编者语：北爱尔兰（Northern Ireland），素有绿王国之称，属英国政府管辖，首府贝尔法斯特(Belfast)。这里自然风光优美，空气清新，广袤的绿色草原和数不清的青山绿水勾勒出北爱尔兰独有的以“绿色”为主线的自然景观。沿着北爱尔兰的海岸线往北，繁忙的海港与有着数百年历史的古堡相交辉映，现代的生机与历史的底蕴在这里和谐并存。仿佛它一直就是如此的平静和平和。然而，来自爱尔兰的McEleney老师却告诉我们，北爱尔兰也曾经经历过战火纷飞的年代。北爱问题的起源，经过以及最终问题的解决是什么样的呢？让我们跟随McEleney老师一起去感受一下吧。
Northern Ireland Conflict
As you all know by now, I am from Ireland. I am assuming that a lot of you have heard of it and even and vaguely know where it is. For those who do not, it is an island in Europe, in between Great Britain and the North Atlantic Ocean. The country is divided into two parts, Northern Ireland (population, 1.8 million people), which is part of the UK and the Republic of Ireland (population, 4.6 million people) which is a sovereign state. It is funny to me that the population of both the north and south of Ireland combined is less than half the population of Chengdu!
想必大家都已经知道我来自爱尔兰这件事情。我猜大多人也都听说过爱尔兰这个国家, 并且大概知道它的地理位置。爱尔兰是欧洲的一个岛屿, 位于大不列颠和北大西洋之间。爱尔兰分为两部分, 我生活的地区叫北爱尔兰 (人口约为180万), 这是英国和爱尔兰共和国 (人口,约460万) 的一部分, 同时也是一个主权国家。值得一提的是, 爱尔兰北部和南部的人口总和竟然还不到成都总人口的一半。
For the first 18 years of my life I grew up in Northern Ireland, in a town called Derry. Like the students in our A-Level Centre, I wanted to leave my hometown and my country to attend university. I wanted to go somewhere bigger and better. I chose Manchester in England, UK. It was a very exciting time; I loved the city, the music scene (i.e.Oasis, The Stone Roses and many more) and the people. I liked Manchester so much I chose to live there for seven years.
我在北爱尔兰一个叫Derry的小镇出生，在那里度过了生命最初的18个年头。就像我们中心的学生一样, 我计划离开家乡和祖国，去一个更大更好的地方读书上大学。英国的曼彻斯特是我最终的选择。我喜欢这个城市, 尤其是这里的音乐 (像Oasis, The Stone Roses) 和这里的人文风情。基于我的喜爱，我在这里生活了七年。
When I moved to England my parents also decided to move to a new home in the countryside. They moved to a place called Donegal in the Republic of Ireland which is only about 20 kilometres away from my hometown. So, now, my mother travels, every day, to a different country with a different currency, to visit my grandmother in Derry.
我搬到英国时，我的父母也决定搬到爱尔兰共和国乡下的一个新家，一个叫Donegal的地方，离我的家乡只有20公里远。所以直到现在，我的母亲为了去看望我在Derry的祖母，每天会开车跨越不同的国家，交替使用着不同的货币。
It is a fifteen-minute drive by car. There are no border stops with soldiers and ID checks, like there were when I was a child. You simply keep driving and suddenly you are in another country. Although due Britain’s upcoming exit from the European Union, there may once again be the installation of a ‘hard border’. People on both sides of the border are very concerned about this as it will inevitably lead to trouble. Big trouble.
这只需要十五分钟的车程，一路上没有边境站也没有士兵，更不需要检查身份证，这么多年一直也是如此。你只要一直开车，就能很快出现在另一个国家。尽管英国即将完全退出欧盟，这里可能会再次出现一个“硬边界”。边境两边的人都很关心这件事，因为这不可避免地会带来麻烦，一个大麻烦。
Ireland has always had a very complicated and turbulent history with its powerful neighbour, Great Britain. But in the past 50 years Northern Ireland experienced a particularly violent conflict. I experienced it, first hand, and I have many family members and friends who were badly affected, and unfortunately, I know some of the people who lost their lives. This horrible conflict is one of the reasons why many Irish people decide to emigrate to other countries to find both peace and prosperity.
爱尔兰一直与它强大的邻国大不列颠有着非常复杂和动荡的关系。但在过去的50年里，北爱尔兰遭遇了一场异常暴力的冲突。我也亲身经历其中，而且许多家庭成员和朋友都受到了严重影响，更不幸的是，我认识的一些人也因此丧生。这场可怕的冲突也成为了许多爱尔兰人决定移民到其他国家寻求和平与繁荣的原因之一。
The dark time in Northern Ireland’s history, between 1969 and 1998, is commonly known by its citizens as “The Troubles”. It was a fierce conflict that spilled over at various times into the Republic of Ireland, mainland UK and mainland Europe. More than 3,500 people lost their lives.
1969--1998，是北爱尔兰历史上的黑暗时期，大多公民们讲这段时间称为“Troubles”。这是一场席卷了爱尔兰共和国、英国大陆和欧洲大陆的激烈冲突，超过3500人因此丧生。
The Troubles began in the late 1960s and are deemed by many to have ended with the "Good Friday" Agreement of 1998, although there has been sporadic violence since then. The conflict was primarily a political one, but it also had an ethnic dimension. A key issue was the constitutional status of Northern Ireland.
这些问题始于上世纪60年代末期，终于1998年的《受难节》协议（在大多数人的眼里），哪怕这之后偶尔也会发生暴力事件。冲突大多为政治上的冲突，但也有种族层面的问题。其中一个尤为关键的问题就是北爱尔兰的宪法地位。
One side of the community called Unionists or loyalists, who are mostly from a Protestant (Christian) religion, generally want Northern Ireland to remain within the United Kingdom.
一方为联合主义者或忠诚者，他们大多来自新教（基督教），他们希望北爱尔兰留在联合国；
The other side of the community called Irish nationalists or republicans, who are mostly Catholics (another Christian religion), generally want to leave the United Kingdom and create a united Ireland (one island, one country).
另一方则是爱尔兰民族主义者或共和党人，他们大多是天主教徒（基督教），他们则想要离开联合国并建立一个统一的爱尔兰（整个岛屿就是一个国家）。
I was a member of the Catholic community, as are all my family who still live there, although I have friends on both sides.
我和我的家人就是天主教教会的成员，尽管我也有不同教派的朋友。
Another key issue was the relationship between my community and the Protestant community. The conflict began during a campaign to end discrimination against the Catholic minority by the Protestant dominated government and a corrupt police force. There were many other grievances on both sides that I will not spend too much time describing in this article but all the information is available online if you want to find out more.
另一个问题是我的社区和新教社区之间的关系。这个冲突是在一场由新教统治的政府和一支腐败的警察队关于消除对天主教少数民族歧视的运动中开始的。关于这次运动的所有的信息都可以在网上找到，我就不多阐述了。
The main participants in the Troubles were republican paramilitaries (such as the Provisional IRA), loyalist paramilitaries (such as the UVF and UDA), the British state security forces (the British Army and the RUC, Northern Ireland's police force), and political activists and politicians.
另外再补充一点，问题的主要参与者是共和党准军事部队（如临时爱尔兰共和军）、忠诚的准军事部队（如UVF和UDA）、英国国家安全部队（英国陆军和皇家空军、北爱尔兰警察部队）、政治活动家和政治家。
I was born in 1983 and from an early age can remember regular violence on the streets and many other problems created by the two divided communities. The majority of people from both sides wanted the fighting to stop and to find an answer through political means. Despite the will of the people, bloodshed continued and many terrible events occurred until the beginning of the peace process when I was 14 years old.
我出生于1983年，我从小就记得街头经常发生暴力事件以及由两个分裂的社区造成的许多其他问题。双方的大多数人希望停息战斗，并通过政治手段找到解决方案。尽管人民愿意妥协，但流血事件仍在继续，直到我14岁那年“和平进程”开始。
This process included the declaration of ceasefires (an end to all violence) by most paramilitary organisations, the complete removal of the IRA's weapons, the reform of the police, and the corresponding withdrawal of the British Army from the streets and sensitive border areas between different communities, as agreed by the signatories to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
这一进程包括大多数准军事组织宣布停火（结束一切暴力），彻底清除爱尔兰共和军的武器，改革警察，以及英军相应地撤出街道和不同国家间敏感的边境地区。一切都基于1998年《Good Friday Agreement》协议的签署。
The agreement reiterated the long-held British position, which successive Irish governments have not fully acknowledged, that Northern Ireland would remain within the United Kingdom, unless a majority of Northern Irish vote otherwise.
该协议重申了长期以来爱尔兰政府尚未完全承认的英国长期立场, 即北爱尔兰将留在联合国境内, 除非爱尔兰北部的大多数人投反对票。
The British government recognised for the first time the principle that the people of the island of Ireland as a whole have the right, without any outside interference, to solve the issues between North and South by mutual consent. The latter statement was of key importance to win the support for ‘the agreement’ from members of my side of the community. It also established a devolved power-sharing government within Northern Ireland, wherein the government must consist of both unionist and nationalist parties.
英国政府首次承认爱尔兰岛全体人民有权利不受任何外来干涉地通过相互同意来解决南北之间问题的原则。后一个声明对于赢得我社区成员的“协议”的支持至关重要。它还在北爱尔兰建立了权力分享的分权政府，当然这个政府必须由工会和民族主义政党组成。
Although the number of active participants was relatively small, the Troubles touched the lives of many citizens in Northern Ireland on a daily basis. As I noted earlier, some of those people were family and friends of mine both Catholic and Protestant. The majority of my family still live in Derry, Northern Ireland; I visit as often as possible and still regard it as home.
尽管积极参与的人数相对较少，但北爱尔兰的许多公民每天都受到这些问题的影响。正如我前面提到的，这些人中包括我的家人和朋友，包括天主教和新教徒。我的大多数家庭成员仍然住在北爱尔兰的Derry，我尽可能地去经常拜访他们，也仍然把Derry当作我的家。
The city has changed a lot since I left in 2003. One of the highlights in recent years was it being awarded the ‘UK City of Culture’ in 2013. It was a year of celebration, peace and reconciliation.
自从我2003离开后，这座城市发生了很大变化。2013年，被我们称为是象征欢庆、和平和互相理解的一年，我的家乡被授予了“英国文化之城”的称号。
Since then there have been an increasing number of annual festivals with a growing sense of harmony between pervious enemies from different sides of the community.
也是从那时起，每年都有越来越多的节日在此举办，而来自不同地区的“敌人”之间的敌视感也随之减弱。
The threat of violence is ever present but many people are working hard to ensure that that the peace process continues and we all have hope that a brighter future will prevail.
暴力的威胁一直存在，但许多人正在努力确保和平的进程继续下去，邪不压正，我们都希望更光明的未来将一直处于上风。
Written by Thomas McEleney
English teacher
Translated by Nico Liu from AS 1
