Finding ways to describe you
\nEach of you
\nDifferent, yet similar in your quest
\nNo matter what side, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s side, which side<\/p>\n
One step in front of the other
\non my journey, sending letters
\nringing you up from tiny
\nyouth hostels, dredging thru rain
\nsunless skies and cloudy afternoons
\nwinding buses
\nlots of walking all to
\nfind you each of you, on different sides
\nof town, on one side of the wall and then
\non the other.<\/p>\n
Up at the Quaker meeting house
\nthey told me the IRA used to cap
\nfellows knees on the green hillside
\nalong the road leading up to the house.
\nAt the Quaker house, women met in
\nsecrecy, protestant and catholic young
\nmothers, seeking services for themselves
\nand for their children. I rode in the white
\nvan with the women as they traveled
\nback to their neighborhoods in Belfast.<\/p>\n
May Blood, union rep:
\nWe drove by the factory
\nwhere she spent 30 years of
\nher life, working her way up
\nfrom factory girl to shop steward.
\nIn the 1980s, the old factory closed
\ndown for good after nearly a century <\/p>\n
Soon after, May Blood opened
\nThe Early Years, a daycare
\ncenter for low-income Belfast babies.
\nThen she went on to city council and finally
\nto the House of Lords.<\/p>\n
Mairead MaGuire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s young niece and nephew
\nwere killed by an IRA man driving a car while
\nrunning from the police. <\/p>\n
Mairead\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sister later committed suicide.<\/p>\n
Mairead co-founded Peace People in 1975,
\na national peace organization in Northern Ireland.
\nShe later went on to receive the Nobel Peace
\nPrize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Finding ways to describe you Each of you Different, yet similar in your quest No matter what side, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s side, which side One step in front of the other on my journey, sending letters ringing you up from tiny youth … Continue reading