12 july 2006

"it was the first time in more than 35 years that the Army were not deployed on the ground in Belfast during the Twelfth of July parade"

on a day whose sky would typically be black with smoke from smoldering bonfires and would have the constant sound of sirens, and landrovers, northern ireland is perhaps beginning to learn.

as we learn about acceptance to 'the other', we're reacting in many different ways. from fear and hate to hospitality and excitement, our people are being forced to change. just how long it will take to have no petrol bombs and bricks thrown during the Twelfth remains to be seen.

one friend from the South wrote this about the North:

let it be shoutted from the rooftops
our peace line broken rooftops
our sorry streets are filled with broken bottles
we have not learned tto drink from, but
the water which will never end
lies waiting for our thirst.

let it be shouted from the rooftops
our Cave Hill gazing rooftops
we have lived in sorrow long enough to write a book
for every sadness earned
every page of history burned a hole in someone's home
we have lived in sorrow long enough.

let it be shouted from the rooftops
we are not divied people
we are joined by struggle, we are joined by hope
'your father hurt my uncle more than my mother hurt your son'
these are dividing arguments
we are uniting people.

let it be drummed out from our rooftops
we are a growing people
green and oreange and white and blue and red
there is a rhythm of God's aching and God's making new each single human
a beating of the drum which calls us home.

a banging of the sound which calls for justice
and a making of a noise enflamed by love
we were once a broken people and we join our different sounds to the
echos of God's rhythm on this beautiful
hallowed ground.