Pelle Tracey is a junior at at Earlham College, majoring in Peace and Global Studies, with a minor in Photography. Pelle is our student correspondent for the Northern Ireland: Democracy and Social Change program this semester, posting regularly about his experience in Derry~Londonderry and beyond. Read on for Pelle's second update from Northern Ireland.
The middle of March already?! Time is absolutely flying by. A lot has happened in the month since I last wrote one of these posts; I’ll try to give a brief summary of some of our adventures so far.
From Monday the 15th of February to Friday the 26th we were kept busy with class every day, usually on a 10-5 or 9-4 schedule. About two-thirds of these sessions were lectures given by Nigel (our program director) providing a sort of ‘crash-course’ in Irish history. The other one-third or so were sessions where we would have a guest speaker or lecturer. These included Brandon Hamber, the director of the International Conflict Research Institute based out of the University of Ulster; Maureen Hetherington, director of an organization called The Junction (where I’m doing my internship!); Ulf Hansson, a researcher looking at education in Northern Ireland; and Vincent McCauley, a social work and sociology professor. Of course there were many others, but these are a few who made a particular impression on me.
On Tuesday the 23rd we took the first of two field trips to Belfast. It’s somewhat difficult to describe the day we had – but I’ll do my best. In the morning we had a driving tour of some of the city near the Falls road. This was directed by a man named Bill* who introduced himself as a former IRA man and a current community worker. The tour we received from him was of predominantly Catholic/Nationalist/Republican (CNR) areas, including a number of streets with a large number of CNR-leaning murals. Below is a photo of the group checking out some of the street art.
After saying goodbye to Bill, we drove over to the Shankill road and met John* for lunch. John described himself as a former UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) member, and a former prisoner who was released with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. We sat down with John* for lunch and a sort of “Q and A” session. The conversation was as intense as one might imagine, as John graciously shared his story with us. The experience of eating sandwiches with a man who is a walking piece of (very violent) history can only be described as surreal. It was significantly disquieting to realize so starkly that John really looked and acted like every other older man I’ve ever met, despite his past. This sentiment was echoed by others in the group as well. After lunch John took us on a tour of some of the protestant areas near the Shankill road, and I took some pictures there as well.
On our return to Derry we finished our week of classes while preparing to begin our internships the following Monday.
My internship placement is at an organization called The Junction which works in peacebuilding and community development, specifically working on story-sharing and dialogue building initiatives, as well as working to take academic work produced in relevant areas and make it more accessible to grassroots level organizers, activists, and community workers. So far, I’m really enjoying myself. Everyone works incredibly hard and is really busy, so there’s been plenty for me to do. In my first week I prepared materials for a conference with 130 fourteen year old students, helped format a report on survey results from a musical, and observed a workshop using music to stimulate discussion around unheard narratives from the conflict.
In speaking with others about their internship experiences, it seems that the organizations we are working with are really varied, but that everyone is having a positive experience so far. Our time is structured so that we work at our internships Tuesday through Friday (and sometimes on the weekend) and have class on Monday. Tomorrow’s class session is partially devoted to reflecting on our internship experiences so far, so I think I’ll get a better sense of how everyone is finding their placement thus far.
*Names of field speakers have been changed.