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

It's Personal

One thing has come up a lot over the last few weeks in conversations with community groups and individuals. With so many parades, commemorations, sensitivities and contentious issues being reported in the media, we've been talking about the differences between rural and urban.

Throughout the research it is clear how differently people in the border areas feel, think and respond compared with more urban areas (i.e. Belfast).

The experience of those living along the border was vastly different to those in the cities of Belfast and even Derry-Londonderry.

What was it that was so different though?

In the space of a week, I was told by three different people that "along the border, in the rural areas, it was personal." And by personal they meant intensely, deeply personal.

In the cities and larger towns for example, whole streets and estates may have come together against another or attacks were made on people with whom they had no relationship with. In a way it was somewhat anonymous.

In the border areas, people knew each other well. Generations of the same families lived in the same townland for maybe a hundred years, maybe longer. So when the conflict heightened, it felt very much like neighbours attacking neighbours. Local people knew who was involved in what activity, they often didn't know who to trust and suspicion became fierce from all sides.

That's not to say that some communities, friends and neighbours didn't strengthen and come together because they did. However, largely, it created a deep division. One that we are still seeing in places like Castlederg or South East Fermanagh.

It's this 'personal' nature that our project hopes to be able to touch on in the films- the positive and negative.

We have heard stories of small communities coming together e.g. in Belleek where Catholic neighbours and families helped mend the Church of Ireland hall after it was attacked, even inviting the church members into their homes for tea and sandwiches.

We have also heard stories of suspicion between RUC and UDR officers and their neighbours, not knowing if their neighbour was surveilling their movements as they made their way home to their farm after a shift.

And there are so many more stories in between these two poles. It has been incredibly interesting hearing this issue begin to come to the fore in our research.

I would like to stress that this doesn't speak of 100% of people but of the many, many that I have spoken to. We really hope to be able to document and demonstrate the difference in experience between the border and the urban areas in ways like this.


*Thanks to Joe O'Loughlin for the photos.

What is it all about?

The Border Lives Project team are delighted to welcome Legato Solutions as our successful website designers after a competitive tendering process. We had our initial meeting with Gareth and Chris from Legato last week and it further confirmed to me the need for some clarification on what our project is actually about.

One of the issues that we are faced with is that there are so many 'storytelling' or 'oral history' projects happening through the current PEACE III funding. Groups, organisations and individuals living in Northern Ireland and the border counties are being inundated with offers to tell their story, and because of this many are becoming very disinterested in the idea.

So how do we get across the uniqueness and innovativeness of the Border Lives Project?

Well for a start, this blog. I am going to use this platform to try to explain our project, it's plans and ideas as well as its ethos and hopes. This will happen over time of course and so for right now I thought I'd clear up a few of the obvious queries.

1. Why is the Border Lives Project different? 
Border Lives will create 6 films and a website to host them on. The choice of where these films are based depends on the people who want to participate. I have spent around nine months researching areas and trying to engage with groups and local people. Some places have become obvious settings for one of the films because people there have a desire to talk to us. We are not imposing ourselves on a place, a group or a person. We do not offer workshops or group training. We want to gather and film stories from either individuals or families or groups. Any participant of the project will work closely with myself (Research Officer, Sarah Bryden) and the project's film producer Michael Beattie. Participating is either something you feel comfortable doing or not and we respect that. I would like to stress that myself and Michael want each participant to have a positive experience and at the end of the day keep it as "having a yarn over a cup of tea".

2. We are not focussing solely on victims and survivors.
This is crucial to clarify. Border Lives is a more mainstream project, accessible to all who wish to participate. The project is aiming to gather stories from all kinds of people who lived, grew up or worked along the border. We want to hear from farmers, shopkeepers, doctors, local priests/ministers, school teachers, community workers etc. We want to hear the everyday stories of how life changed or how people adapted during the troubles.
We don't want to be divisive or confrontational. Our focus isn't on the blood and guts but because we will be concentrating on experiences during the conflict years it is inevitable that there will be some victims or survivors involved. We are adamant not to dredge up a past that may re-traumatise people. For example, one of our participants' fathers was murdered. We don't want to concentrate on that but rather talk about other aspects of his life story and maybe how that experience has impacted his life, his choices and his feelings from then until now.
Our aim is to show a rounded picture of life which includes sadness, fear and pain but also joy, love and laughter.

3. We will be as balanced as possible without becoming tokenistic.
Border Lives is aiming to show a balanced perspective and include people from all backgrounds. This is another aspect of the project that we will approach in an extremely thoughtful and responsible manner. The project will show balance overall, however, we will aim to represent an area as appropriately as possible. We won't include token participants from another tradition to make up the numbers to 50/50.
Using examples, if one of the films is based in Markethill then potentially all participants involved will be from a Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist perspective. Equally should a film be based in Roslea then most if not all participants will be from a Catholic/Nationalist/Republican perspective. We aim to be true to an area and the stories of the participants there.
This will an ongoing thought process by the Border Lives team and steering committee.


4. We, just like any responsible project, follow an ethical code of conduct.
During the planning and research for Border Lives, we put a lot of thought and time into developing our code of practice. It was important for us to understand our own intentions within the project so that we can be honest and transparent throughout the process. We have found that this has helped us when we engage with people and groups. We know what we want to achieve but are also aware that our role is merely to shape and steer the project. The content is influenced by participants. Our role is to guide participants through the experience in a supportive and respectful way. (If anyone would like to read our good practice guidelines then get in touch)


5. We want to create a useful resource for the future.
So what will we do once we have the stories? We will put them together into the 6 films of course and each participant included will get to see their final appearance before it is made public. This is ensure that participants feel happy with the end result. We hope to release each film online as it is ready, however, towards the end of the project in June 2014 we will organise screenings in each border county. There will also be DVD copies available.
These films on DVD and on the website will become a useful resource as a piece of historical documentation and archive. If you think how fascinating it is to look back at old photos (like we did in our information evenings in April and May), we hope that people will feel the same about our films in 20, 30 and 50 years time.
Alongside the films, we aim to develop an educational toolkit. This will be available to community groups, youth organisations, schools and colleges. These toolkits will encourage discussion and understanding of particular stories and themes that are covered in the films.

6. Feel free to contact us.
We have started filming and narrowing down areas for the films. However, it is an ongoing process that will continue for several months. Therefore, if you or a group/organisation you belong to might be interested in becoming involved, or just to find out more information then please get in touch. Part of my role is to come and meet with individuals and groups to talk about what we're doing. Sometimes, this results in people offering to participate, sometimes not. It is all worthwhile research in determining the direction of the Border Lives Project.
If you would like to discuss the project, you can email me at s.bryden@tyronedonegalpartnership.org or contact the office on +44(0)28 82252112.

I hope this has helped clarify some aspects of the Border Lives Project. I am really excited about what this project could do and I know everyone who is involved so far is too. The films have the potential to be really special and I can already see one or two coming together.

I will continue to update this blog with news and thoughts as well as our facebook page and twitter.

Thanks for taking an interest!
Sarah

Book Wish List

I was at a Queens conference event last week in Belfast and the lovely woman at my table, historian Margaret Callaghan recommended Henry Patterson's new book- "Ireland's Violent Frontier".

Spotted it on Amazon, a bit pricey so anyone who'd like to lend me a copy, that would be great! :)