Ireland and the Troubles
A friend mentioned to me the other day that he had seen an episode of “No Reservations” on the Travel Channel where the host, Anthony Bourdain, travelled to Northern Ireland. Bourdain met a Protestant family and ate with them, then met a Catholic family and ate with them. Then he brought both families together at a restaurant, without telling either family that the other was coming. I did not see the episode, but my friend related to me an observation that Mr. Bourdain apparently made about the types of grafitti and billboards he saw in the various neighborhoods.
Again, I’m going on second-hand reports, but his comments centered on the fact that Catholic areas had primarily images of gun-toting men in hoods,while the Protestant areas had images of smiling politicians and comments about the peace and the “laughter of our children”.
If that is the case, and his comments have been correctly reported, then I would humbly suggest that Mr. Bourdain is an insensitive jerk. Nothing as complex as the situation in Northern Ireland can be summarized in a 30 second segment on a travel show. It was, at best, irresponsible of him to try, at worst it could get someone killed.
Next I suppose Mr. Bourdain will go to Palestine and observe that Tel Aviv is very modern and the West Bank is full of holes. Maybe those folks should just move! Give that man a Nobel Prize.
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