Introduction

Construction of Identity in Northern Irish Novels 253
trating on more important things than fighting like, for example, love or empathy.
The city itself is depicted as being alive, rising and falling like music or like breathing
(ibid. 212) but it is also compared to a novel telling the histories of thousands
of people, “present tense, past tense or future” (ibid. 215).
Symbolically, Belfast is connected to rather sad images. Bunches of flowers
remind the reader of the Troubles’ victims and stand for the lives lost in the war
(ibid. 213). Similar symbolic images can be found in Where They Were Missed. At the
beginning of Saoirse’s story it is marching season 35 and the Orangemen are parading
in her street (Caldwell 3). The Pentland’s obviously live in a Protestant area
but never participate in the festivities because Saoirse’s mother as a Catholic from
Ireland cannot stand the segregated activities. Furthermore, helicopters are another
crucial image of the unhinged city. “The hot air is cracking with the sound
of helicopters rack-a-tack-a-tack-a-tacking through it. Daddy says the helicopters
have special cameras to see into houses so that the Army can watch what people
are doing” (ibid. 4), Saoirse informs the reader, the onomatopoeia not only imitating
the sound of the helicopter but also promising a threat in terms of the resemblance
to the word ‘attack’. Helicopters and other instruments of the British Army
thus are a symbol for the omnipresent threat both of British intrusions as well as
dangerous projects of paramilitary groups. Jake’s view of the city in Eureka Street
also features the sight of helicopters and army personnel many times (McLiam
Wilson 160).
On the metonymic level wall murals and flags showing Protestant or Catholic
emblems can be found all over Belfast. Derry, too, another central part of the
Troubles, bears signs of the separated country. In Saoirse’s street they are the only
Catholic inhabitants if we ignore her Protestant father. Neighbours have started
painting their houses and installing flags on their premises. As Saoirse and her
family do not participate in these actions their neighbours soon begin avoiding
them.
I can see down the street as far as Wee Man’s house. His house has a flag
and a Red Hand of Ulster. The gate of his house is painted red, white and
blue to match the red, white and blue kerbs and the red, white and blue
bunting that’s strung up between the lampposts. […] We were the only
ones not allowed to do the painting, and that’s when Jennifer across the
road started swinging on our gate and shouting that our eyes were too close
together (Caldwell 73).
35 Marching season is a series of parades that celebrate the Protestant Dutch William of Orange.
The “Twelfth of July” commemorates William’s victory over Catholic King James II in 1689 in
the so-called Glorious Revolution (Mulholland 3ff).