Events: Cross-Border Camp 2007

Schools Across Borders organised its first weekend residential event at Farset International House, located in the Springfield area of Belfast, 4-6 May 2007.

The event involved 18 Dublin students, 1 Dundalk student, and seven Belfast students (representing both Nationalist and Unionist communities).

Why organise a Cross-Community & Cross-Border Event?

In the spirit of the Schools Across Borders project, we feel that we should try to encourage greater respect and cooperation between the students from the different communities in Belfast, and also between these students and the students from the Republic of Ireland.

All the student groups in Ireland and Northern Ireland complete the Schools Across Borders schools programme by producing videos, posters and messages for the Israeli and Palestinian student groups.

The Israeli and Palestinian student groups reciprocated with their own video, poster and message feedback for all the school groups in Dublin, Dundalk and Belfast.

This year the Israeli and Palestinian students also made their own posters for the family and friends of Thomas Devlin, a student of Belfast Royal Academy, who was tragically stabbed to death in August 2005.

We decided it would be fitting to take the next steps. Just as Thomas Devlin crossed so many borders, making friends with young people of both communities, our aim was to encourage the Irish and Northern Irish students to develop a common message for both communities in Belfast.

On a pedagogical level, our aim was to provide all participant students with opportunities to enhance their leadership and communication skills on the themes of greater mutual respect, understanding and reconciliation.

How did we do it?

Through respect for each other's identities and traditions, but also to highlight what young people want from their city and what positive steps they can take together.

We proposed two main actions for all students to participate in:

• to produce a painting in memory of Thomas Devlin. This painting will be put on display as a permanent memorial to Thomas in the Belfast Royal Academy, where he went to school.
• to produce a short film, based on realities of life in different areas of Belfast, which we could use in all the schools involved in the Schools Across Borders project, in Belfast, Dublin, Israel and Palestine.

We also organised other activities:

• a workshop on anti-sectarianism, presented by Ms Yvonne Naylor
• tee-shirt painting for the film task
• a talent competition for the brave and foolhardy

How did it go?

The whole weekend was memorable from beginning to end! Everyone participated fully, everyone got on with each other and all the set tasks were completed!

In particular, all the students worked in pairs or small groups on the memorial painting for Thomas, each pair/group contributing their own original design and content in keeping with the cross-community and cross-border themes of the project.

Making the film was the other main action, and this also proved to be packed with all the themes and messages of the Schools Across Borders project.

Walking together as a group through the Springfield and Falls areas, our Belfast Protestant friends felt uneasy, but safe with the group! Then it was the turn of the Belfast Catholic and Dublin friends to sense similar levels of quaking in their boots ,as we were brought through the Shankill by our Protestant friends!

This was the first time any of the Belfast students had actually walked through these streets "on the other side". Everyone admitted that there was no real risk of intimidation, but it still felt intimidating! The exercise focused minds on what is needed to make progress: more walking, more friends, more reasons to visit these areas!

The Belfast students brought us then into the city centre. The Belfast Festival of Fools was in full swing. First there were the jugglers in front of the Castlecourt Shopping Centre. A quick dash past all the Saturday shoppers brought us to an Indian magician doing his street act in front of about a hundred giggling kids. On we went then to the places where young people in Belfast like to hang out: at the City Hall, the Waterfront (where one of the Dublin students demonstrated his cool juggling with his bibelo), then across the Lagan to the Odyssey Centre and then back over again to collectively out-stare the Big Fish.

We finished our own little odyssey at the back of St. Patrick's College on the Somerton road, where Thomas was murdered in such a cruel and cowardly manner on August 10, 2005. Aoife, one of the Dublin students, played an air on her flute in his memory. Most of the students then gave their own personal reflections on the moment.

The whole day, complete with all the in-between interviews, has been put on DVD and given to each of the students as a memento.

Schools Across Borders shall also include it its own school programme, where it is sure to provide added impetus to our project aims as well as the inter-school ethos in Ireland, north and south.

We will continue to carry the message that these students have started: to cross borders and to celebrate the role that all young people have in opening up the city to each other. Too many corners of Belfast are still either too shady for young people to venture into, or too shady for other young people to go into. But young people have always Thomas was one, full of life and always checking out new possibilities. We encourage all young people in Belfast to do the same: keep crossing the borders. Get out there, make it go around!

Everyone mentioned their own personal benefits and highlights of the weekend in their final evaluations. Below are some of their comments:

What were the highlights of the weekend for you?

Meeting new people, making friends, getting to know more about Belfast.
- Climaco, CBS Oatlands College

The train up and walking around Belfast!
- Graham from Oatlands College

The talent show!
- Shafqat, CBS Oatlands College

Meeting the other students + Darran dancing to Britney Spears!
- Sarah, Our Lady's Grove, Dublin

Keeping Darran awake! Getting our point across; going to the place where Thomas was killed. It was also very important that we were able to visit the places where he used to hang out. By doing the Painting Task, we were able to get the point out that people shouldn't die the way Thomas did.
- Kevin, Fingal Community College

It was all a lot of fun, but I also got to understand the situation more (especially in the workshop on anti-sectarianism). I never realised how bad it was in certain areas. By doing the Painting Action, we felt we could do something to communicate with the students in Thomas' old school.
- Shauna, Fingal Community College

It was about meeting new friends and meeting some Protestants. Also seeing things and places we only see on the TV and to really understand what is going on in Northern Ireland.
- Greg, CBS Colaiste Choilm, Dublin

The video .... we got the message out to people that this kind of stuff can't go on .... and it was very important to see and show where Thomas was killed. It was also very important that we got a chance to talk to Thomas' parents even though it was only a quick chat...and meeting people who are Protestant.
- Suzanne, St. Michael's Holy Faith, Dublin

Cross-Border Summer Camp 2008

The cross-community / cross-border weekend residential also provided a pilot-type basis for the cross-community/cross-border summer camp, scheduled for July 2008. We plan to host a ten-day summer camp at the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation and Farset International House, Belfast. The aims and activities of the Summer Camp shall be similar, but with greater emphasis on linking the local and global aspects of our project.