The Handshake

By Alison Bodor

The Gonzaga in Derry class took a bus tour in Belfast. The tour was divided into two tours separated by the city's peace walls that segregate the neighborhoods and the two sides of the story.  Two former combatants guided each tour with their own lenses on the past and present.  

Paedar points to homes with fortification to repel thrown objects

Paedar guided us through the Republician/Catholic neighborhoods, ever so carefully weaving in the themes of poverty, justice, safety, and the importance of being united.  As the tour of the Republican neighborhoods came to an end, the bus drove through the peace wall gate into the Protestant/Loyalist side of town.  Our Protestant/Loyalist guide waited for us at the arranged spot at the arranged time.  The bus pulled to a stop, a short distance back to the peace wall, where Paedar could easily return to his side of town.  The students thanked him for his tour, and he walked off the bus.  Just out of our sight, Paedar shook hands with Robert, our new guide, and Robert walked onto the bus. Robert guided us through the neighborhoods on the Loyalist side. With a slight tremble in his hands and voice, Robert talked of career ambitions limited by his criminal history, the importance of tradition, friendships in his community, loyalty, and equal justice.  Each tour touched on the events and people victimized by the other side.   

Murals on Shankhill Road and everyday foot traffic

Paolo Freire in his theory Pedagogy of the Oppressed said "It is essential for the oppressed to realize that when they accept the struggle for humanization they also accept, from that moment, their total responsibility for the struggle."  The two tours in Belfast focused on the wrongs by the other, not yet fully ready to describe and point out their side's contributions to the struggle, other than to note that both sides suffered.

Robert said the first walls are scheduled to come down as part of the peace agreement in 2025.  Yet, since the peace accord in 1998, new walls have gone up to minimize rioting and damage.  The city that provides the walls that keep the peace will also need to find ways to get the community into dialog.  It will take more than a handshake for this community to create their common future.