CHANGE IS NOW

Research and planning report:

– As of 2011 the catholic protestant population in the Derry
Strabane district has been majority catholic with a
whopping 72.2% and only 25.4% protestant, but don’t let
the numbers deceive you the divide between them is still
very prominent. After further research looking into the
divide I discovered it still exists in our educational system with only one
mixed school within the city yet there are 2 protestant and 8 catholic
schools.
The fact that we can still see this divide within our educational system
shows that we are still stuck within our past times, yes many of these
schools accept students from multiple backgrounds but still teach them
using the ethos that the school clearly states represents it, for example
after an interview with the principle of St Joseph’s boys school which can
be found within the documentary we can clearly see that although they
accept students of multiple faiths they are very reluctant to teach
anything but the catholic ethos.

Report:
The choice to research and develop this topic into my social action project
was personal to me being a child from a very multi-cultural background
and always seeing people for who they are and not their beliefs. This is
why it confused me so much discovering the underlying divide within the
city I live in, I thought that I couldn’t be the only one who felt this way
which then led to the concept of asking the youth of our city there
opinions. Making this project it was my first time constructing interviews
which I found surprisingly difficult as I was dealing with a sensitive topic
and didn’t want to ask anything that the interviewee might consider
offensive. During the making of my project it became clear to me that
people do want change and to remove this friction between these two
communities, but this was not a mutual feeling for everyone with people
still being stuck in their ways either because of the way they were raised
or more personal issues like the loss of a family member due to a bigoted
attack. Delving deeper and deeper into the history of this divide through
people from both sides I began to understand why people feel the way
they do today but I still had the question looming over me (why can’t we
forgive and forget?”). After further interviewing I had the pleasure to
interview Robin Young (ex RUC and PSNI) through a project run by the
churches trust which brought people who were once enemies during the
troubles into a safe place where they were able to share they’re story. I
was amazed after going to one of the events, in front of me there was
three people who in a different time would have tried to murder each
other now laughing and joking over a cup of tea and biscuits. One of those
people being Robin I knew I just had to figure out how he was able to
move on and find peace as it seemed near impossible. After my interview
with Robin it was clear to see that he was relieved to leave his past behind
him and he wanted to see change in the same way I did. After the
interview I knew that was it, that’s how I needed to end my project, to
give people that same sense of hope that robing was able to give me.

Review, changes and feedback:

Upon review of my project I knew immediately that I had done what I had
set out to do which was to make people more aware of this issue within
our community. A lot of the feedback from lecturers and my peers was
very positive within the only criticism being constructive which helped me
make my final tweaks by cutting some interviews and making my project
more attention grabbing. Still even though I was over the moon with my
project if I was to do it again I know myself I can improve upon it both with
the content and the production quality. After I made my final tweaks I was
more than happy with the end result and I believe that it will push the
message which I set out to send, change is now.