Good Friday and Belfast

 

A couple of days ago we rented the film Belfast, one of the nominees for best picture at the now infamous Academy Awards a few weeks back. This drama was a labour of memory and love for the exceptional Kenneth Branagh who wrote the screenplay and directed this largely biographical story. He didn't act in it because it recounts his childhood in Belfast in the late 1960's, the beginning of "The Troubles", a dismal and murderous 30-year period of senseless sectarian violence. The child who plays nine-year-old Branagh is wonderful and probably deserved Best Actor over...you know. 

In part because of the pandemic Branagh recreated the street and neighbourhood of his childhood rather than try to find a suitable location in Belfast. The film does a fine job of portraying life in what was a claustrophobic yet reassuring environment in which to grow up. The boy is surrounded by extended family and neighbours who were always looking out for each other, for good and not so good. 

Branagh's family's street was a mixture of Protestant and Roman Catholic households which lived together peacably. His parents were open-minded and refused to enter into the "us and them" mentality which intensifed over time. Their street became a makeshift fortress to keep out those who wanted to wreak havoc on the "others".

Eventually Branagh's family made the difficult decision to leave what they knew to live in Britain. The irony for the nine-year-old who was loathe to leave was that it opened up opportunities which led to being a celebrated actor and director. 

As I snooped about for more information on that sad era in Northern Irish history which resulted in 3,500 deaths I was reminded that the end, or the beginning of the end, came with the Belfast Agreement of 1998. It was also called the Good Friday Agreement because of the auspicious day on which it was signed. To this day there is a project in public schools which invites students to consider forgiveness as a practical alternative to the simmering intergenerational enmity which still exists 

It was not our intention to watch the film during Holy Week with its culmination on Good Friday but it did remind me that religion and politics often mix and create dangerously explosive circumstances. Sadly, it will probably always be so, even as we hope and pray that our faith in Christ will make us disciples of the Prince of Peace.