p>\n

On 8 November 1987, in Enniskillen<\/a>, County Fermanagh<\/a>, a Provisional IRA time bomb<\/a> exploded during a parade on Remembrance Day to commemorate victims of World War One. The bomb went off by a cenotaph which was at the heart of the parade. It was one of the IRA’s biggest failures, as it was not aimed at killing anybody. Eleven people (ten civilians and a police officer, along with a pregnant woman) were killed and 63 were injured. The IRA said it had made a mistake and that its target had been the British soldiers parading to the memorial. The unit who carried out the bombing was disbanded. Loyalist paramilitaries responded to the bombing with revenge attacks on catholic civilians in the Enniskillen area and the rest of the north.<\/p>\n

In the mid to late 1980s loyalist paramilitaries, including the Ulster Volunteer Force, the Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Resistance<\/a>, imported arms and explosives from South Africa.<\/p>\n

Inter-communal tensions rise and violence often breaks out during the “marching season” when the Protestant Orange Order<\/a> parades take place across Northern Ireland. The parades are held to commemorate William of Orange<\/a>‘s victory in the Battle of the Boyne<\/a> in 1690, which secured the Protestant Ascendancy<\/a> and British rule in Ireland. One particular flashpoint that has caused repeated strife is the Garvaghy Road area in Portadown<\/a>, where an Orange parade from Drumcree Church<\/a> passes through a mainly nationalist estate off the Garvaghy Road. This parade has now been banned indefinitely, following nationalist riots against the parade, and also loyalist counter-riots against its banning.<\/p>\n

The Troubles’ impact on the ordinary people of Northern Ireland produced such psychological trauma that the city of Belfast had been compared to London during the Blitz.The stress resulting from bomb attacks, street disturbances, security checkpoints, and the constant military presence had the strongest effect on children and young adults. There was also the fear that local paramilitaries instilled in their respective communities with the punishment beatings, “romperings”, and the occasional tarring-and-feathering meted out to individuals for various infractions committed against the community.<\/p>\n

In addition to the violence and intimidation, there was chronic unemployment and a severe housing shortage. Whilst many people were rendered homeless as a result of intimidation or having their houses burnt, urban redevelopment was also a factor in the social upheaval people in Belfast faced, with numerous families being transferred to new, alien estates when older, established districts such as Sailortown<\/a> and Pound Loney were demolished. According to social worker and author Sarah Nelson, this new social problem of homelessness and disorientation contributed to the breakdown of the normal fabric of society, allowing for paramilitaries to exert a strong influence in certain districts. Vandalism was also a major problem. In the 1970s there were 10,000 vandalised empty houses in Belfast alone. Most of the vandals were aged between eight and thirteen.<\/p>\n

Activities for young people were limited, with pubs fortified and cinemas closed. Just to go shopping in the city centre required passing through security gates and being subjected to body searches. Social intercourse was also affected. Normal interaction and friendship with people from the opposite side of the religious\/political divide was nearly impossible in the atmosphere of fear and distrust that the Troubles generated.<\/p>\n

According to one historian of the conflict, the stress of the Troubles engendered a breakdown in the previously strict sexual morality of Northern Ireland, resulting in a “confused hedonism” in respect of personal life. In Derry, illegitimate births and alcoholism increased for women and the divorce rate rose. Teenage alcoholism was also a problem, partly as a result of the drinking clubs established in both loyalist and republican areas. In many cases, there was little parental supervision of children in some of the poorer districts.<\/p>\n

The Department of Health has looked at a report written in 2007 by Mike Tomlinson of Queen’s University<\/a>, which asserted that the legacy of the Troubles has played a substantial role in the current high rate of suicide in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Historically, Belfast has been a centre for the Irish linen industry (earning the nickname “Linenopolis“), tobacco production, rope-making and shipbuilding: the city’s main shipbuilders, Harland and Wolff, which built the well-known RMS Titanic, propelled Belfast on to the global stage in the early 20th century as the biggest and most productive shipyard in the world.[citationContinue reading<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-120","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122,"href":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/120\/revisions\/122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}