For the past week, we’ve been in the Yorkshire Dale area of England. It’s been a fabulous trip as you might expect and if you follow me on Instagram or Blue Sky, you’ve seen some of the hikes we’ve taken. More of that to come.

But before returning to England, Tim and I took a tour of Belfast. It is something I’ve longed to do for sometime now. If you are my age or older you likely also have some memory of The Troubles. Seems like my youth and young adolescent was filled with televised real life violence. From the battlefields of Vietnam, to the streets of Belfast.

I had very little understanding then of any of the violence that was wrecking the lives of so many in what seemed then like a far away place of Ireland. I’ve been to Ireland several times over the past decade, however, but never to Belfast. Let’s face it, there’s plenty to see and do in Ireland without going to Belfast.

But I recently read Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe and followed that by watching the Say Nothing series on Hulu. Have you read the book or watched the series? It’s intense. Keefe’s reporting in his books is unrelenting. He does a terrific job of taking the reader along for the ride, which is more of a thrill ride than cruising Main Street. I recommend them both.

But our Black Cab driver in Belfast took issue with the book and the series. Not that he questioned Keefe’s work, he didn’t. What bothered him was that he felt Keefe missed a bigger story: ‘I knew a mum who was killed right here about the same time as Jean McConville. The woman I knew was killed by the state, not the IRA like McConville but nobody is talking ’bout her.”

Jean McConville is the focus of the book and the television series. The mother of ten was a 38-year old widow when she was kidnapped and killed by the IRA. The IRA insisted that the Divis Flat’s mother was a spy for the Brits and deserved to be executed. Kidnapped in 1972, McConville;’s whereabouts remained a mystery until 1999 when the IRA admitted they had killed her for allegedly aiding the Brits. Her children, grown by then, suffered terribly after their mother’s kidnapping and subsequent murder.

What disturbed me from my reading of Keefe’s book was that the person who reportedly gave the orders to get rid of McConville became a leading political figure and to this day Gerry Adams has denied any involvement whatsoever despite the testimony of many to the contrary. Adams, now retired as president of Sinn Féin – the revamped political arm of the IRA, describes himself as a defender of civil rights and leader for peace in Northern Ireland.

“I can tell ya, Adam’s loved up and down these streets,” the cabbie declared.

“Isn’t that the way?” I thought but didn’t say. Good women suffer and sometimes die while men continue to thrive, unabated in their pursuit of political power and control.

Most of us are familiar with the ongoing violence between Israel and Gaza, and the decimation of the Palestinians by the Israelis. We understand the oppressive regime that Netanyahu has waged, but less familiar to us is how the hostilities between the Catholics and Protestants were the underlying point of contention between the residents of Shankill Road (Protestants) and those of Falls Road (Catholics). Did you know that since 1969 gates at these two neighborhoods are locked down each night to tamp down any violent eruptions between the two still divisive entities?

Our cab driver and tour guide told us he is not comfortable as an Irish man going into a designated English neighborhood.

It’s exhausting sometimes to consider all the harm religion has invoked, pitting neighbor against neighbor. I had no idea that there were gates in Belfast still being locked each night in order to prevent Protestants and Catholics from waging violence against each other.

And, ironically, these gates are attached to what is known as the “Peace Walls.” There are over 60 peace walls in Belfast, stretching nearly 25 miles, and they’ve been up since 1969. Yet, reading today’s headlines we can see that walls and gates are never an effective measure toward peace. Tonight Belfast is ablaze again. This time it involves an immigrant from Sudan.

Another painful reminder that is our hearts that need unlocking, not gates.