Introduction

252
Melanie Swiatloch
Protestant areas and which are rather Catholic ones. Tigges goes one step further:
“The streets, and squares, statues and public buildings in a city are a constant reminder
of the past, to those that have to live in the present, and to survive into
the future” (179). For those who lived to see the outbreaks of violence in Belfast
the city will most certainly never lose its touch of sadness, especially for those who
lost friends and relatives during this time.
Where They Were Missed introduces Belfast right on the first page and closes
with Saoirse entering the city on the last page. It thus embeds Saoirse’s story that
for the most part plays in the Irish countryside both giving a picture of the heyday
of the Troubles and later a return to Saoirse’s roots. Using Van der Thüsen’s concept
of metaphor one observes that Belfast is depicted as a place of torment: “Belfast
is hot. Belfast is never hot. But Belfast is hot this summer. […] It’s hot as
hell” (Caldwell 3). The comparison to hell suggests a double meaning. On the one
hand it really is a hot summer and everybody suffers from the hot weather, on the
other hand it marks the ongoing outbreaks of violence as it is 1977 and the conflict
is at its height. Belfast indeed becomes a place of hell for the whole family.
Not only will the marriage between Saoirse’s parents Deirdre and Colin break up
but also her younger sister Daisy will die in a bomb explosion.
Another metaphor for Belfast is the image of a jungle that is full of threatening
danger. Certain areas must not be left in order to be safe, which creates the image
of the territories of wild animals that will fight for it, always ready to kill or die for
it as well. Civilisation seems to have left Belfast. Saoirse, Daisy and their mother,
for instance, are not allowed to visit friends in a Catholic area as their father fears
for their lives. “Daddy says that for the foreseeable future, while there’s cars being
burned and milk bottles being thrown, Mammy is not to take us across town to
visit the Antoney-oney-os and their ice-cream parlour” (Caldwell 31). Saoirse’s
mother nevertheless takes them to the Antonini’s, an Italian family. In order to get
to the Catholic Falls area they have to take a bus that is surrounded by metal
mesh, “just in case anyone throws a stone” (ibid. 32). The image of the cage that is
supposed to protect civilisation from a wild animal here works the other way
round. Civilisation in the form of harmless citizens is this time pent up while the
wilderness rages outside. Both, the cage and the hot summer, point to anomalies
that will turn into an enduring state.
In Eureka Street another metaphorical dimension enters the stage. The novel
begins with “All stories are love stories” (McLiam Wilson 1) and it ends with “She
smiles and she looks at me with clear eyes” (ibid. 396). As Jake is so gripped with
love Belfast, too, becomes a room for love although it “has lost its heart” itself
(ibid. 215). Like in One by One in the Darkness the loss of the traditional economy is
mourned (see chapter 3.5): “A shipbuilding, rope-making, linen-weaving town. It
builds no ships, makes no rope and weaves no linen. Those trades died. A city
can’t survive without something to do with itself” (ibid. 215). This could be interpreted
as a request for Belfast’s citizens to give the city its heart back by concen-