End of the first week
Hey all!
This week has gone well at work; we are well on our way to having the system ready for roll-out, which is a relief. The best news yet is that I have received approval to have an analyst come in and help me on this project! I never thought I would see the day ... granted she will initially only be chargeable 1/2 time to my project for the next 3 weeks - but after that, I believe she will be approved for full time. It has only taken me over a year to get some help! Thankfully, it looks like I will finally be getting it and from a good friend of mine actually - so it is an added bonus that I already know the analyst, adore her, and that she happened to be unstaffed at the perfect time.
Thursday night, we headed to the Belfast Opera House to see a local Northern Irish play written and performed by 3 guys who grew up during the "Troubles". Most everyone knows of the city of Belfast because of the fighting between the Catholics and the Protestants that went on for so many years; hence the title of the time, the "Troubles". I have learned quite a bit being that this is my 4th time to visit Belfast but I think the main misconception about the fighting between the Catholics and the Protestants is that it was about religion, however, this is not how it all started. Essentially, the English (Protestants) wanted the land that the Irish (Catholics) were settled on. So, England went after the land by encouraging Englishmen to settle in Ireland, which was not well-received by the Irish. The religious part of the conflicts came as a result of these two groups mixing. The Irish felt invaded and were treated as 2nd class citizens; in fact if you were Catholic during the 60's, you were not given the better jobs, you were paid a great deal less than a Protestant, etc. Sound familiar? Yep -while the U.S. was dealing with its own civil rights protests, so was Ireland! I find it all so fascinating.
While Great Britain is made up of England, Scotland, Whales, and Northern Ireland - the latter 3 act as their own states in that they have a local government in place apart from the British parliament. BUT - almost 2 years ago, Northern Ireland's local branch of parliament was suspended. Apparently, the IRA (Irish Republican Army) had bugged various offices (big scandle) and the British parliament decided to stop their ability to govern themselves locally as a state. Today, Northern Ireland is locally run by the British parliament (functions as England's state government too). Some of you may have heard of the 26.2 million pound bank robbery that occurred here in Northern Ireland this past December, one of the largest bank robberies the world has ever seen! Apparently, there were allegations that the IRA was involved and yesterday, they arrested 7 people who they believe were connected to the robbery. The police found 2.2 million of the money stolen and one of the suspects is a former Sinn Fein member of the local Irish parliament - Sinn Fein is the name of the party that represents the Irish Republicans (it is gaelic, like my name). Needless to say, there were talks about allowing the Irish local parliament to be unsuspended; however, this arrest has changed the minds of the British parliament and the suspension will not be removed for quite some time now.
As you can tell, the time of the "Troubles" is so interesting to me. The Irish obviously wanted Ireland to be a free country on its own, completely separate from Britain's rule. There are things that I had no idea about - for example, did you know there was a huge hunger strike started by a group of IRA prisoners who wanted to be treated as POWs instead of petty criminals? The British parliament (Prime Minister at the time was Margaret Thatcher) did nothing about it and all 11 died. On my tour this weekend of the city, I will see where that all happened but not where "Bloody Sunday" occurred because it happened about 100 miles from here in Derry (or Londonderry if you are Protestant). Most of you know "Bloody Sunday" because U2 sings a song with that title, but it represents a turning point in the conflicts when British soilders attacked a civil rights march - turning point because while there were protests before, however, all had been peaceful until this one. Up until Bloody Sunday, which happened in the late 60's, the IRA had not caused too much trouble. After Bloody Sunday was when the IRA began recruiting and the bombings and such began.
Also, I hadn't realized all that President Clinton had done to help the peace process between the Protestants & the Catholics. He came to Belfast in 1998 for the signing of the "Good Friday Agreement". This peace treaty marked the official end of the "Troubles", even though a cease fire had been in place since 1995. This treaty allowed the release of every prisoner who had been charged with any offense connected to the conflicts to be FREE. There were quite a bit of innocent people who had been in prison for years and were freed - and of course there were the master minds behind the bombings/killings who were also let go.
I could go on and on ... but I think that is enough history for now. Can you tell it is Friday and I needed a break?
This week has gone well at work; we are well on our way to having the system ready for roll-out, which is a relief. The best news yet is that I have received approval to have an analyst come in and help me on this project! I never thought I would see the day ... granted she will initially only be chargeable 1/2 time to my project for the next 3 weeks - but after that, I believe she will be approved for full time. It has only taken me over a year to get some help! Thankfully, it looks like I will finally be getting it and from a good friend of mine actually - so it is an added bonus that I already know the analyst, adore her, and that she happened to be unstaffed at the perfect time.
Thursday night, we headed to the Belfast Opera House to see a local Northern Irish play written and performed by 3 guys who grew up during the "Troubles". Most everyone knows of the city of Belfast because of the fighting between the Catholics and the Protestants that went on for so many years; hence the title of the time, the "Troubles". I have learned quite a bit being that this is my 4th time to visit Belfast but I think the main misconception about the fighting between the Catholics and the Protestants is that it was about religion, however, this is not how it all started. Essentially, the English (Protestants) wanted the land that the Irish (Catholics) were settled on. So, England went after the land by encouraging Englishmen to settle in Ireland, which was not well-received by the Irish. The religious part of the conflicts came as a result of these two groups mixing. The Irish felt invaded and were treated as 2nd class citizens; in fact if you were Catholic during the 60's, you were not given the better jobs, you were paid a great deal less than a Protestant, etc. Sound familiar? Yep -while the U.S. was dealing with its own civil rights protests, so was Ireland! I find it all so fascinating.
While Great Britain is made up of England, Scotland, Whales, and Northern Ireland - the latter 3 act as their own states in that they have a local government in place apart from the British parliament. BUT - almost 2 years ago, Northern Ireland's local branch of parliament was suspended. Apparently, the IRA (Irish Republican Army) had bugged various offices (big scandle) and the British parliament decided to stop their ability to govern themselves locally as a state. Today, Northern Ireland is locally run by the British parliament (functions as England's state government too). Some of you may have heard of the 26.2 million pound bank robbery that occurred here in Northern Ireland this past December, one of the largest bank robberies the world has ever seen! Apparently, there were allegations that the IRA was involved and yesterday, they arrested 7 people who they believe were connected to the robbery. The police found 2.2 million of the money stolen and one of the suspects is a former Sinn Fein member of the local Irish parliament - Sinn Fein is the name of the party that represents the Irish Republicans (it is gaelic, like my name). Needless to say, there were talks about allowing the Irish local parliament to be unsuspended; however, this arrest has changed the minds of the British parliament and the suspension will not be removed for quite some time now.
As you can tell, the time of the "Troubles" is so interesting to me. The Irish obviously wanted Ireland to be a free country on its own, completely separate from Britain's rule. There are things that I had no idea about - for example, did you know there was a huge hunger strike started by a group of IRA prisoners who wanted to be treated as POWs instead of petty criminals? The British parliament (Prime Minister at the time was Margaret Thatcher) did nothing about it and all 11 died. On my tour this weekend of the city, I will see where that all happened but not where "Bloody Sunday" occurred because it happened about 100 miles from here in Derry (or Londonderry if you are Protestant). Most of you know "Bloody Sunday" because U2 sings a song with that title, but it represents a turning point in the conflicts when British soilders attacked a civil rights march - turning point because while there were protests before, however, all had been peaceful until this one. Up until Bloody Sunday, which happened in the late 60's, the IRA had not caused too much trouble. After Bloody Sunday was when the IRA began recruiting and the bombings and such began.
Also, I hadn't realized all that President Clinton had done to help the peace process between the Protestants & the Catholics. He came to Belfast in 1998 for the signing of the "Good Friday Agreement". This peace treaty marked the official end of the "Troubles", even though a cease fire had been in place since 1995. This treaty allowed the release of every prisoner who had been charged with any offense connected to the conflicts to be FREE. There were quite a bit of innocent people who had been in prison for years and were freed - and of course there were the master minds behind the bombings/killings who were also let go.
I could go on and on ... but I think that is enough history for now. Can you tell it is Friday and I needed a break?
posted by Keely @ 4:39 PM
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