Filming in County Armagh

I thought I'd better update this blog on how our first full day of filming went.

Although we had filmed some bits and pieces in County Armagh over the 12th of July period, last week we completed our first sit down interview with David McMullen from CACD. (County Armagh Community Development)

I met with David many months ago during my researching and networking for the project. He and CACD were very warm, welcoming and open. Their attitude and interest in engaging with the project was exciting, particularly after being told many times that "you'll find it very difficult to get protestants to engage".

In fact, so far, I have found quite the opposite to be true.

When we held our information session in Newtownhamilton in April, we got a good turnout and several of them were very keen to tell their personal story and experiences.

And so the development of our first film began as more people from the area agreed to participate in our project. We decided over the summer that our first film would focus on the area of Newtownhamilton, Keady and Markethill.

Some of you might question our inclusion of Markethill because it isn't that close to the border. However, the stories in the film will answer any question over this choice as many participants are from the border but now live in Markethill (12 miles from the border).

Our first filmed interview was with David. He has been working in community development for years as well as continuing his work as a part time farmer. He is also a member of the Orange Order and lives close to the border. David is excellent at giving some context to the area and the feelings and issues that have affected and continue to affect the local protestant population there.

In the afternoon, we followed him to a successful community project in Aughnagurgan Orange Hall.

CACD was instrumental in starting up the 'Thursday club' project which tours between 3 rural orange hall venues. Each one formed a committee and they are now self sufficient, separate to the Orange Lodge. They apply for their own funding when necessary and have approximately 50 attendees each week.

We filmed the tea dance and interviewed some of the people there. It was really a lovely afternoon and fantastic to see such a turn out to an event in a very rural area. More so, fantastic to see the groups' ownership of the project.

I'd like to thank David, everyone at CACD and everyone we met in Aughnagurgan. It was a truly inspiring beginning to our interviews and filming.

{Where} do we focus?

It's Friday morning and I am actually in the office all day today for a change. It gives me time to catch up on emails, on notes that I have scrawled on notepads and pieces of paper, time to re-group and focus my thoughts.

It's been a good week with plenty of fantastic contacts gained and some clarity starting to present itself in terms of "where" we start to focus our films.

I have been wary to narrow down our research and approach to the project too early for fear that we miss something important. My approach has included book research and academic papers but it was always to first go out, meet, listen and engage with communities along the border. I have gathered all of the details from the networking that I have done so far on top of our information events in April and May, and started to sift through them. It seems that the obvious is beginning to appear.

With our film producer Michael Beattie heavily involved now, the potential films are starting to show some focus.

We're seeing South Armagh/Louth as well as South Armagh/Monaghan border as possibles, also Rosslea/Newtownbutler/Clones area, Castlederg or Clady/Urney/Castlefinn to name a few....

It is still early days though and plenty of research still to do. We don't anticipate starting to film until September but already are getting a sense of communities who seem to be keen to come forward and tell their stories and experiences.

No story is unimportant.

Women on the Border

One of the themes that has come from various meetings and a few of our information events has been 'women' - the role they play within a community and a family. Their unique experiences of life during the Troubles and what they were faced with.

Project Manager, Conor, was at a seminar a few months ago where someone mentioned women being left to cope with "broken bodies and broken minds".

Another person that I spoke to in the security forces told of how, on a daily basis, his wife never knew whether he would come home from work or not.

So what was it like for a woman living and/or working along the Border during the conflict here? 

I was at an event in Forkhill last night with the South Armagh Rural Women's Network. An amazing group of women and the work that they are doing there is some of the most interesting and worthwhile that I've seen throughout my research so far.

The group is mixed - from both traditions and from both sides of the border. They have shared their stories with each other and talked very honestly about their experiences. They have come together and held their meetings in all parts of South Armagh, where some members may have never ventured to before, in spite of it being only 3 miles away. They have also gone to each others place of worship. Truly inspiring projects and community work happening there!

One of the women last night said that the Troubles was different for a woman because they "could always see both sides" as she put it. For example, even in a nationalist family, women never liked to see soldiers or security forces being hurt and killed. For a woman, the thought was always, that's somebody's son. Women have the ability to empathise with all.

And much of the time, it was a woman who had to pick up the pieces in a community that was affected by a particular incident.

The stories that were shared with us last night were fascinating but with respect to those there, I won't share them on this blog. There is no denying the fact that some experiences were horrendously traumatic and life-changing, and I thank them because it is not easy to open up about it. Other stories were lighter and showed humour.

My experience of chatting with the women last night encompasses what this project is all about- documenting the light and the dark of those years. It has also become very clear for the need for women to be represented in our final films.

Thanks again to SARN, it was a pleasure and honour to be invited to your meeting. I hope to see you again soon.

Sarah