people fight everywhere
We returned yesterday from Belfast.
Friday morning we arrived from the South and drove immediately to Maghaberry (/me-gah'-bury/) Prison. A few from our group had spent last semester working with a prison drama program, but the rest of us were newbies.
Our exposure to the prison itself was minimal. Through the front door, the men and women were separated, "patted down", then sent through a clacking metal revolving gate. Grey drizzle met us in the courtyard on the other side, and we filed down concrete steps to another corridor and another courtyard. Notices for the staff were posted in glass cases on the wall--family services, health care, photos of educational groups and physical recreation groups, warnings regarding threats from prison gangs...
Back into the drizzle, dogs barking, a siren calling, food carts rattling across the pavement as we cross through another high metal gate and turn into a building that welcomes us with a cross. Officers are in every frame of sight, though non-intrusive now. I wonder where the prisoners are.
A small group of laughing, cleanly dressed men meet us in the chapel. They wear nametags. They are the prisoners. They have been involved in this program for several months to a couple of years. They seem comfortable with us, eager to share. We are in a prison. Guards stand by the door. Dogs bark outside.
After several minutes of chatting and waiting for a crew to return from the toilets (they just call them toilets here. i was not one who experienced the prison toilets.), we begin, naturally, with an icebreaker game--a Truth Circle. If you haven't done this, someone stands in the middle and makes a statement, and anyone who has done or is or has the statement must find a new chair. the one who doesn't find a chair gives the next statement.
"Who felt a little uncomfortable about coming here today"
i move
..."who has body art"
..."who has blue eyes"
..."who has done something illegal"
..."who loves shakespeare"
...
good ways to establish common ground between us...(do you know which of the above would have required me to move?)
The American Consulate joins us for lunch, investigating the possibility of a joint project with a group of American prisoners.
Educational programs with prisoners is a given here. Not so in the States, eh?
More about our visit was posted here.
It wasn't until arriving back in Dublin that some of us realized our itenerary had been made public. We visited Falls Road, "the spine of Republican Northern Ireland," and later Shankill Road, the center of Loyalist N. Ireland. What's the difference? Well, it's quite a long story, but in simple terms, "Republicans" would like the whole island to be under one independent rule, and "Loyalists" want to keep Northern Ireland under the British crown, or within the UK.
It has sent me on thinking about what authority and governance is in this day and age--that there are those who feel beholden to a common leader because of the actual land they live on, and those who are beholden to a leader because of shared ideology, regardless of the land. And i'm wondering why we aren't at blows in the States and how long will it take, or is it that we are able to spread so far apart and grow content with our plot of land and car and belongings that quells the urgent anger that leads to violence? Is it only when my perceived enemy has to share some actual space with me that i am willing to take violent action against him?
Friday morning we arrived from the South and drove immediately to Maghaberry (/me-gah'-bury/) Prison. A few from our group had spent last semester working with a prison drama program, but the rest of us were newbies.
Our exposure to the prison itself was minimal. Through the front door, the men and women were separated, "patted down", then sent through a clacking metal revolving gate. Grey drizzle met us in the courtyard on the other side, and we filed down concrete steps to another corridor and another courtyard. Notices for the staff were posted in glass cases on the wall--family services, health care, photos of educational groups and physical recreation groups, warnings regarding threats from prison gangs...
Back into the drizzle, dogs barking, a siren calling, food carts rattling across the pavement as we cross through another high metal gate and turn into a building that welcomes us with a cross. Officers are in every frame of sight, though non-intrusive now. I wonder where the prisoners are.
A small group of laughing, cleanly dressed men meet us in the chapel. They wear nametags. They are the prisoners. They have been involved in this program for several months to a couple of years. They seem comfortable with us, eager to share. We are in a prison. Guards stand by the door. Dogs bark outside.
After several minutes of chatting and waiting for a crew to return from the toilets (they just call them toilets here. i was not one who experienced the prison toilets.), we begin, naturally, with an icebreaker game--a Truth Circle. If you haven't done this, someone stands in the middle and makes a statement, and anyone who has done or is or has the statement must find a new chair. the one who doesn't find a chair gives the next statement.
"Who felt a little uncomfortable about coming here today"
i move
..."who has body art"
..."who has blue eyes"
..."who has done something illegal"
..."who loves shakespeare"
...
good ways to establish common ground between us...(do you know which of the above would have required me to move?)
The American Consulate joins us for lunch, investigating the possibility of a joint project with a group of American prisoners.
Educational programs with prisoners is a given here. Not so in the States, eh?
More about our visit was posted here.
It wasn't until arriving back in Dublin that some of us realized our itenerary had been made public. We visited Falls Road, "the spine of Republican Northern Ireland," and later Shankill Road, the center of Loyalist N. Ireland. What's the difference? Well, it's quite a long story, but in simple terms, "Republicans" would like the whole island to be under one independent rule, and "Loyalists" want to keep Northern Ireland under the British crown, or within the UK.
It has sent me on thinking about what authority and governance is in this day and age--that there are those who feel beholden to a common leader because of the actual land they live on, and those who are beholden to a leader because of shared ideology, regardless of the land. And i'm wondering why we aren't at blows in the States and how long will it take, or is it that we are able to spread so far apart and grow content with our plot of land and car and belongings that quells the urgent anger that leads to violence? Is it only when my perceived enemy has to share some actual space with me that i am willing to take violent action against him?
posted by ceciliabrie at
4:28 PM
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