PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL: Northern Ireland still divided by peace walls 20 years after conflict →

Frank Brennan vividly recalls the shootings and bombings in Belfast, Northern Ireland, when he was a young man in the early '70s as well as attacks on his own life. 

Brennan, a member of the Irish republican movement, grew up in Short Strand, a staunchly Catholic, working-class neighborhood in predominantly Protestant east Belfast. 

Since the late 1960s, a bloody, 30-year guerrilla war was waged throughout Northern Ireland, leaving over 3,600 dead. Commonly referred to as "the Troubles," this period is defined by the conflict between Catholic republicans and nationalists, and Protestant loyalists and unionists. Catholics aimed to have a united Ireland, while Protestants fought to keep their British allegiance. This still continues today. 

Irish Republican Frank Brennan stands near a peace wall in the Catholic republican Short Strand neighborhood in East Belfast. Credit: Steven Grattan/The World