John Deignan, Project Co-ordinator, Riverbrooke Cross-border initiative at the Sligo Folk Park.
Riverstown, a village south of Sligo town and the village of Brookeborough in County Fermanagh have, given their locations, both been affected by the troubles. As is commonly the case in many border county towns and villages, this history has led to a sense of fear and distrust within the communities.
The Riverbrooke Cross-border Initiative was officially formalised in 2002, as a partnership of Riverstown Enterprise Development and Brookeborough & District Community Development Association, to help bring members of the two communities together.
Support from the International Fund for Ireland has now enabled Riverbrooke to extend its work to touch all age groups within the community through a series of activities and events, including youth groups, discussion groups, cultural events and inter-school initiatives designed to promote awareness and understanding on both a cross-community and cross-border level.
According to John Deignan, Riverbrooke’s Project Co-ordinator: “Conflict most often arises from misunderstanding. Peace in any community hinges on awareness and understanding of other cultural identities. We have seen from our work that it has to go beyond politics to result in real sharing that can lead to lasting peace.”
Riverbrooke is working with local children from both communities to help raise their awareness of each other but also of other cultures throughout the world, for example through a cultural identity project within the seven primary schools in the Brookeborough and Riverstown areas.
A secondary school project will target 15-18 year olds and focus on personal development and team-building that will culminate in a community project.
“Research has shown that this age group is most likely to be inducted into sectarianism, so the work to encourage trust-building with people they wouldn’t otherwise meet is really vital.”
Riverbrooke also facilitates several discussion groups for adults, such as Exploring Conflict through Art, Conflict and Religion, Life Change through Peace, and Celebrating Difference.
John explains: “It’s about empowering people to have the confidence to become peacemakers in their own communities. We are working to engage more and more people in the discussion groups but the biggest barrier is fear - fear of not being heard or not being listened to. For many, this is the first time they have found the courage to speak about the troubles and its impact on them.”
John says that a major challenge is in attracting men to the groups. The next stage for Riverbrooke is to hold more one-off events which will hopefully draw newcomers to listen to speakers discuss how the peace process has changed their lives.
“Our goal is to do more work in this area and show the men in our communities that the way forward is sharing and allowing yourself the space to heal.”
