Daily Blog: Facing the Troubles

Over the life of a city there will always be times of trouble. But there was a time in the life of Londonderry that the trouble was so intense and so long-lasting that a thirty-year period from 1968-1998 was given the name, “the Troubles.”

A bitter disagreement between those favoring unification with the Irish Republic and those wishing to continue under British rule became so heated and violent that more than 3,500 people lost their lives – with much of the tension focusing on Londonderry (population 85,000) and Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland.

Things are calmer now, but as “the Troubles” have diminished in their intensity other problems have increased.

Joshua Hammer writes, “Peace has brought other difficulties . . . the suicide rate among Belfast’s youth has risen sharply since the Troubles ended, largely because, the priest believes, the sense of camaraderie and shared struggle provided by the paramilitary groups has been replaced by ennui and despair.”

The story of the Troubles provides a lesson for leaders of any city: A spirit of community cannot flourish when the sense of camaraderie and shared struggle pits citizens against each other – rather it is about identifying and defining the common enemies or troubles facing a city thus creating a unifying sense of camaraderie and shared struggle which binds its citizens together.

Read more in “Getting Past the Troubles”, Smithsonian, March 2009