https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1011-2447
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ABSTRACT
This paper analyses a city embarking on its maiden resilience journey. Belfast suffers from common environmental, economic and social problems (e.g. flooding, unemployment and exclusion). However, the city is unique as it still struggles with the toxic fallout from its violent socio-political history – ‘the Troubles’. Despite peace and reconciliation it remains to a large extent deeply divided and socially segregated. We show that illegal drugs are a ‘chronic stress’ not yet analysed in local resilience deliberations, until this is properly problematized then Belfast’s future Resilience Strategy will struggle to deliver transformative change. We are also concerned that a predictable policy agenda scripted by influential voices renders this pressing priority of the city’s silent citizens unheard in Belfast’s resilience discussions. To combat this, we suggest that sentiment platforms could be a more effective participatory method for planning in lending life to the ‘lived experiences’ of those impacted by the drugs problem.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Deep divisions between Nationalists and Unionists over religious-cultural identity and sovereignty (i.e. Catholic-Irish versus Protestant-British) led to ‘the Troubles’ (1968–1998) during which 3600 people died as ethno-sectarian warfare raged between Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries. The former fought for a united Ireland (partitioned in 1921 following British colonial rule), the latter defended Northern Ireland’s status within the UK.
2 The others are Bristol, Glasgow, London and Manchester; Bangkok and Boston are also members.
3 These quotes, and others, are contemporaneous notes made by one of the authors who attended the event.
4 Job-related pulmonary disorders were common.
5 For example people suffering mental illness and physical disabilities as victims of paramilitary violence are now unable or unwilling to work in the formal economy and are placed on long-term sickness benefits (NISRA Citation2017).
6 However, the smaller The Irish People’s Liberation Organisation, an offshoot from the Irish National Liberation Army, was in the 1990s heavily involved in the drugs trade to fund their attacks on the British security services (Monaghan Citation2004; Monaghan and McLaughlin Citation2006).
7 DAAD are active in Belfast while RAAD are mostly active in Derry/Londonderry which is Northern Ireland’s second largest city; Catholics/Nationalists use the Irish name Derry while Protestants/Unionists use Londonderry reflecting their British identity.
8 Those who oppose the current peace process arrangements in Northern Ireland and the mainstream Republican politics of Sinn Féin – the largest Nationalist/Republican party.
9 These include attacks with baseball bats, iron bars, sledgehammers, electric drills and ‘kneecappings’.
10 Seven men were killed and several hundred Protestant families were forced out of their homes due to paramilitary intimidation.
11 For example, public support from the UDA for the DUP at election time and reciprocal DUP support for funding to community organisations linked to the UDA. In addition, there are also serious reservations about ‘people who are ‘‘community workers’ and officers in charitable and voluntary organisations by day, and drug-dealers and thugs by night’ (Barry, Citation2017, 52).
12 Public or private data in a ‘machine-readable’ format that can be accessed without restriction.
13 Such as New York, Dublin, Manchester, Brisbane, Chicago.
14 Belfast Against Drugs:
Concerned Families Against Drugs:
http://cfadardoyne.blogspot.co.uk/;
Sluggerotoole:
https://sluggerotoole.com/2017/04/06/an-insight-into-the-latest-drugs-crisis-in-belfast/
Belfast Forum:
www.belfastforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=63764.0
BBC Spotlight Twitter:
mobile.twitter.com/BBCSpotlightNI/status/646054591499476992