For their final service project, the Class of 2009 researched independent projects and found opportunities that would have the greatest impact in their local communities. One student, Rachel Bergin returned to the organization where she performed her service before leaving for Washington, DC. Below is Rachel's account of her final service project.
By: Rachel Bergin, WIP Class of 2009
‘Up Against the Wall’… For my WIP Public Service Project I worked to support young people in Peacewalls and Interface Communities to voice their opinions and involve them in conversations about the future. After reading Tony MacAulay's discussion paper entitled ‘A Process for Removing Interface Barriers’, I felt compelled to join a group of youth and community relations workers from interface communities in Belfast to discuss the issue. Our group developed a project designed to help support young people explore the future of Peacewalls/Interfaces in Belfast. The initiative is called ‘Up Against the Wall’ and is designed to help deal with internal barriers before addressing the physical ones.Throughout the year prior to departing for Washington, I worked on this project, which included consultations with young people as well as a series of workshops leading up to an Ideas Day on 9th May 2009 with Youthlink NI.
As part of my post-D.C. Public Service, I continued to work on the same project. On 9th November, a day of events was organized throughout Belfast city to raise awareness of Peacewalls in Belfast and to mark the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was fitting that we should highlight Belfast’s Peacewalls on this day as, while the Berlin Wall has been down for twenty years, in Belfast there are now more barriers dividing people than ever before. In 1994 there were 24 Peacewalls in the greater Belfast area. Now there are 80.
That afternoon, a group of more than 60 young people from across Interface areas in Belfast gathered at the Lanark Way Peaceline, which separates the Catholic Falls Road from the Protestant Shankill Road. This Peaceline is one of the 42 interface barriers in Belfast city, the most recent of which was built only in 2008 and the young people all wore t-shirts which read ‘Berlin 1961-1989, Belfast 1969-???? Thinking Seriously about Peacewalls'.
The young people first played basketball with PeacePlayers International along the Peaceline where they were joined by a visiting US Delegation. While United States Secretary of Sate Hilary Clinton attended celebrations marking the fall of the Berlin Wall, these US delegates instead visited Belfast, a place where walls still remain. However one delegate, Congressman Jeff Miller (1st, Florida) commented "It's exciting to see young people from both sides of the wall coming together” and on that positive note, the young people walked round to the Peacewall together.
At the Lanark Way Peacewall the young people, their leaders and guests participated in a drumming workshop with the 'Gathering Drum' where they were joined by the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, Patricia Lewsley and the Lord Mayor Naoimi Long.
The young people were then invited to the City Hall to discuss the issue of ‘Peacewalls’, by Lord Mayor Naoimi Long who commented that the project was ‘a wonderful example of her vision of 'a Belfast without barriers'. The young people finished the day with a visit to the Crumlin Road Jail where they attended the official launch of an online Peace-Channel.
Belfast, and Northern Ireland has changed unrecognisably for the better over the past 15 years, but we still have a long way to go, especially with regards to the issue of Peacewalls. This project will hopefully only be the start of greater things to come...BELFAST 1969 -????
