Imagery

When Finn's friend visits her house, he notices a large spider's web that stretches all the way from the geraniums in the window to a pile of books and then to the lace curtains. Finn tells him that according to her grandmother, a spider's web was a good omen: "It means we're safe from the soldiers." She may be referring to the web of social support (safe houses and the like) that the Catholic republican activists and terrorists received from the local population. If a wanted man disappeared into the web of houses in the Catholic areas of Belfast, he was not likely to be found by the British authorities.

The image of the spider's web also suggests the way in which everyone in Belfast, Protestant and Catholic, young and old, the politically committed and the politically indifferent, are caught up in the web of conflict. This web...