Progress in November

November is almost gone and what a month we've had. I thought I'd post a wee update on our filming progress.

In case you didn't know, we currently have four areas where we are filming. These are:

1.    Markethill, Newtownhamilton, Keady
2.    Forkhill, Crossmaglen, Newry, Camlough
3.    Roslea, Clones, Newtownbutler
4.    Belleek, Ballyshannon, Garrison, Rossinver

We are researching two more areas which are:

5. Castlederg, Victoria Bridge, Lifford, Strabane
6.    Newtowncunningham, Inishowen

We have made huge progress over the last two months. We have interviewed and filmed many more people in the four areas listed above. We've also held more information sessions, partnering with groups who are based directly on the border. These events were really successful and well attended. 

People continue to feel excited and engaged by the work that we are doing.

As I've spoken to several individuals over the last fortnight, it's clear that our 'grassroots' approach of engaging directly with groups and those on the border is the best way forward. They are positive about our work and hopefully feel some sense of shared ownership of it.

In January, we will focus much more on the final two areas to film. If anyone from those areas wishes to meet with me before Christmas, in preparation for organising an information session in the new year, please get in touch. I'm really keen to meet and listen to those communities to see how we can work together.

I'll try to do at least one more blog post before the Christmas holidays so keep an eye out for that.

Sarah

Looking back, and going forward

I was sitting at my desk catching up on social media updates, emails and admin when I glanced at my diary with the realisation that it was 1st of November. Wow. I have been working on the Border Lives project for over a year.

In a cliched way, time has flown by, but actually it's quite satisfying to look back and think about how much work has been done in the past year.

When I started on 29th October last year, I was still a blonde (am now a redhead), the project had a different name and was just some text on a funding application form. Conor (Project Manager) and myself were faced with the challenge of turning this name and the objectives into a project that not only met our targets but really achieved something.

I remember creating my work plan for the first 3 months and it being absurdly over ambitious so I quickly re-drafted it to something more realistic.

My approach was always to get out there and meet people. Yes I did book research, yes I researched online and yes I visited libraries but none of that even came close to the knowledge and experience I got from meeting and talking to people.

I've met with approximately 300 people so far, not only to tell them about our project and what we hope to do but to listen to their thoughts and advice, and answer their questions (if I could). This has been the key influence in shaping our project to what it is today. I can safely sit here and say that I am very proud of how Border Lives is turning out.

Of course, we have painstakingly procured for services such as our branding and logo design, our monitoring and evaluation framework, our website design and the video production. (Conor can testify to that!) We have held information events and put our steering committee into place. We have researched and drawn up our own code of conduct and good practice. We really have worked hard.

At times developing this project has felt overwhelming but that's only because we care about it, we take pride in the project and our input into it. We want it to be of the highest quality in every aspect.

And so, what of the next nine months?

There is still A LOT of work to be done but I'll keep doing what I'm doing.

I'll keep meeting people, keep researching, keep listening, keep thinking, keep caring.

After all, Border Lives is about the participants and the people from the border region. It is about you.

I'm confident that it's this approach that has made and will continue to make Border Lives a great project.

BBC NI Radio Interview 

Visit to Raphoe, County Donegal

Border Town Exhibition in Newry

Information Event

Send us your Border Images

Hi everyone,

We've been busy worker bees at Border Lives these days so not as much time as I'd like to update this blog. However, the busy times have been exciting times.

We have several more interviewees in place and a lot more filming to be done over the next fortnight. This is mainly in South Armagh and Belleek, County Fermanagh.

Sunset over Armagh City in October 2013

We are also spending time on our website so that we can launch it by the middle of November. Obviously we have no films to put onto our site yet so we're uploading photographs for now. Some of these photos have been kindly given to us by participants, others are from the Belfast Exposed archive.

So this blog post is a call for anyone with good images of the border. Whether they are of people, or landmarks and places, or of scenes specific to the years of the troubles - we'd love to use them in our online gallery.

Feel free to send any to me, Sarah, at s.bryden@tyronedonegalpartnership.org with one or two lines to explain what it is or where the photo was taken, plus the year if you know it.

The images will really help bring our website to life.

Thanks!