Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
For a lesson in the power of symbolism, visit a town where about two-thirds
of the community is Protestant and one-third is Catholic. These towns can be
decked out like a Union Jack fantasy…or nightmare, if you happen to be Catholic.
The curbs are painted red, white, and blue. Houses fly huge British flags. Streets
lead under trellises blotting out the sky with flapping Union Jacks. (Not too long
ago, many towns like these even came with the remains of a burned-out Catholic
church.) A Catholic walking down a street strewn with this British symbolism can
only be quiet and accept it. To independence-minded Catholics, the Union Jack
symbolizes not a united nation, but the tyranny of the majority. The result: There is
no real flag of Northern Ireland.
Until experiences like these in Germany and in Northern Ireland humanized the
notion of “tyranny of the majority,” I never really grasped the sadness of a society
where a majority-rules mentality can, when taken to extremes, abuse a minority and
bully it into silent submission.
Many angry Catholics in Northern Ireland have no flag. To them, the Union Jack
is “the Butcher's Apron.”
As the rhetoric for the Iraq War was ramping up in early 2003, a situation in
Edmonds, my hometown north of Seattle, reminded me in some small way of what
