In seconds there were about 7 or eight people gathering in windows across the way and I could hear more people yellin from their windows below me. Imelda and Emma, my flatmates ran into my room speaking quickly; “Did you hear that? What the fuck was that? Awww, fer fuck's sake, it was a bomb... I bet it was at DaVincis, the hotel.”
More and more smoke was raising into the sky about a mile away. "Welcome to Derry," Emma said angrily, walking out of the room.
(Student's returning to their rooms after gathering post-explosion)
---------
A few minutes later, as dozens of students gathered together outside excitedly responding to the bomb, we heard from our friend Emer who had been driving home when the bomb exploded. She texted Emma, letting her know that she missed the bomb by a few minutes (it's on her route home) and that she was okay but shook up.
---------
Two of my flatmates are from the Republic. They both expressed awe and fear over the attack. "We're not used to this," Rachel said, referring the the people from the Republic of Ireland. Imelda confessed that she'd never been so afraid, "I'm rethinking my decision to come up here for Uni. I'm still shakin'."
The situation here is the following: there are some joint initiatives and power-sharing policies between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, but since 1921 the northern province of the island, Ulster, voted to remain a part of the United Kingdom. There is a Protestant, majority in Ulster, as opposed to an overwhelmingly Catholic majority in the southern part of the island. The ones who are actively seeking to maintain connection to the UK are called Unionists (if non-violent) or Loyalists (if advocates of violence).
Traditionally, the Protestants have maintained the greater amount of political, economic, and social control. In the late 1960s and 1970s a civil rights movement (inspired in part by the US Civil Rights Movement) advocating for just treatment of Catholics in Northern Ireland who at the time had fewer cultural, housing, employment, and educational opportunities than the Protestants. They were often treated unfairly within the justice system and targeted unjustly by overwhelmingly Protestant police forces. Nationalist (non-violent) and Republican (violent) groups wanted separation from the UK and unity with the Republic of Ireland.
Terrorist activities peppered and then saturated the movement against an oppressive system. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombed pubs and transportation centers. British soldiers and Ulster police attacked civilians. Targeted assassinations from the Ulster Volunteer Foce (UVF) and the IRA became more and more common. Today, nearly everyone in the country has been affected by this violence.
In the late 1990s and just after 2000 a peace agreement began demilitarization of the armed groups and started initiatives of inter-group reconciliation. Since the Good Friday Agreement much of the violence has disappeared.
People here find violence neither constructive nor effective... Most people. There are still some dissident groups, such as the Real IRA (RIRA), who believe they should use violence as a destabilizing force. They want to stir up a resistance movement for the independence of Northern Ireland from the UK. Thus the car bomb at the Ulster Bank.
Apparently, according to the RIRA "The role of bankers and the institutions they serve in financing Britain's colonial and capitalist system has not gone unnoticed...It's essentially a crime spree that benefits a social elite at the expense of many millions of victims" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/14/real-ira-targets-banks-bankers).
Everyone I've talked to from here would say something like what one of my flatmates said: "“Fuckin bastards. Psychotic, is what it is."
---------
As a result of this dissidant attack there's been a flurry of conversation about the terrorism here in Northern Ireland. Most of my friends from here have experiences, either recent or from their childhood, connected to the sectarian violence of the Troubles:
"You know that pictures of the people on Bloody Sunday? The guy with big glasses in the murals? That was my uncle."
"My uncle died in that attack."
"I was just a cadet for the British Armed Forces. We were fucking kids and the IRA were threatenin' to attack us."
"My granny hasn't marched since that day, Bloody Sunday."
"We were supposed to go out to that pub that night, but decided not to. It was bombed later."
If you're interested in more about the car bomb and responses to it:
---------
A few minutes later, as dozens of students gathered together outside excitedly responding to the bomb, we heard from our friend Emer who had been driving home when the bomb exploded. She texted Emma, letting her know that she missed the bomb by a few minutes (it's on her route home) and that she was okay but shook up.
---------
Two of my flatmates are from the Republic. They both expressed awe and fear over the attack. "We're not used to this," Rachel said, referring the the people from the Republic of Ireland. Imelda confessed that she'd never been so afraid, "I'm rethinking my decision to come up here for Uni. I'm still shakin'."
The situation here is the following: there are some joint initiatives and power-sharing policies between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, but since 1921 the northern province of the island, Ulster, voted to remain a part of the United Kingdom. There is a Protestant, majority in Ulster, as opposed to an overwhelmingly Catholic majority in the southern part of the island. The ones who are actively seeking to maintain connection to the UK are called Unionists (if non-violent) or Loyalists (if advocates of violence).
Traditionally, the Protestants have maintained the greater amount of political, economic, and social control. In the late 1960s and 1970s a civil rights movement (inspired in part by the US Civil Rights Movement) advocating for just treatment of Catholics in Northern Ireland who at the time had fewer cultural, housing, employment, and educational opportunities than the Protestants. They were often treated unfairly within the justice system and targeted unjustly by overwhelmingly Protestant police forces. Nationalist (non-violent) and Republican (violent) groups wanted separation from the UK and unity with the Republic of Ireland.
Terrorist activities peppered and then saturated the movement against an oppressive system. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombed pubs and transportation centers. British soldiers and Ulster police attacked civilians. Targeted assassinations from the Ulster Volunteer Foce (UVF) and the IRA became more and more common. Today, nearly everyone in the country has been affected by this violence.
In the late 1990s and just after 2000 a peace agreement began demilitarization of the armed groups and started initiatives of inter-group reconciliation. Since the Good Friday Agreement much of the violence has disappeared.
People here find violence neither constructive nor effective... Most people. There are still some dissident groups, such as the Real IRA (RIRA), who believe they should use violence as a destabilizing force. They want to stir up a resistance movement for the independence of Northern Ireland from the UK. Thus the car bomb at the Ulster Bank.
Apparently, according to the RIRA "The role of bankers and the institutions they serve in financing Britain's colonial and capitalist system has not gone unnoticed...It's essentially a crime spree that benefits a social elite at the expense of many millions of victims" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/14/real-ira-targets-banks-bankers).
Everyone I've talked to from here would say something like what one of my flatmates said: "“Fuckin bastards. Psychotic, is what it is."
---------
As a result of this dissidant attack there's been a flurry of conversation about the terrorism here in Northern Ireland. Most of my friends from here have experiences, either recent or from their childhood, connected to the sectarian violence of the Troubles:
"You know that pictures of the people on Bloody Sunday? The guy with big glasses in the murals? That was my uncle."
"My uncle died in that attack."
"I was just a cadet for the British Armed Forces. We were fucking kids and the IRA were threatenin' to attack us."
"My granny hasn't marched since that day, Bloody Sunday."
"We were supposed to go out to that pub that night, but decided not to. It was bombed later."
If you're interested in more about the car bomb and responses to it:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-foyle-west-11473586
