A Day in the Life of a HECUA Student in Northern Ireland
Academic Term I – Week Two
7.30 a.m.
This morning I woke up to find that my Northern Ireland mother, Joan, had made me an Ulster fry for breakfast, which is basically a mound of fried bacon, black pudding, sausages, soda bread, potato bread, egg and mushrooms all washed down with a cup of tea. I tried to eat as much as possible but honestly I’ll be so fat going home if I keep this up.
8.45 a.m.
I managed to walk to the bus stop after the big feed, which did me the world of good when I saw the big waves crashing against the Portstewart rocks. On the bus I met others from the programme and we discussed the day ahead.
9.30 a.m.
On arrival our Programme Director prepared us for the next lecture which focused on the Role of the Media in contested Societies. I'm really looking forward to his one as I hope to do an internship in a media institution in Northern Ireland. I changed my mind when I arrived and the faculty have been very accommodating. The Programme Director is currently creating a link with BBC Northern Ireland for this placement. It would be just fantastic to work for them, as it is an international media flagship as far as I can gather.
Our Course Director spent an hour giving us an overview of how the governments of the Republic of Ireland, Great Britain and Northern Ireland put legislation in place during 'the troubles' to censor and control stories emanating from the conflict in Northern Ireland. I never realised this before and thought it really draconian. In fact censorship was only lifted in the early 1990's when the IRA declared a cease-fire. We spent some time in groups discussing and assessing the role of the media in contested societies if they have a role. I found this really interesting as some of the group really had a utopian vision of the media and others were very cynical. However I felt that my point of view was taken on board and while I don't necessarily agree with everyone point of view I will respect it.
11.30 a.m.
We broke for coffee and after we were given a formal lecture by an academic member of staff who has spent his academic life researching the role of the media in the Northern Ireland conflict and other international settings. While the lecture was predominately Northern Ireland focused he did go into international case studies. It's fascinating to see the parallels between Northern Ireland and other countries. In fact I've been doing a lot of thinking about the role of the media in the States.
1 p.m.
For lunch we all went to the dining hall in the main building, I just had a scone after my greedy breakfast. On the way to lunch our Course Director introduced us to the Director of the Digital Film Archive which is a free resource with over 50 hours of moving images relating to Northern Ireland over the last century. Our Course Director has asked us to think about an independent study project on the media as social agents in conflict. This has grabbed my interest and will talk to others to investigate the possibility of doing a joint project. Lorraine has asked us to organise a conference at the end of the semester where we will present our project findings to an audience of academic members of staff and internship site supervisors. A daunting experience but one I feel will challenge me. We intend to divide the organisational tasks among us and the Programme Faculty will help with what ever we need. This will be another practical experience I can detail in my Curriculum Vitae.
2 p.m.
After lunch we did some preparing for our field trip to Belfast tomorrow where we will have the opportunity to meet politicians and the Lord Mayor. The Course Director has encouraged us to think constructively about questions we want answered as this is a one in a life time opportunity. Since arriving I feel that I’ve learned a lot about the political process in Northern Ireland and party system. It is so different to our system and the political landscape is in constant change and disruption due to extreme tensions. Our Project Director has encouraged us to ask challenging questions, so I intend to ask the Sinn Fein Representative something about decommissioning as it is one of the most contentious issues of the Peace Process. We had an academic session on the decommissioning issue last week as part of our module, Building a Sustainable Democracy.
3.30 p.m.
I’m due to have a meeting in an hour with my HECUA peers so I have decided to look up the Media and Conflict literature in the library to aid us in the investigation of this possible project. After this meeting I’ll go back home to my Northern Irish family and later the family and I are going to the University Theatre to see a production of ‘Philadelphia Here I Come' by Brain Friel. That’s my mother’s hometown!
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