Day 2 of my Trip to Northern Ireland
I’d forgotten how fond I am of Belfast. Due to visiting relatives etc, I realized I have probably never walked around Belfast city alone since I left 25 years ago.I can’t put into words just how it feels to do so after all this time – living with the Troubles was a natural existence for my generation, entering the city checkpoints, standing in line to be frisked, shaking out our umbrellas on front of armed policemen, laughing with the soldiers who boarded our bus to check under our seats for bombs, as a child this was my home, and to me, in my young view, it was a happy one. In the January sales people were so blasé with bomb scares, they had to be virtually dragged away from the cash desk when there was a bargain at stake, regardless of the soldiers ordering them out. Once peace came, it took us a year at least for people to stop automatically opening their handbags to be searched in every shop door they entered. Belfast is transformed now, shopping centres, entertainment, resturants, fast on it’s way to being European City of Culture and voted best weekend destination world wide last year. A few reminders of it’s history remain such as the DIY store with it’s gaffa tape advertised as ‘hostage tape.’ Belfast never had lost it’s sense of humour.
My two gallery visits today were really positive and now it’s just a case of going home to give the situation some more thought and prepare proposals etc. All in all, like everytime I return home, it has been an intensely emotional experience for me. As a young artist I held my largest solo show in the Arts Council gallery there, two vast car showrooms, ( the Arts Council gallery relocated more than once through bomb damage), – to go back would be in a sense to complete the circle, and somehow would satisfy something inside.
